Ara Parseghian

Early life

Parseghian was the youngest of three children born to an Armenian father and a French mother in Akron, Ohio. His 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. Despite his mother's protectiveness, Parseghian became involved in sports from an early age and developed a reputation as the toughest boy in his class. He was hired by Akron's Board of Education in the eighth grade to patrol his school's grounds at night to deter vandals.

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

College and professional career

After graduating in 1942, Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron. American involvement in World War II began after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, however, and he quit school to join the U.S. Navy. The Navy transferred him for training to Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, where Paul Brown was coaching a service football team. Brown was a well-known high school coach in Ohio, having led his Massillon Washington High School teams to a series of state championships. Parseghian was named the team's starting fullback before the 1944 season, but he was sidelined with an ankle injury and did not play in any games as Great Lakes amassed a 9–2–1 record and was ranked 17th in the nation in the AP Poll. Parseghian later said that despite not playing, watching Brown's methodical and strict coaching methods – and the ease with which he commanded players much larger than he was – was a "priceless" experience.

After his military service, Parseghian enrolled at Miami of Ohio and played halfback on the school's football team in 1946 and 1947 under coach Sid Gillman. As with Brown, Parseghian paid close attention to Gillman, a post-war football pioneer who helped popularize deep downfield passes as the T formation came into vogue. He was named an All-Ohio halfback and a Little All-American by sportswriters in 1947.

Parseghian was selected 109th overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League in the 13th round of the 1947 draft. He was also selected by the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a team coached by Paul Brown, his old Great Lakes coach. Parseghian left Miami with six semester credit hours remaining and signed with the Browns.

Parseghian played halfback and defensive back for the Browns starting in 1948. While he only started one game that season, he was part of a potent offensive backfield that featured quarterback Otto Graham and fullback Marion Motley. The Browns won all of their games and a third straight AAFC championship in 1948. Parseghian suffered a serious injury to his hip in the second game of the 1949 season against the Baltimore Colts, however, ending his playing career. He stayed with the Browns for the rest of the season, and the team went on to win another AAFC championship. With the Browns, he had 44 carries for 166 yards, three receptions for 33 yards, scored two touchdowns, and intercepted one pass.

Coaching career

Miami (Ohio)

Parseghian's injury and the end of his professional playing career were a source of frustration, but he soon got the chance to move into the coaching ranks. Woody Hayes, the head coach at Miami of Ohio, contacted him about a job as coach of the freshman team. He was recommended for the position by athletic director John Brickels, who had been an assistant coach with the Browns in 1948. Parseghian led the freshmen to a 4–0 record in the 1950 season and was chosen the following year as Hayes's successor when Hayes departed to become head coach at Ohio State University.

Parseghian's teams at Miami consistently did well in the Mid-American Conference, posting a 7–3 record in 1951 and improving to 8–1 the following year. Miami's Redskins (now known as RedHawks) were conference champions in 1954 and in 1955, when they went undefeated. Parseghian's success, which included two wins over larger Big Ten Conference schools, raised his profile nationally as a head coaching prospect. In late 1955, he was hired to coach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, one of the Big Ten schools Miami had beaten. Parseghian compiled a 39–6–1 record in five seasons at Miami.

Northwestern

Northwestern's football program was in transition when Parseghian arrived in 1956 to take over the coaching reins. Bob Voigts had quit as head coach in February 1955, leaving his assistant Lou Saban to guide the team. Under Saban, a former Browns teammate of Parseghian's, Northwestern finished at 0–8–1, the worst-ever record in its history at the time. Ted Payseur, the school's athletic director, resigned after the season under pressure from alumni and was replaced by Stu Holcomb. One of Holcomb's first moves was to fire Saban and replace him with Parseghian.

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. His Northwestern career began in 1956 with just one win in his first six games. The Wildcats put together three wins at the end of the season, however, and finished with a 4–4–1 record. Northwestern proceeded to lose all nine of its games in the 1957 season. Bo Schembechler—a member of the 1957 Northwestern staff and teammate of Parsegian's at Miami—called Parsegian's performance during the 1957 season the best job of coaching Schembechler ever witnessed. Despite the losses (many of them by close margins), Parsegian kept his team united and focused. That crucible set the stage for a much more successful campaign in 1958, when Northwestern finished with a 5–4 record that included victories over conference rivals Michigan and Ohio State.

Northwestern began the 1959 season in the top ten in the AP Poll and started with a 45–13 win over Oklahoma, then the top-ranked team in the country. It was the first of a string of victories that propelled Northwestern to the number-two spot in the AP Poll. Led by quarterback John Talley and star halfback Ron Burton, the team beat Michigan again and won a match-up in October against Notre Dame, a school Northwestern had not played since 1948. Three straight losses at the end of the season ended the team's run at the conference championship, however.

The following four seasons brought a mix of success and challenges. Parseghian's best year at Northwestern was in 1962, when the team finished at 7–2. Parseghian was a shrewd recruiter, using Northwestern's small budget to find versatile players overlooked by the bigger rival programs. In 1962, he put his faith in sophomore quarterback Tom Myers to guide the team. Myers, aided by a big offensive line and by star receiver Paul Flatley, led a passing attack that helped Northwestern to the top of the AP Poll in the middle of the season following wins against Ohio State and Notre Dame. Parseghian called the close win against Hayes and Ohio State "one of Northwestern's greatest victories". The following week's Notre Dame game drew a 55,752 people, which remained the largest crowd ever to see a home game at Northwestern as of 2005. Despite those wins, late-season losses to Michigan State and Wisconsin cost the team a chance at the Big Ten championship.

