20 Facts About Frank Leahy

Francis William Leahy was an American college football player and coach, college athletics administrator, and professional sports executive.

Frank Leahy played on two Notre Dame teams that won national championships, in 1929 and 1930, and coached four more, in 1943,1946,1947, and 1949.

Frank Leahy was the athletic director at Notre Dame from 1947 until 1949 when he passed the role to the Fighting Irish basketball coach Moose Krause so that he could focus on football coaching.

Frank Leahy served as the general manager for the Los Angeles Chargers of the American Football League during their inaugural season in 1960.

Frank Leahy was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1970.

Frank Leahy was born in O'Neill, Nebraska and graduated from Winner High School in Winner, South Dakota where he was a football standout.

Frank Leahy attended the University of Notre Dame, where he played football as a tackle on Knute Rockne's last three teams and was part of the 1929 and 1930 National champion teams.

Frank Leahy went to Georgetown University as line coach in 1931 and Michigan State the following year to take a similar position.

Frank Leahy took over as line coach at Fordham University in 1933 and stayed until 1938 under Jim Crowley, coaching the famed Seven Blocks of Granite from 1935 to 1937 when the Rams lost only two games in three seasons.

Frank Leahy tried without success to get out of his BC contract.

Frank Leahy entered the Navy in 1944 and was discharged as a lieutenant.

Frank Leahy returned to Notre Dame for the 1946 season in which Notre Dame shared the national championship after playing rival Earl Blaik's Army team to a scoreless tie at Yankee Stadium in New York.

Frank Leahy is one of only two coaches in college football history to have won multiple national championships at the same school during two different tenures, joining Tennessee's Robert Neyland.

Frank Leahy resigned on January 31,1954, with two years remaining on his contract.

Frank Leahy was succeeded by Terry Brennan, ushering in a downward slide for Notre Dame's football fortunes for the next decade.

Frank Leahy's teams were always well conditioned and Leahy was merciless when it came to the toughness of his players.

Frank Leahy served as general manager for the Los Angeles Chargers during their inaugural 1960 season in the American Football League.

Frank Leahy was selected to the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1970.

Frank Leahy moved to the Portland, Oregon suburb of Lake Oswego in 1963, where he worked as an executive in a vending machine company until his death from congestive heart failure in Portland in 1973.

Frank Leahy was married to the former Florence Reilly in 1935; she survived him in death.