Review of "Notre Dame’s Greatest Coaches: Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian, Holtz," by Moose Krause and Stephen Singular

 Review of

Notre Dame’s Greatest Coaches: Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian, Holtz, by Moose Krause and Stephen Singular, ISBN 0671867016

Five out of five stars

As much about Krause as the coaches

 There is no question that the football tradition at Notre Dame is unrivaled. The four football coaches listed in the title are legends and have some of the best winning percentages in the history of the sport. During the times these coaches were at Notre Dame, Edward “Moose” Krause was as well. Krause was a three -time All-American while playing under Rockne and is Notre Dame’s only two-sport Hall of Famer. He also coached under Leahy, hired Parseghian and was a close advisor to Holtz. Krause served as the Notre Dame Athletic Director for thirty-two years. He became known as “Mr. Notre Dame.”

 This book is a sequence of Krause’s recollections of the years these four coaches were active at Notre Dame. There were some other coaches in this time frame, but they were largely skipped over. Therefore, the book is as much about Moose Kraus as it is about the coaches and football at Notre Dame. Which is as it should be, for even though Krause is listed as an author, his world was tightly intertwined with the four coaches.

 While the book is generally laudatory of the people being profiled, it does provide a great deal of insight into the football program at Notre Dame. These coaches were driven to succeed, and they drove their players hard, to the very limits of the endurance of both groups. “Greatest coaches” is the proper phrase to describe these four men.

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