69 Facts About Ara Parseghian

Ara Raoul Parseghian was an American football coach and player who coached the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973.

Ara Parseghian is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football program back from years of futility into national prominence in 1964 and is regarded alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy as a part of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame head coaches.

Ara Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron, but soon quit to join the US Navy for two years during World War II.

Ara Parseghian's playing career was cut short by a hip injury.

Ara Parseghian left the Browns and took a job as an assistant coach at Miami of Ohio.

When head coach Woody Hayes left in 1951 to coach at Ohio State University, Ara Parseghian took over his job.

Ara Parseghian stayed in that position until 1956, when he was hired as head coach at Northwestern University in Illinois.

Ara Parseghian's success attracted the interest of Notre Dame, which had not posted a winning record in five straight seasons.

Ara Parseghian was hired as head coach in 1964 and quickly turned the program around, coming close to capturing a national championship in his first year.

Ara Parseghian proceeded to win two national titles in 11 seasons as coach of the Fighting Irish, a period often referred to as "the Era of Ara".

Ara Parseghian retired from coaching in 1974 and began a broadcasting career calling college football games for ABC and CBS.

Ara Parseghian dedicated himself to medical causes later in life after his daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and three of his grandchildren died of a rare genetic disease.

Ara Parseghian was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1980.

Ara Parseghian was the youngest of three children born to an Armenian father and a French mother in Akron, Ohio.

Ara Parseghian's father Michael had come to the United States from the Ottoman Empire in 1915, fleeing the Armenian genocide during World War I and settling in Akron where there was a sizeable Armenian population.

Ara Parseghian was hired by Akron's Board of Education in the eighth grade to patrol his school's grounds at night to deter vandals.

Ara Parseghian played basketball at the local YMCA but did not play organized football until his junior year at South High School in Akron because his mother would not allow him to participate in contact sports.

Ara Parseghian joined his high school team, coached by Frank "Doc" Wargo, initially without his parents' permission.

Ara Parseghian was named an All-Ohio halfback and a Little All-American by sportswriters in 1947.

Ara Parseghian was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League in the 13th round of the 1947 draft.

Ara Parseghian was selected by the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference, a team coached by Paul Brown, his old Great Lakes coach.

Ara Parseghian left Miami with six semester credit hours remaining and signed with the Browns.

Ara Parseghian played halfback and defensive back for the Browns starting in 1948.

Ara Parseghian suffered a serious injury to his hip in the second game of the 1949 season against the Baltimore Colts ending his playing career.

Ara Parseghian stayed with the Browns for the rest of the season, and the team went on to win another AAFC championship.

Ara Parseghian was recommended for the position by athletic director John Brickels, who had been an assistant coach with the Browns in 1948.

Northwestern's football program was in transition when Ara Parseghian arrived in 1956 to take over the coaching reins.

Ara Parseghian was the 20th head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats football team and was the youngest coach in the Big Ten when he took the job at 32 years old.

Ara Parseghian was a shrewd recruiter, using Northwestern's small budget to find versatile players overlooked by the bigger rival programs.

Ara Parseghian called the close win against Hayes and Ohio State "one of Northwestern's greatest victories".

At Northwestern, Ara Parseghian developed a reputation as an affable, down-to-earth coach.

Ara Parseghian occasionally joined in practices with the players and organized games of touch football.

Ara Parseghian had other quirks, like lowering the intensity of practices as game day approached to let the players "build up psychologically", something he learned from Paul Brown.

Ara Parseghian's teams beat Notre Dame four straight times after their annual series was renewed in 1959 following a decade-long hiatus.

Toward the end of his tenure at Northwestern, Ara Parseghian grew frustrated by the school's limited financial resources, curbs on football scholarships, and academic standards for athletes that were more stringent than at other Big Ten schools.

Ara Parseghian clashed with athletic director Holcomb, who told him in 1963 that his contract would not be renewed after that season despite coaching the team to within two wins of a national championship the previous year.

Ara Parseghian's coaching career at Northwestern was approaching its end in 1963.

Ara Parseghian asked whether interim head football coach Hugh Devore was going to be given the job on a longer-term basis.

When Joyce said the university was searching for a new coach, Ara Parseghian expressed an interest in the job.

Joyce did not immediately seem warm to the idea and Ara Parseghian explored an offer to coach at the University of Miami in Florida, where his old friend Andy Gustafson had been promoted from head coach to athletic director.

Ara Parseghian was an Armenian Presbyterian, making him the first non-Catholic coach since Rockne, who converted in 1925.

Ara Parseghian quickly turned the program around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore.

Ara Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them.

Ara Parseghian invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players.

Ara Parseghian recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches.

Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Ara Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout.

In 1966, Ara Parseghian guided Notre Dame to its first national championship since the Leahy era.

Ara Parseghian was criticized for winding down the clock instead of trying to score despite having the ball in the final seconds of the game.

Nine members of the team were selected as All-Americans, and Ara Parseghian was named coach of the year by Sporting News.

Ara Parseghian was named Coach of the Year by Football News.

Ara Parseghian called the loss of those key defensive players "a great disappointment".

Ara Parseghian was dealing with the deaths of three close friends that year as well as his daughter's battle with multiple sclerosis.

Ara Parseghian said he was "physically exhausted and emotionally drained" after 25 years of coaching and needed a break.

Ara Parseghian, who was 51 at the time, said he planned to take at least a year off from coaching before considering a run at a job in the professional ranks.

Ara Parseghian made his last appearance on the sidelines when he coached the college players in the annual Chicago College All-Star Game against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers on July 23,1976, at Chicago's Soldier Field.

Ara Parseghian's successful run at Notre Dame is sometimes referred to as the "Era of Ara".

Ara Parseghian served as a color analyst for ABC Sports from 1975 to 1981 covering a series of regional and national college football games.

Ara Parseghian moved to CBS Sports in 1982 and covered college games for that network until 1988.

Ara Parseghian was inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame as part of its charter class in 1969 and became a member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1984.

Ara Parseghian was inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 2007.

Ara Parseghian was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities by Miami in 1978 and served on the school's board of trustees between 1978 and 1987.

Ara Parseghian received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1997 and won the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award the same year for his contributions to the sport.

Ara Parseghian saw Ruettiger's drive and placed him on the scout team but resigned at the end of the year.

Devine, Ara Parseghian's successor, put Ruettiger in on defense at the end of the final game of the 1975 season, and Ruettiger recorded a sack.

Ara Parseghian, who was married to the former Kathleen Davis, became involved with medical causes later in life.

Three of his grandchildren, Michael, Marcia, and Christa Ara Parseghian, died from the disease.

Ara Parseghian was active in the cause to find a cure for multiple sclerosis; his daughter Karan was diagnosed with the disease.

Ara Parseghian died on August 2,2017, surrounded by his family at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94.

Ara Parseghian was buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Notre Dame, Indiana.