[NU Sports] bowl frustrations

[Mike Nolan]

Back in Ara's day at NU, coaches didn't get the kinds of salaries, shoe payments, 
TV show appearance fees, commercial endorsements, etc. that they get now.  

That didn't start happening until the early 70's.  

Bob Devaney remarked around the time he retired as Nebraska's AD that Tom Osborne
was making something like 10 times what he got in his last year as a coach ('72)
and even that was a lot more than he got when he was hired at Nebraska ('63).  

I suspect Notre Dame paid more than Northwestern did back then, but I don't really
think that was the factor with Ara, I think the prestige of coaching at Notre Dame 
was irresistable, especially to a coach who didn't have purple in his veins.  

These days I doubt Notre Dame is THE destination job for coaches, and the
unrealistic expectations probably justify the money, because I doubt any coach 
is going to last long there.  

Holtz was 100-30-2 and left for 'undisclosed reasons'.  (The rumors at the time was
that some Notre Dame administrators didn't want him to surpass Rockne's 105 wins.).  
So far none of his successors have come remotely close to his win-loss record there.
--
Mike Nolan