Ara Parseghian

“It's not true that I never left South Bend to recruit a player. It is true that I didn't leave very often.”

“I've been blessed in many ways, but none of the heights from football can ever compare to the depths you go through when you lose a child.”

“I came to Notre Dame to renew the winning tradition.”

“You're going to have disappointments. But how you handle those disappointments is the important thing for you and everybody that's around you. That's what I found from being not only a player but also a coach.”

“As you move through life, it's not going to be a bright, sunshiny day every day.”

“Success in football is relative. If you take a job at a school that finished with a 1-9 record the year before, you're considered a good coach if you finish 5-5 in your first season. But what happens if you start with 8-2 or 9-1?”

“My mother was really courageous.”

“I learned long ago not to tear into anyone for a mistake.”

“I say college football began with Rockne.”

“The harder you work, the less mistakes you make. The fewer mistakes you make, the better your chances of winning.”

“I was a 52-year-old coach. But people don't realize I had 25 years as a head coach. Most coaches my age only had a few years as head coach. I had six years at Miami of Ohio, eight years at Northwestern, 11 at Notre Dame.”

“I had grown up during a time when Notre Dame football was held in the highest esteem. I listened to all of the games on the radio.”

“The most difficult problem about coaching at Notre Dame is losing early.”

“I remember virtually everything about every loss. And the wins are hardly memorable.”

“One of the reasons I never went into pro football was because I wanted my kids to grow up around an academic environment. And that's exactly what we did.”

“To me, going for a tie means kicking the extra point for a tie instead of going for a two-point conversion to win.”

“My kids grew up here. My son and daughter both went to Notre Dame.”

“Getting to the top of the mountain is a heck of a lot easier than staying there.”

“That's the unpredictable part, and that's what worries every coach: Protect the football. That's why, when you go into a ballgame, you may be favored, but there's no guarantee you're going to win it.”

“You learn early in athletics that you'll have ups and downs.”