NOTE: Ken Bradford contributed to this story.
Terry Brennan died two weeks ago at the age of 93, No news story in the Tribune about it — just an obituary that almost casually mentioned he played and coached football at Notre Dame.
The write-up didn’t even say that he had been the head coach.
If you’ve never heard of Brennan, it’s understandable. He was finished with coaching more than 60 years ago, before many of us were born. Still, his story is worth remembering for a lot of reasons.
He was hired to replace his own coach, the legendary Frank Leahy, in 1954 at the tender age of 25.
Let me say that again: He took over the Notre Dame program as a 25-year-old.
To put that in perspective, national championship coaches Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz were 41, 49 and 48, respectively, when they were hired to lead Notre Dame.
Brennan once admitted that the police blocked his way on Notre Dame Avenue during his first game day as head coach. They just couldn’t believe that this young guy was really the Irish coach.
So, how did he do?
The Irish started out 9-1 with a loss to Purdue in 1954, good enough for a final No. 4 ranking in the Associated Press poll. His 1955 squad lost twice – to Michigan State and Southern Cal – for an 8-2 record and a final No. 9 rank in 1955.
Then in 1956, they finished a disastrous 2-8, in part because a reduction in scholarships enacted by the university caught up with the program.
Brennan’s next team finished 7-3 in 1957 — and one of those wins ended Oklahoma’s 47-game unbeaten streak — and 6-4 in 1958. That was good enough for a 32-18 overall record but not good enough for a sixth season.
The axe fell four days before Christmas 1958. All these years later, Notre Dame haters still like to talk about how cruel the timing was for that.
It wasn’t as if the Irish had a fireball of a coach waiting in the wings, champing at the bit. Brennan’s successor, Joe Kuharich, eked out a 17-23 record over the next four seasons. Kuharich was followed by Hugh Devore, whose 1963 team stumbled to a 2-7 fiasco.
Brennan landed on his feet and never expressed any bitterness about the way his coaching years ended. He became a successful investment banker in the Chicago area and a respected football analyst. More importantly, he was the proud patriarch of a family that included six children, 26 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren.
He never coached again. He was done at 30, an age when most college head coaches are waiting for their first shot.
Notre Dame couldn’t be blamed for taking a chance on Brennan. He had been an outstanding Irish running back, averaging 5.8 yards a carry, while helping the Irish to a 33-2-3 record during his playing career. He caught a record breaking 97-yard touchdown pass against Army in 1947.
After he graduated, he led Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago to three city titles before returning to Notre Dame to coach the freshmen squad for one season.
He was a popular choice to take over the varsity. His 1954 team was ranked No. 1 in the preseason poll. How great was that? But maybe he was too young at the time to know how intense those spotlights were on him.
Five years later, about Christmastime, he knew.
In some ways, he was the fall guy during a transition period that made it more difficult — maybe even impossible — to live up to the legend and lore of Rockne and Leahy.
Rev. Theodore Hesburgh was relatively new as the Notre Dame president, and he wanted his school to put academics first. To do that, he had to reel in a football program that Leahy had operated in almost a carte-blanche fashion.
Hesburgh put a cap on football scholarships and the academic progress of athletes came under more scrutiny.
Yeah, it was the right thing to do.
But it caused some pitfalls for Brennan and his boys, especially during the 1956 season when they went 2-8, despite a Heisman Trophy effort by Paul Hornung. They did recover but apparently not enough to save Brennan’s job.
Did he get a raw deal? Probably, but coaching football at Notre Dame isn’t a slick ride for anyone. Ask Gerry Faust or Ty Willingham or Bob Davie or Charlie Weis. The pressures of the job nearly killed Ara Parseghian, and it would be hard to find anyone whose career had more luster.
Where does Brennan belong when rating Notre Dame head football coaches? He did win 64 percent of his games. Unfortunately, that means he lost 36 percent of them. He didn’t create a legacy. A lot of the current Irish faithful barely know his name.
He was the kid coach expected to be a leader of men. He never brought shame to those around him. God rest him well.