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CLINTON, Miss. — Athletic director Mike Jones is pleased to announce that College Football Hall of Fame Coach Lou Holtz will be the keynote speaker at the 2019 Dr. Don Phillips Mississippi College Athletics Dinner on Tuesday, November 19th, it was announced on Wednesday (Oct. 2).
“What an honor it is to have such a prestigious speaker as Lou Holtz on campus for our Athletics Dinner,” said Jones. “This will be our second straight year to have a College Football Hall of Famer on campus with Archie Griffin in 2018. This event has gotten better and better each and every year, and we’re excited about the prospects this year with Coach Holtz as our speaker.”
The MC Athletics Dinner is scheduled for Tuesday, November 19th at 6:30 p.m. in Anderson Hall on the Clinton campus. For Platinum and Gold sponsors, a pre-dinner visit with Coach Holtz will be held on the 3rd floor of Alumni Hall beginning at 5:30 p.m.
“Perhaps best known for his leadership of the Notre Dame football team to a national championship, Coach Holtz has built a successful career that spans four decades,” said MC President Dr. Blake Thompson. “He is known for his deep intellect, as well as his humor. He has garnered respect across our country for his integrity and faith. Having this College Football Hall of Fame coach and current ESPN analyst as our keynote speaker at this signature event will benefit all MC student-athletes.”
All money raised from the Dr. Don Phillips MC Athletics Dinner goes to help meet the various needs of all 17 of our NCAA-sponsored sports.
The MC Athletics Dinner website can be accessed by clicking HERE. For more information on how you can get involved, please contact Tim Fritts ( 601.925.7826 or tfritts@mc.edu ), Assistant Athletic Director for Development.
LOU HOLTZ BIO
Holtz is the only coach in the history of college football to: 1) Take six different teams to a bowl game, 2) Win five bowl games with different teams, and 3) Have four different college teams ranked in the final Top 20 poll.
He has established himself as one of the most successful college football coaches of all time. Born Louis Leo Holtz on January 6, 1937, Holtz grew up in East Liverpool, Ohio, just up the Ohio River from his Follansbee, West Virginia birthplace. He graduated from East Liverpool High School, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in history from Kent State in 1959 and a Master’s degree from Iowa in arts and education in 1961. He played linebacker at Kent State for two seasons before an injury ended his career. He has received numerous honorary doctorate degrees.
Despite never inheriting a winning team, he compiled a 243-127-7 career record that ranked him third in victories among active coaches and eighth in winning percentage. His 12 career postseason bowl victories ranked him fifth on the all-time list. Holtz was recently selected for the College Football Hall of Fame, class of 2008, which places him in an elite group of just over 800 individuals in the history of football who have earned this distinction. Approximately 1 in 5,000 people who played college football or coached it make it into the Hall of Fame.
The Follansbee, West Virginia, native became the 25th head coach of Notre Dame following two seasons at Minnesota (1984-85), seven at Arkansas (1977-83), four at North Carolina State (1972-75) and three at William & Mary (1969-71). He spent the 1976 season as head coach of the New York Jets of the National Football League. Twenty-one of the 26 collegiate teams under his direction have earned post-season bowl invitations and 14 have finished in the final AP top 20, eight in the top 10 (not including the 1995 finish in that category).
Until 2014, Holtz was a college football studio analyst on ESPN. He appeared on ESPNews, ESPN College GameDay programs, SportsCenter, and served as an onsite analyst for college football games. Coach Holtz is currently in his second year with SiriusXM Radio as a Co-Host for two sports programs; a golf show broadcast throughout the year entitled, “Holtz In One,” two weekly college football shows during season. His newest show is “The Crowd’s Line College Football Show with Lou Holtz and Mark May”.
Holtz has authored three New York Times bestselling books: The Fighting Spirit that chronicled Notre Dame’s 1988 championship season; Winning Everyday: A Game Plan for Success (August 1998), which has been published in several languages. His latest book, which was released in February, 2019, is Three Rules for Living a Good Life: A Game Plan for After Graduation.
Holtz served as an officer in the U.S. Army. Married to Beth Barcus of East Liverpool on July 22, 1961, Holtz and his wife are the parents of four children, grandparents to nine children, and currently reside in Orlando, Florida.