The Golden Dream

by Gerry Faust, Steve Love

Overview

Gerry Faust won more hearts than games. He came to Notre Dame as the high school coach from Cincinnati's Moeller High School, such a perfect fit for Notre Dame that it seemed almost too good to be true. It was. Faust admits his mistakes, which include the manner in which he put together his first coaching staff, changing Notre Dame's offense, even feeling sorry for himself. He explains how he could beat Southern Cal, but not Air Force and Purdue. An optimist to the end, Faust took on, if anything, an even greater challenge when he left Notre Dame. He became coach at the University of Akron, a program where, unlike at Notre Dame, not everyone wanted him to succeed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613213612
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	11/13/2012
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Gerry Faust won more hearts than games during his time as Notre Dame's head coach in the early 1980s, going 30-26-1 in the five years before the hiring of Lou Holtz. The legendary prep coach compiled a 174-17-2 record at Cincinnati's Moeller High School before succeeding Dan Devine to become Notre Dame's 24th head coach. Faust later coached at the University of Akron before retiring in 1994.Love, a writer for the Akron Beacon Journal, earned his BA in journalism from California State University at Chico. He is a member of Sigma Delta Chi, a society of professional journalists.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Foreword viii

1 The Golden Dream 1

2 The Great Leap 29

3 The Mystique 43

4 Recruiting as if Your Life Depended On It 61

5 It's Not the Man, It's the Position 95

6 The First Season 113

7 The Phantom Season 135

8 Bowling We Will Go 157

9 The Comeback Team 179

10 Leaving or Staying? 199

11 Saying Goodbye to the Golden Dream 213

12 Decisions, Decisions 247

13 Different Journeys: From Akron to Lourdes 265

14 There's No Place Like Home 311

15 Saturdays Aren't the Same 333

The Faust Records 357

What People are Saying About This

Lou Somogyi

The book is entertaining right from the start.
— Blue & Gold Illustrated

Editorial Reviews

In his last eight seasons of his 18-year career as a high-school football coach in Cincinnati, Faust lost only one game. His dream was to become the football coach at Notre Dame, and that became reality in 1980. A devout Catholic and known to be kind and understanding, Faust seemed ideal for the job, but he failed to appreciate the importance the college placed on winning. So, while he made himself accessible and friendly to the Notre Dame community, his teams went 29-25-1 for the five years of his tenure, after which he "resigned." He went to the University of Akron, where he coached for nine years, compiled a record slightly under .500, was fired as coach and joined the university administration. Football fans widely considered Faust a loser as a coach, and what he and Akron Beacon Journal writer Love have composed is a sort of apologia pro vita sua, stressing that wherever Faust has lived and worked, he has been appreciated as an individual. Thus part of the inspirational message here is that there's more to sports than winning. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly