BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – Lou Holtz, the only coach in NC State football history to take the Wolfpack to a post-season bowl game every year of his tenure, was selected Thursday for induction to the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame.
Holtz joins former Ohio State coach John Cooper and 13 former players in the hall’s Class of 2008, which will be formally inducted in December. The announcement was made Thursday at noon by the National Football Foundation at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.
Holtz is the fifth former NC State coach or player to be selected for induction. The others (with date of induction) are halfback Jack McDowall (1975), quarterback Roman Gabriel (1989), center Jim Ritcher (1998) and former coach Buck Shaw (1972).
Like Shaw, who coached at NC State for only one year before moving on to build a nationally prominent program at Santa Clara, Holtz’s greatest college football success was at other institutions, winning the 1989 college football national championship at Notre Dame.
Overall, he compiled a 249-132-7 record at six different colleges: William & Mary, NC State, Minnesota, Arkansas, Notre Dame and South Carolina. He is the only coach in NCAA history to lead four different programs to a final Top 20 ranking in the national polls and the only coach to lead six different schools to bowl games. He also spent one season as the head coach of the New York Jets.
His 249 career victories rank seventh all-time among NCAA football coaches.
Holtz fondly remembers his four-year stay at NC State as perhaps the happiest time of his often tumultuous career. During his four-year tenure, the Wolfpack lost only one home game at Carter Stadium.
“With his years of experience and his knowledge of college football, Coach Holtz is well-deserving of this prestigious honor,” current Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien said. “NC State fans will always remember his successful tenure here in Raleigh. We are proud that he is a part of our Wolfpack football tradition.”
Holtz career record at NC State:
Year Record ACC (finish) Final AP Bowl (result)
1972 8-3-1 4-1-1 (2nd) 17 Peach (49-13 W over West Virginia)
1973 9-3 6-0 (1st) 16 Liberty (31-18 W over Kansas)
1974 9-2-1 4-2 (T-2nd) 11 AstroBluebonnet (31-31 T with Houston)
1975 7-4-1 2-2-1 (T-3rd) none Peach Bowl (10-13 L to West Virginia)
Total 33-12-3 16-5-1
Contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
Courtesy: NC State
