{"id":792650,"date":"2026-03-05T02:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T02:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/792650\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T02:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T02:00:16","slug":"super-bowl-winning-qb-sends-heartwarming-tribute-to-lou-holtz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/792650\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Bowl-Winning QB Sends Heartwarming Tribute to Lou Holtz"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, March 4, Lou Holtz, the famed college football<\/a> coach who led the University of Notre Dame to the 1988 National Championship, passed away at the age of 89<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame shared the heartbreaking news in an official press release on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, those in college football, the NFL<\/a> and general sports world are paying tribute to this groundbreaking coach and what he did for the sport.<\/p>\n

Russell Wilson is one of them. Wilson won Super Bowl XLVIII with the Seattle Seahawks on February 2, 2014. Since then, he’s played with the Denver Broncos, New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n

After the sad news broke, Wilson took to social media to pay tribute to Holtz.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

“What an inspiration,” he stated<\/a>. “I always loved being around you, Lou, the few times I was fortunate in your presence. Thanks for blessing us with your wisdom of the game and so much more.”<\/p>\n

Holtz began his career as the head football coach at the University of Notre Dame in 1986. He signed a contract with the Fighting Irish on November 28, 1985, following a run with the University of Minnesota and became the 25th head coach in the program’s history.<\/p>\n

Holtz won 249 games as a collegiate head coach, 100 of them with Notre Dame from 1986 through 1996. He’s best known for leading the team to the 1988 National Championship with a 12-0 record.<\/p>\n

More sports news:\u00a0Lou Holtz, Legendary Notre Dame Coach, Dies at 89<\/a><\/p>\n

The 1988 title season began a 64-9-1 run for Holtz at Notre Dame that packed a 23-game win streak and back-to-back 12-win seasons for the first time in the college’s history. He also led the Fighting Irish to nine consecutive bowl game appearances.<\/p>\n

Holtz entered hospice in late January, according to a report from HawgBeat’s Kyle Sutherland at the time.<\/p>\n

“I have confirmed College Football Hall of Famer Lou Holtz is in hospice care,” Sutherland stated<\/a>. “Holtz was the head coach at Arkansas from 1977-83 where he compiled a 60-21-2 record and won three bowl games, including the famed upset over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.”<\/p>\n

More sports news:\u00a0Sad News Surfaces on Famed Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC57 also reported\u00a0<\/a>the<\/a> news at the time, stating<\/a>, ” A source close to the family confirmed with ABC57 that Notre Dame legend, Lou Holtz, has reportedly entered into hospice care at the age of 89.”<\/p>\n

Holtz is survived, according to Notre Dame, by his four children, Luanne, Lou \u2018Skip\u2019 Junior, Kevin and Elizabeth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday, March 4, Lou Holtz, the famed college football coach who led the University of Notre Dame…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,7,49,48,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-792650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116174103444618162","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}