Gerry Faust

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Gerry Faust
Born	May 21, 1935 (1935-05-21) (age 74)
Place of birth	Dayton, Ohio
Career highlights
Overall	73-79-4
Bowls	1-1
Coaching stats
College Football DataWarehouse
Playing career
1955-57	Dayton
Position	QB
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1962-1980 1981-1985 1986-1994	Archbishop Moeller HS Notre Dame Akron

Gerard "Gerry" Anthony Faust (born May 21, 1935 in Dayton, Ohio), also known as "Fuzzy" Faust, is the former football coach at the University of Notre Dame from 1981 to 1985. Before beginning his coaching career, Faust enjoyed a successful stint as quarterback at the University of Dayton, where he played for a time under former Notre Dame coach Hugh Devore. He actually wanted very much to go to Notre Dame and was offered a partial scholarship, but in the end enrolled at Dayton, where he graduated in 1958.

Early career

Faust had a highly successful run at Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio (1962-80), where he built the program from scratch. The Crusaders under Faust had a 178-23-2 record and included seven unbeaten seasons, four national prep titles, and five Ohio state titles in his last six seasons.^[1]

At Notre Dame

It was his amazing record, sound ethics and the quality football players from Moeller who later played at Notre Dame, that led Notre Dame officials to take a calculated gamble and hire him when Dan Devine stepped down after the 1980 season. For Faust, a devout Roman Catholic, it was a dream come true. He had coveted the head coaching job at Notre Dame for years and said all along that he would never leave Moeller for anything else. Faust inherited a solid squad that included nine of his former players from Moeller. He switched the team's home jerseys from green back to blue, although initially it was a lighter Madonna blue shade than the navy blue that had been previously worn (and returned to in 1984), and kept the players' names on the backs. A self-proclaimed eternal optimist brimming with enthusiasm, Faust had visions of winning more games and national championships and coaching at Notre Dame longer than anyone else. Then when he saw Notre Dame's schedule, he was quoted as saying, "I hope my lifelong dream doesn't end in a nightmare." Sadly, it proved to be a prophetic statement and his era at Notre Dame, initially referred to as "The Bold Experiment"^[1], fell far short of living up to expectations.

Faust's Notre Dame tenure started on a high note with a 27-9 victory over LSU in the 1981 season opener (September 12), one of the most widely anticipated games in school history. After top-ranked Michigan lost to Wisconsin on that same day, Notre Dame was voted #1 in the polls. The success was short-lived, however, as Michigan defeated Notre Dame the following week, 25-7. It was all downhill after that as the Irish finished 5-6 that year, their first losing season since 1963. Faust would end his stint at Notre Dame with a 30-26-1 record, never winning more than seven games in one season and never coming even close to contending for a national title. This included four consecutive losses against Air Force, whom the Irish had never lost to prior to 1982. Despite his mediocre record and growing discontent among Irish fans, Faust was allowed to remain at Notre Dame for the entire duration of his five-year contract.

The highlights of his tenure at Notre Dame included a 1983 Liberty Bowl victory over Boston College and an appearance in the 1984 Aloha Bowl. His 1982 squad defeated Michigan by a score of 23-17 and upset the then top-ranked, Dan Marino-led Pitt Panthers, 31-16. In 1983, the Irish opened the season with a 52-6 win over Purdue while his 1984 team defeated Colorado by a score of 55-14 and posted a 44-7 rout over Penn State.

In exactly half of the losses under Faust, the opposition scored the winning points late in the game. They lost their last three regular season games in 1982, 1983 and 1985 and their last two games in 1981. Only in 1984 did they finish strongly, winning their last four games after three consecutive home losses (the last time that had happened was in 1956).

Going into the 1985 season, hopes were high that things would turn around. With the team at 5-5 and the program rapidly unraveling after a 10-7 loss to LSU in the tenth game, Faust, who said he would never quit, announced his resignation effective at the end of the season and spared the university from having to fire him.^[1] His final game was against a Jimmy Johnson-coached Miami team, a humiliating 58-7 loss at Orange Bowl Stadium in which the team gave up in the second half. It was one of the worst defeats in school history and the second-highest point total ever given up in one game by the Irish (Army rang up 59 points in 1944 while Wisconsin matched Miami's point total in 1904). He would be succeeded by Minnesota head coach Lou Holtz.

Post-Notre Dame

Faust spent the next nine seasons (1986-94) as head coach at the University of Akron, compiling an overall record of 43-53-3 at the school. As was the case at Notre Dame, his Zips teams never won more than seven games in one season. Following a 1-10 finish in 1994, he was relieved of his coaching duties and became a fundraiser for the university.

Despite his unsuccessful coaching tenure at Notre Dame, Faust's love for the school has never wavered and he still regularly attends Irish home football games. He has said "I had only 26 miserable days at Notre Dame; that's when we lost. Other than that, I was the happiest guy in the world. I loved walking on the campus, loved being there, loved being a part of Notre Dame."^[1]

Personal life

Faust was married to the former Marlene Agruso in 1964. They are parents of three children and have six grandchildren. ^[1] Their son, Steve, is a Notre Dame graduate.

Faust lives in Fairlawn, Ohio, a suburb of Akron; he now works as a motivational speaker.^[1]

Head coaching record

References

External links

• Legends of HS Football: Gerry Faust Cincinnati, Ohio, Moeller, 1962-80