Posted on 04/01/2020 11:05:22 AM PDT by nickcarraway
In search of a pep talk Monday morning, I phoned the best living American pep-talker.
Lou Holtz answered on the first ring.
“It’s so ironic that you called,” he said from Florida. “I was just finishing up a Bible study with my wife.”
Holtz, the former head coach at South Carolina and Notre Dame, among other places, is probably suffering more than most right now.
He is 83.
Beth Holtz, 82, is in her third decade of battling cancer.
They have been quarantined in their Orlando home for 17 days. Sponsored
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The famously gangly, bespectacled man with oft-imitated speech patterns has been a popular speaker for decades. Holtz made a second career at ESPN giving mock motivational speeches to college football teams.
But there are no zany props, costumes or white boards for this one. The Lou Holtz coronavirus pitch is from the heart.
It doesn’t apply only to one football team seeking an upset or another squad down 17 points at halftime.
It’s personal, and global.
“It’s that old saying (Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer”): ‘May God give me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change and the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference,’” Holtz said. “There’s certain things you can’t change and so you have to say, ‘What can I do to make this a positive experience?’”
One of the pandemic challenges in the Holtz household is that Beth, after 83 radiation treatments to combat throat cancer, requires a feeding tube. She has an incurable lung infection. She cannot cook.
Lou ate most of his meals at restaurants until 17 days ago.
“Oh, I can’t even boil water,” he said with a chuckle.
The new Lou Holtz diet includes “an awful lot” of cereal and soup.
The bright side?
“We just celebrated my wife’s 82nd birthday,” Holtz said. “Who would have ever thought, 23 years ago when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, that we would be able to celebrate her 82nd birthday?”
‘Self-improvement’ time
This is coming from the most unlikely looking dominant personality in a tough-guy sport.
Holtz went from humble roots in Follansbee, West Virginia, and East Liverpool, Ohio, to winning Notre Dame’s lone national championship in the last 42 years.
He sounded as chipper as ever Monday.
“It’s the way I’ve approached most of my life,” Holtz said. “Yeah, this is not what I want but I’m not going to moan about it. I know the economy is down and people are losing jobs but I also keep counting our blessings.”
Holtz has doubled his “self-improvement” efforts.
That includes chipping golf balls in the back yard of a country club neighborhood.
“I exercise at home,” Holtz said, “which I’ve never done before.”
Lou and Beth play more chess, read more.
Like every other staying-at-home couple in the world, they talk a lot more.
“You look at the situation, and let’s not complain about it,” Holtz said. “You say ‘What do we have to do to keep the faith? What do we have to do to not jeopardize other people? And what can we do that will be profitable a year from now?’”
God and football Holtz as a coach with 249 college wins is best known for leading Notre Dame to that 1988 national title with South Carolinian Tony Rice at quarterback. He also coached at William & Mary, N.C. State, Arkansas, Minnesota and for one year in the NFL with the New York Jets.
At South Carolina, Holtz had a losing record (33-37 from 1999-2004, including an 0-11 first season) and left the program with three years of NCAA probation. But he inherited a mess and won back-to-back Outback Bowls at a school that had one bowl victory previously.
Most importantly, Holtz convinced successful successor Steve Spurrier that better things were possible in Columbia.
Holtz acknowledged as much.
The makeup of the response, however, is similar.
“The main thing is there’s always going to be problems and difficulties and trials; that’s part of life,” Holtz said. “But God loves us and God’s going to be there for us. We should take this time and realize this has been positive in some respects — just as everything negative that’s happened to me in the past has turned out to be positive.”
The Bible study starts promptly at 9:30 each morning for Lou and Beth Holtz.
They draw from author Timothy Keller’s study guide and take turns picking out verses.
Beth went to the Old Testament for Psalms 5 on Monday.
Lou plans on Psalms 30 on Tuesday, probably between a bowl of cereal and a 9-iron.
I have been fortunate to be in attendance and hear Coach Holtz give motivational speeches. He is very uplifting.
Did he tell everyone about Art Linkletter?
I love Lou Holtz. Too bad Paul Harvey isn’t still alive.
I miss Paul Harvey.
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