Yahoo Sports President Donald Trump to give Presidential Medal of Freedom to ex-Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz
Lou Holtz is getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The White House announced Wednesday that the former Notre Dame coach would receive the honor from President Donald Trump on Thursday. Holtz has been a prominent supporter of the president throughout his time in office.
Holtz, 83, spoke at the Republican National Convention in August. His remarks at the convention questioning the Catholic faith of President-Elect Joe Biden caused Notre Dame to issue a statement disassociating itself from Holtz’s comments. The school said Holtz’s comments “must not be taken to imply that the University endorses his views, any candidate or any political party.”
A former ESPN college football analyst, Holtz was a college football head coach for 33 seasons. He’s most known for his 11 seasons at Notre Dame from 1986-1996 where he was 110-30-2. The 1988 Notre Dame team went 12-0 and won the Fiesta Bowl as it ended the season as the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25.
Holtz also coached at William & Mary, NC State, Arkansas, Minnesota and South Carolina. USC was his final coaching stop and he coached there from 1999-2004 with a record of 33-37.
Holtz revealed in November that he had contracted COVID-19. He said that he didn’t have a lot of energy while he was dealing with the virus.
The former coach had long been a proponent of college football teams playing football during the coronavirus pandemic. He made repeated analogies to playing football in a pandemic to the storming of Normandy in World War II in appearances on Fox News Channel.
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