Lou Holtz is on the ropes, but this modern-day Will Rogers has a legacy that will endure the ages.
I love Lou Holtz. Always have.
Holtz, 89, is reported to be in hospice as his health has declined in recent weeks. He has been an iconic voice for college football, sports in general and life specifically.
I remember him delivering one-liners at a bowl game luncheon that BYU was involved in, and he didn’t disappoint.
A former coach at Notre Dame, who won a national championship during his 11 seasons in South Bend, he commanded hefty fees for speaking engagements and appearances, and he never failed to deliver or inspire.
The players dinner for the United States Golf Association’s 2014 Mid-Amateur in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is a perfect example of how the 2008 College Football Hall of Fame inductee delivered his wisdom with humility, candor and humor.
Holtz told the field of 264 players, narrowed from a group of 3,891, they’d maneuvered a great challenge, “But if what you did yesterday looks good to you, then you haven’t done much today. That’s why the good Lord put eyes in front of you, not in back of you.”
Here are some of my favorite quotes from Hotlz over the years:
“Don’t complicate it. Do you realize there are only five colors in a rainbow? That’s all, five. Think what Michelangelo did with those five colors. There are only seven musical notes. Seven! Look at what Beethoven did with those seven musical notes. So, I try to keep life simple.”
“I don’t understand how a black cow eats green grass and produces white milk. I don’t understand why they sell hotdogs in packages of six and hot dog buns in packages of eight. I don’t understand why a kamikaze pilot wore a helmet.”
Holtz is the only coach to lead six different teams (William & Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame and South Carolina) to bowl games and four teams to final top-20 rankings. He knows pressure. And here’s what he said about it.
“Pressure to me is when you have to do something that you are not prepared to do. If you have to make a 5-foot putt and you haven’t practiced enough, you’re going to feel pressure. If you practiced it, you want to be there to show people how good you are.”
“If you’ve got to take a test to get into medical school and you haven’t prepared, you’re nervous. If you’ve really prepared for that test and they cancel it, you’re disappointed. You want to show them how much you’ve done and that’s what pressure is.”
“The best advice I can give you is win. Win stands for what’s important now (WIN). You’ve just had a birdie, what’s important now? The (next) tee shot. You’ve just made a bogey, what’s important now? Tee shot. Evaluate the past, focus on the future, but tell yourself what you have to do in the present.”
“Ten percent of you won’t remember 10 percent of what I said 10 minutes after I said it.”
“I’m not a dancer, not an entertainer, not an intellect. I graduated in the lower third of my high school class. If there wasn’t people like me, there wouldn’t have been an upper half.”
“I have written three New York Times best-sellers. I’m the guy in the world who has written more books than he has read.”
On his TV co-host Mark May:
“He’s smart, he’s intelligent, and I love him like a brother, but we have a difference of opinion. He was a player, I was a coach. He made suggestions, I made decisions. He showered after work, I showered before work. He signed his paycheck on the back. I sighed it on the front. On TV, I tell him, ‘Mark, I would love to agree with you, but if I did, we’d both be wrong.”
“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.”
“I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.”
“No one has ever drowned in sweat.”
“Don’t tell your problems to people: eighty percent don’t care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.”
“When all is said and done, more is said than done.”
“I follow three rules: Do the right thing, do the best you can, and always show people you care.”
“Virtually nothing is impossible in this world if you just put your mind to it and maintain a positive attitude.”
“You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose.”
Former BYU athletic director Val Hale remembers a story Holtz told about playing Navy with the banners of all the World War II naval battles hanging on the press box. A player said, “We can’t beat those guys. Look at the schedule they play!”
Said Hale: “Lou Holtz was obviously an enormously successful football coach, and that was because he was a great motivator. I loved listening to him talk. He was so inspiring — and funny. He reminded me a little of Frank Layden. He was full of stories. I can only imagine what playing for him was like.”
All of our days are numbered, and if Coach Holtz is looking at his last days, I hope that if there are games in heaven and there is a need for a commentator, the angels call Lou and give him some airtime.
