The Leahy monument, Notre Dame Stadium (Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire)
Frank Leahy, in many ways was a Knute Rockne protégé. In 1928 Rockne recruited him out of South Dakota to play tackle for the Irish, which he did, but before his senior year, Leahy suffered a serious knee injury and never played again. Leahy then spent his final season standing next to Rockne, absorbing everything he could about the game he had come to love.
After the season, Rockne traveled to the Mayo Clinic and spent a week there being treated for phlebitis. He took Leahy with him so that his young player could have his knee looked at. The two shared a hospital room for a full week and constantly talked X’s and O’s. Little did anyone know that Rockne would never coach again owing to the loss of his life in a plane crash a few weeks later.
After graduation from ND he went directly into coaching. He served stints as an offensive line coach at Georgetown, Michigan State and Fordham. At Fordham the team experienced great success and Leahy’s line earned the famous nickname “the seven blocks of granite”. One of those players on Leahy’s line was a guy who went on to be a pretty good coach himself, Vince Lombardi.
The Fordham job led to Leahy’s first head coaching job at Boston College. In two seasons at BC, his teams went a combined 20-2, making him a hot coaching property. In 1941 Notre Dame enticed Leahy to come to South Bend, and he was was an immediate success. 8-0-1 in his first year and in his third season, 1943 he led the Irish to his first National Championship with a 9-1 record.
Leahy then left for a 2-year World War II stint in the Navy. In 1946 he was back and with an influx of talent with all the men coming home after the War, Leahy picked up where he left off.
From 1945-1949 the Irish went an amazing 36-0-2, and won 3 national titles. While Rockne had been known as a man of diverse talents, Leahy became known for sleeping in his office and working himself to near exhaustion. He is credited with bringing the T-formation, zone defenses and the audible to College football. By 1953 health issues caught up with Leahy and at the age of 45 he retired, and never coached again.
Leahy posted an all-time record as a head coach of 107-13-9 (two years at Boston College, 11 at ND). During his career he coached 36 All-Americans, 12 inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame, and four Heisman trophy winners. His .864 career winning percentage at the major college level is second all-time only to Rockne.
Frank Leahy was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1970, and he is this week’s Fighting Irish Preview ALL-TIME IRISH HERO.