Notre Dame reveals tribute to Lou Holtz for 2026 season
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Notre Dame players will run onto the field this fall wearing a piece of college football history on their helmets. The school announced a decal honoring former head coach Lou Holtz for the 2026 season, six months after his death.
The decal shows “LOU” in white letters on a black background. Two hands forming an “L” shape flank the name. It will sit on the back lower right of the gold helmet.
Holtz died on March 4 at age 89 in Orlando, Florida. He is buried on the Notre Dame campus next to his wife, Beth.
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Lou Holtz’s Notre Dame legacy
Notre Dame hired Holtz in 1986. He had already coached at William & Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas and Minnesota, plus a stint with the NFL’s New York Jets. His first two seasons in South Bend were rocky. The Irish went 5-6 in 1986 and 8-4 in 1987.
The turnaround came fast after those first two years. Notre Dame finished 12-0 in 1988 and beat West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. That season delivered the program’s first national title in 11 years. It also included the famous “Catholics vs. Convicts” game, where Notre Dame snapped Miami’s 36-game regular-season winning streak.
The Irish nearly repeated as champs in 1989. They went 12-1 and beat Colorado in the Orange Bowl. Their only loss came against Miami, which went on to win the national title that year.
Holtz coached 11 seasons at Notre Dame. He finished 100-30-2, with five bowl wins and four top-five finishes. He left after the 1996 season and later coached South Carolina from 1999 to 2004.
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Notre Dame has honored coaches with helmet decals before
This is not the first time Notre Dame has used a helmet decal to honor a coach. The program did the same for Ara Parseghian in 2017. Parseghian died that August at age 94, and his decal read “ARA” in the spot normally reserved for “IRISH” above the facemask. Parseghian coached Notre Dame from 1964 to 1974 and won national titles in 1966 and 1973.
Notre Dame enters the 2026 college football season ranked fifth in the Coaches Poll and fourth in the AP Poll under head coach Marcus Freeman. The Irish are considered among the favorites to win a national title.
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