Former Notre Dame football player, Marty Olosky
Monday reading ...
Today, December 20th, I will share a snippet from Chapter 20 of "Triumphs From Notre Dame" – former Notre Dame football player, Martin "Marty" Olosky. Marty shared with me some of his favorite memories from his time at Notre Dame.
Marty’s first year at Notre Dame was the second year for head coach Joe Kuharich. The 1960 football season began with great optimism. Many believed that with a year under his belt, and a solid understanding of the football program at Notre Dame, Coach Kuharich would return Notre Dame to its tradition of excellence, after the average 5?5 record from his first year. Many of the pre-season polls even had Notre Dame ranked in the top ten. But, alas, the high hopes that so many
had for Notre Dame that season did not come to fruition. Marty explained to me what it was like to play under the two head coaches he played for at Notre Dame, and the challenges that you face when things don’t go as you want them to go out on the field.
“For my first three years at Notre Dame, Joe Kuharich was the head coach, and for my last year, Hughie (Hugh) Devore was our interim head coach. Joe Kuharich was a good coach, he just had a tremendous amount of pressure on him. The teams I played on at Notre Dame were average at best, (1960: 2?8, 1961: 5?5, 1962: 5?5, 1963: 2?7). And if you’re the head coach at ND and you’re not winning more than half of your games, you are going to be viewed under a very strong microscope. They actually forced him to resign at the end of the 1962 season. It’s not as though he didn’t have good athletes playing for him, because Notre Dame always manages to recruit good athletes. Some of the guys who played for Kuharich ended up doing quite well later on in the NFL (Jack Snow), and winning the Heisman Trophy while still at Notre Dame (John Huarte); it’s not as though Coach Kuharich didn’t have the guns in his arsenal. John Huarte hardly played
during his first three years at Notre Dame, and then Coach Parseghian came in and turned him into a Heisman Trophy winner. Notre Dame always has talent out there on the field, they just didn’t have the right leader at the helm when I was there.”
“And then following the departure of Coach Kuharich, Hughie Devore was selected as the interim head coach, and unfortunately, he was not well respected by his players. It was complete mayhem on the team that year. During my senior season at ND I got injured. I tore a ligament during the Pittsburgh game and had to sit out the rest of the season, but the guys who were still out there playing for him, they were really upset that he had been chosen to be our head coach that year. He had done really well with the freshmen team, but
领英推荐
he just wasn’t that good of a head coach, and many of the guys on the team felt he shouldn’t have been given the head coaching reigns.”
No matter how long it has been since a former Notre Dame Football player donned the golden helmet and played for Our Lady’s University, the memories of their time under the dome are still as strong as if they were yesterday. When I asked Marty to share his favorite football memory from his time at Notre Dame, he didn’t even pause before giving me his answer.
“My favorite Notre Dame Football memory? There are two distinct memories that stand out from my time at ND. The first one that comes to mind was when we played the Naval Academy my sophomore year. It was my first year of actually playing football at ND, and it was just the sixth game I had ever played in at Notre Dame, and I had the opportunity to tackle Roger Staubach. Roger Staubach! What an incredible moment that was for sure, and most definitely a huge highlight of my career. It’s a memory I will never forget. Not many guys got the chance to tackle Staubach. He was a legend indeed.
My second favorite memory came in the spring of 1961. At the end of spring practice that year I won the Herring Award for most improved tackle. That was quite an honor.”
Cheers & GO IRISH!!
For more of Marty's chapter, pick up your copy of "Triumphs From Notre Dame."