Notre Dame

Parseghian's coaching career at Northwestern was approaching its end in 1963. In November of that year, he called Father Edmund Joyce, the vice president and chairman of the athletics board at Notre Dame, a Catholic university near South Bend, Indiana. He 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, Parseghian expressed an interest in the job. Joyce did not immediately seem warm to the idea, however, and 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. Notre Dame was also considering Dan Devine for its coaching job but ultimately offered it to Parseghian. Parseghian waffled at first, recalling his father's misguided anti-Catholicism, but accepted in December and was given a salary of about $20,000 a year ($210,326 today).

Parseghian's candidacy for the head coaching job at Notre Dame was unusual because he was not a Notre Dame graduate, as every head coach since Knute Rockne had been. Parseghian was also an Armenian Presbyterian, making him the first non-Catholic coach since Rockne, who converted in 1925. Before hiring Parseghian, Joyce made it clear that he did not care about Parseghian's religion but simply wanted someone who could lead the football team to success.

As had been the case at Northwestern, Notre Dame's football program was in a state of flux when Parseghian arrived. Notre Dame had built a proud history under Rockne and Frank Leahy (its two most successful coaches), but the late 1950s and early 1960s had been a disaster. The team had finished 5–5 in 1962 under Joe Kuharich, who lost the confidence of his players and Notre Dame's administrators during his four years as coach. Kuharich's surprise departure at the end of that season to become supervisor of officials in the National Football League, a position created by his friend and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, left the program in disarray. Devore, a long-time Notre Dame employee who had played for Rockne and coached under Leahy, was brought in to lead the team on an interim basis in 1963. Notre Dame managed only a 2–7 finish that year.

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. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them.

Later life

Parseghian launched a broadcasting career after leaving Notre Dame. He served as a color analyst for ABC Sports from 1975 to 1981 covering a series of regional and national college football games. He moved to CBS Sports in 1982 and covered college games for that network until 1988.

Parseghian, who amassed a career coaching record of 170–58–6 at Miami, Northwestern and Notre Dame, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He 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. He was also inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 2007. 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. He also 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.

Jason Miller portrayed Parseghian in the 1993 film Rudy, which chronicled Rudy Ruettiger's determination to overcome his small size and dyslexia and play for Notre Dame in 1974. Parseghian saw Ruettiger's drive and placed him on the scout team but resigned at the end of the year. Devine, Parseghian's successor, put Ruettiger in on defense at the end of the final game of the 1975 season, and Ruettiger recorded a sack.

Along with Lou Holtz, Parseghian served as one of two honorary coaches in Notre Dame's 2007 spring game, an annual scrimmage held in April. Holtz's Gold team defeated Parseghian's Blue team, 10–6. The same year, Notre Dame unveiled a statue in Parseghian's honor by sculptor Jerry McKenna, depicting players carrying him off the field in triumph following the 1971 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas; the statue as of 2024 is next to Notre Dame Stadium at Gate B, which is also called the Ara Parseghian Gate. In 2011, Miami also unveiled a statue in his honor to add to the RedHawks' Cradle of Coaches plaza. It shows him wearing a Notre Dame sweater as he kneels and looks ahead to the field.

Parseghian, who was married to the former Kathleen Davis, also became involved with medical causes later in life. Along with Mike and Cindy Parseghian, his son and daughter-in-law, he founded the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation in 1994. The foundation is seeking a cure for Niemann-Pick disease Type C, a genetic disorder affecting children that causes the buildup of cholesterol in cells, resulting in damage to the nervous system and eventually death. Three of his grandchildren, Michael, Marcia, and Christa Parseghian, died from the disease. He was also active in the cause to find a cure for multiple sclerosis; his daughter Karan was diagnosed with the disease.

Head coaching record

*Note: before the 1974 season, the final Coaches Poll, also known then as the UPI Poll, was released before the bowl games, so a team that lost its bowl game could still claim the UPI national championship. This was changed as a result of Alabama winning the 1973 Coaches Poll national championship despite losing to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.

Coaching tree

Assistants under Parseghian who became college or professional head coaches:

John Pont: Miami (OH) (1956–1962), Yale Bulldogs (1963–1964), Indiana Hoosiers (1965–1972), Northwestern Wildcats (1973–1977), Mount St. Joseph Lions (1990–1992)

Alex Agase: Northwestern Wildcats (1964–1972), Purdue Boilermakers (1973–1976)

Bo Schembechler: Miami (OH) (1963–1968), Michigan (1969–1989)

Warren Schmakel: Boston University Terriers (1964–1968)

Doc Urich: Buffalo Bulls (1966–1968), Northern Illinois (1969–1970)

Jerry Wampfler: Colorado State Rams (1970–1972)

Ed Chlebek: Eastern Michigan Hurons (1976–1978), Boston College Eagles (1978–1980), Kent State Golden Flashes (1981–1982)

John Ray: Kentucky Wildcats (1969–1972)