Ara Raoul Parseghian (; Armenian: Արա Ռաուլ Պարսեղյան; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football coach and player who coached the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football program back from years of futility into national prominence in 1964 and is regarded alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy as a part of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame head coaches.
Parseghian grew up in Akron, Ohio, and played football beginning in his junior year of high school. He enrolled at the University of Akron, but soon quit to join the U.S. Navy for two years during World War II. After the war, he finished his college career at Miami University in Ohio and went on to play halfback for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference in 1948 and 1949. Cleveland won the league championship both of those years.
Parseghian's playing career was cut short by a hip injury. He left the Browns and took a job as an assistant coach at Miami University. When head coach Woody Hayes left in 1951 to coach at Ohio State University, Parseghian took over his job. He stayed in that position until 1956, when he was hired as head coach at Northwestern University in Illinois. In eight seasons there, he amassed a win-loss-tie record of 36–35–1 and helped turn a perennial loser into a consistent contender in the national polls.
Parseghian's success attracted the interest of Notre Dame, which had not posted a winning record in five straight seasons. He was hired as head coach in 1964 and quickly turned the program around, coming close to capturing a national championship in his first year. He proceeded to win two national titles in 11 seasons as coach of the Fighting Irish, a period often referred to as "the Era of Ara". During that span, Parseghian's teams placed in the top ten of the final AP poll nine times and never finished lower than 14th. He never had a losing season at Notre Dame and posted an overall record of 95–17–4, giving him the fourth-most wins of any coach in school history after Rockne (105), Brian Kelly (101) and Lou Holtz (100). Parseghian's .836 winning percentage while at Notre Dame ranks behind only Rockne's .881 and Leahy's .855, leading to his inclusion in the "Holy Trinity" of Fighting Irish coaches.
Parseghian retired from coaching in 1974 and began a broadcasting career calling college football games for ABC and CBS. He also dedicated himself to medical causes later in life after his daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and three of his grandchildren died of a rare genetic disease. Parseghian was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1980. His career coaching record is 170–58–6.
Parseghian was the youngest of three children born to an Armenian father and a French mother in Akron, Ohio. His father Michael had come to the United States from the Ottoman Empire in 1915, fleeing the Armenian genocide during World War I and settling in Akron where there was a sizeable Armenian population. Despite his mother's protectiveness, Parseghian became involved in sports from an early age and developed a reputation as the toughest boy in his class. He was hired by Akron's Board of Education in the eighth grade to patrol his school's grounds at night to deter vandals.
Parseghian played basketball at the local YMCA but did not play organized football until his junior year at South High School in Akron because his mother would not allow him to participate in contact sports. He joined his high school team, coached by Frank "Doc" Wargo, initially without his parents' permission.
College and professional career
After graduating in 1942, Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron. American involvement in World War II began after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, however, and he quit school to join the U.S. Navy. The Navy transferred him for training to Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, where Paul Brown was coaching a service football team. Brown was a well-known high school coach in Ohio, having led his Massillon Washington High School teams to a series of state championships. Parseghian was named the team's starting fullback before the 1944 season, but he was sidelined with an ankle injury and did not play in any games as Great Lakes amassed a 9–2–1 record and was ranked 17th in the nation in the AP Poll. Parseghian later said that despite not playing, watching Brown's methodical and strict coaching methods – and the ease with which he commanded players much larger than he was – was a "priceless" experience.
After his military service, Parseghian enrolled at Miami of Ohio and played halfback on the school's football team in 1946 and 1947 under coach Sid Gillman. As with Brown, Parseghian paid close attention to Gillman, a post-war football pioneer who helped popularize deep downfield passes as the T formation came into vogue. He was named an All-Ohio halfback and a Little All-American by sportswriters in 1947.
Parseghian was selected 109th overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League in the 13th round of the 1947 draft. He was also selected by the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a team coached by Paul Brown, his old Great Lakes coach. Parseghian left Miami with six semester credit hours remaining and signed with the Browns.
Parseghian played halfback and defensive back for the Browns starting in 1948. While he only started one game that season, he was part of a potent offensive backfield that featured quarterback Otto Graham and fullback Marion Motley. The Browns won all of their games and a third straight AAFC championship in 1948. Parseghian suffered a serious injury to his hip in the second game of the 1949 season against the Baltimore Colts, however, ending his playing career. He stayed with the Browns for the rest of the season, and the team went on to win another AAFC championship. With the Browns, he had 44 carries for 166 yards, three receptions for 33 yards, scored two touchdowns, and intercepted one pass.
Parseghian's injury and the end of his professional playing career were a source of frustration, but he soon got the chance to move into the coaching ranks. Woody Hayes, the head coach at Miami of Ohio, contacted him about a job as coach of the freshman team. He was recommended for the position by athletic director John Brickels, who had been an assistant coach with the Browns in 1948. Parseghian led the freshmen to a 4–0 record in the 1950 season and was chosen the following year as Hayes's successor when Hayes departed to become head coach at Ohio State University.
Parseghian's teams at Miami consistently did well in the Mid-American Conference, posting a 7–3 record in 1951 and improving to 8–1 the following year. Miami's Redskins (now known as RedHawks) were conference champions in 1954 and in 1955, when they went undefeated. Parseghian's success, which included two wins over larger Big Ten Conference schools, raised his profile nationally as a head coaching prospect. In late 1955, he was hired to coach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, one of the Big Ten schools Miami had beaten. Parseghian compiled a 39–6–1 record in five seasons at Miami.
Northwestern's football program was in transition when Parseghian arrived in 1956 to take over the coaching reins. Bob Voigts had quit as head coach in February 1955, leaving his assistant Lou Saban to guide the team. Under Saban, a former Browns teammate of Parseghian's, Northwestern finished at 0–8–1, the worst-ever record in its history at the time. Ted Payseur, the school's athletic director, resigned after the season under pressure from alumni and was replaced by Stu Holcomb. One of Holcomb's first moves was to fire Saban and replace him with Parseghian.
Parseghian was the 20th head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats football team and was the youngest coach in the Big Ten when he took the job at 32 years old. His Northwestern career began in 1956 with just one win in his first six games. The Wildcats put together three wins at the end of the season, however, and finished with a 4–4–1 record. Northwestern proceeded to lose all nine of its games in the 1957 season. Bo Schembechler—a member of the 1957 Northwestern staff and teammate of Parsegian's at Miami—called Parsegian's performance during the 1957 season the best job of coaching Schembechler ever witnessed. Despite the losses (many of them by close margins), Parsegian kept his team united and focused. That crucible set the stage for a much more successful campaign in 1958, when Northwestern finished with a 5–4 record that included victories over conference rivals Michigan and Ohio State.