It was 29 years ago this week that Gerry Faust was to embark on what he expected to be one of the great coaching runs in the history of Notre Dame football. Why wouldn' he? He had just left Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati after winning 178 of the 203 games he coached. He led the Crusaders to seven unbeaten seasons, four national prep titles, and five Ohio state titles in his last six seasons at Moeller. Well, if only Gerry could have kept his coaching career to one game at ND -- he would have retired on top. If you recall, Faust's Irish beat LSU in his first game as coach. The 27 - 9 Notre Dame victory over LSU (on September 12, 1981) combined with Minnesota's upset of then top ranked Michigan -- vaulted the Irish to the #1 ranking in the country. Unfortunately, Michigan was next on the schedule and Schembechler's Wolverines beat Notre Dame that week 25 - 7 -- and the honeymoon was over. Gerry did have some moments at Notre Dame in his five-year career; a win over #1 ranked Dan Marino led, Pitt Panthers in 1982, a 52 - 6 win over Purdue to start the 1983 season -- but a five-year career record of 30-26-1 led to his resignation. You can never deny that Gerry Faust loves Notre Dame -- and Notre Dame loves Gerry Faust. In fact, Coach Faust was at the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore this past Saturday (for the umpteenth time) signing copies of his book The Golden Dream. I don't think we'll be seeing Bob Davie, Ty Willingham or Charlie Weis -- anytime soon -- signing copies of their book about their Notre Dame experience, sitting in the stands at Notre Dame games or walking the campus on a football Saturday. These days, Gerry works as a motivational speaker -- click on the link below to see him tell a very funny story at a conference. There's also two links below to a two-part feature that ESPN ran in 2007 on Gerry Faust's career at Notre Dame - A MUST SEE. Coach Faust, will always be a favorite to many Notre Dame fans. To prove my point, here's a photo taken this Saturday morning of an Irish fan on campus, just hours before kick-off of the Brian Kelly era. LINK: GERRY FAUST -- TELLING A NOTRE DAME STORY
LINK: THE GOLDEN DREAM #1 - ESPN
LINK: THE GOLDEN DREAM #2 - ESPN
