[NU Sports] bowl frustrations

[Roger Beckwith]

Ara's departure - This is actually something I know about (unlike my prediction that no bowl would want PSU) from a couple of his players and a contemporary coach who is still at NU.  Shouldn't be hard to figure out who that is.  Holcomb was fed up with Ara's flirtations with other schools. When ND came calling Ara told Holcomb he was taking the job and drove to SB to accept.  But on the way back he changed his mind and called Holcomb from a pay phone to say that he was staying at NU to which Holcomb said no. So Ara ended up in SB after all. 

Roger


On Jan 2, 2012, at 10:30 AM, DPENDERG at aol.com wrote:

> For the record and from a very reliable source (on the coaching staff at NU 
> after Ara left), Ara was not seduced by the prestige of coaching in South  
> Bend.  He wanted to stay in Evanston but was basically pushed out (or  
> encouraged to leave) by then AD Stu Holcomb.  The exact reason is hard  to 
> determine, but it's not fair to think Ara bolted from NU in the way that  Barnett 
> did some 30 years later. Ara obviously, however, fared  much better in his 
> post-NU career than Barnett did at Colorado. 
> 
> 
> In a message dated 1/1/2012 8:52:53 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  n
> olan at tssi.com writes:
> 
> 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
> 
> _______________________________________________
> nwu-sports  site  list
> nwu-sports at tssi.com
> http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports
> 
> _______________________________________________
> nwu-sports site list
> nwu-sports at tssi.com
> http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports