When I die and people realize that I will not be resurrected in three
days, they will forget me. That is the way it should be. For reasons
known only to God, I was asked to write an autobiography. Most people
who knew me growing up didn't think I would ever read a book, let alone
write one.—Lou Holtz
Few people in the history of college sports have been more influential
or had a bigger impact than Lou Holtz. Winner of the three national
Coach of the Year honors, the only coach ever to lead six different
schools to season-ending bowl games, and the ninth-winningest coach in
college football history, Holtz is still teaching and coaching, although
he is no longer on the gridiron.
In his most telling work to date, the man still known as "Coach" reveals
what motivated a rail-thin 135-pound kid with marginal academic
credentials and a pronounced speech impediment to play and coach college
football, and to become one of the most sought-after motivational
speakers in history. With unflinching honesty and his trademark dry wit,
Holtz goes deep, giving us the intimate details of the people who shaped
his life and the decisions he would make that shaped the life of so many
others.
His is a storied career, and Holtz provides a frank and inside look at
the challenges he overcame to turn around the programs at William and
Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas, and Minnesota. From growing up in
East Liverpool, Ohio, to his early days as a graduate assistant at the
University of Iowa, to his national championship runs at Notre Dame and
his final seasons on the sidelines in South Carolina, Lou Holtz gives
his best, a poignant, funny, and instructive look into a life well
lived.
