Gerry Faust (1935–2024), former Notre Dame football coach

Gerry Faust was head football coach at Notre Dame in the early 1980s, as well as a Hall of Fame high school coach.

• Died: November 11, 2024 (Who else died on November 11?) 
• Details of death: Died at the age of 89. 
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Gerry Faust’s legacy

Faust dreamed of attending Notre Dame and being its football team’s quarterback, but life took him to the University of Dayton instead. With those hopes dashed, he set a new goal: to coach football at Notre Dame. It took him more than 20 years of coaching to get there, but his dream ultimately came true.

Faust’s storied career on the sidelines began at his alma mater, Chaminade High School in Dayton, Ohio, as an assistant coach in the late 1950s before he was hired by Cincinnati’s new Archbishop Moeller High School in 1960. He built Moeller’s football program from the ground up, and he built it to win. Under Faust’s leadership, the Crusaders won three consecutive state championships in the mid-1970s and five overall, as well as four national championships. The team consistently turned out highly recruitable college players, and many of those talented athletes ended up at Notre Dame.

It was in part on the strength of the many players Faust sent from Moeller to Notre Dame over the years that he was hired in 1981 for his dream job. He was vocal about his deep love for coaching there, even though his teams weren’t the powerhouses he hoped for. His overall record at Notre Dame was 30-26-1, and he took his teams to victory at the 1983 Liberty Bowl and an appearance at the 1984 Aloha Bowl. After a rough season in 1985, Faust resigned.

After Notre Dame, Faust returned to his home state and coached at the University of Akron from 1986 to 1994. He later became a fundraiser for the school. Faust remained an avid Notre Dame fan for the rest of his life. Just a few months before his death, he was inducted into the National High School Football Hall of Fame.

Faust on coaching at Notre Dame

“I was told it would be the toughest job in America, but I said it would be the greatest job in America.” — from a 2013 interview for National Catholic Register

Tributes to Gerry Faust

Full obituary: The New York Times

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