American Coach. Ivan Maisel.

 

American Coach.    Ivan Maisel.

The Triumph and Tragedy of Notre Dame Legend Frank Leahy.   

Ivan Maisel, a well-known ESPN college football personality and writer, has put together an in-depth and sagacious biography that addresses one of the most successful coaches in college football history in his latest book, American Coach.   Now it just happens to be a former coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, one of the most storied and renowned schools around the country.    The American coach in question is Frank Leahy who had served as a winning head coach at Notre Dame in the 1940’s and 1950’s.   Further supporting his rise in life and coaching was his good fortune to have been a member of the Irish football team in the late 1920’s under legendary coach and mentor, Knute Rockne.   In his time as the head coach for the fighting Irish, Leahy, much like his mentor, was successful at winning games, accumulating three national championships and filing at least one unbeaten season. 

American Coach aims to edify readers of what Leahy was thinking, and experienced, during his tenure as ND head coach and how painstakingly and ardently he executed his coaching philosophy to meet the lofty football standards of Notre Dame.    Maisel explains that although Leahy, a Nebraska native, played sparingly at Notre Dame most due to injuries, felt an unshakeable need to live up to heights that Knute Rockne had established in a previous generation.    The author strongly documents how these life and occupational endeavors and the notoriety and prestige earned along the way also came at a cost.

What we like most about the well put together and timely sequential autobiography is how Maisel discussed the tolls that coaching at Notre Dame and how the coaching profession itself had a deleterious impact on his health and family.    Leahy’s upbringing in the mid-west was documented with many details and surprising dialogue among his family members taking place a century past.    The chapters that covered his rise and ascension in the coaching business as an assistant college football coach included the future Irish coach’s brush with interesting colleagues and players of that era. One example noted in the book was opportunity coaching Vince Lombardi at Fordham who started on the Ram’s stout defensive line, famously known as the blocks of granite, while Leahy served as the defensive line coach at the Bronx-based school.  The latter part of the book documented his life after coaching.   Readers will learn why Leahy essentially retired from coaching at an early age.   In addition, the veil was removed from how the family coped with the seemingly ideal family life.   This part of the book revealed many social, health concerns (Leahy was often sick while coaching due to overwork and stress and suffering from myriad ailments) over the years but also noted quirks in parental behavior (it was revealed that Leahy’s wife was an alcoholic) that had an impact on the Leahy children.     

Given Notre Dame’s rich history of playing in important football games in any era, it made sense that Maisel would provide details about many of the key games that Leahy coached for the Irish.     These details are pertinent but also harder to follow and personally less interesting than reading about the experiences away from the field and game throughout the season and otherwise.    There may not be much getting around that other than the author summarizing the game details for each season as needed.   That may have served the book better although it would have likely cut back on the number of pages included in the manuscript. 

Nevertheless, Maisel chose this topic for a good reason.  He stated in the book’s epilogue that he wanted to have enough information to write a true biography as opposed to a hagiography.    The author was blessed with many sources to help deliver this historical and culturally laden opus.    He not only referred to the numerous existing sources about the Leahy but also the insightful contributions from several members of the family.    American Coach is a lengthy book, about 360 pages, so it is not to be taken lightly.   The reader has to be willing to get past the minutia of game details in just about every chapter spanning two decades of his coaching career    Despite those potential drawbacks, Maisel presents a robust and intriguing account of a highly successful coach on the field but troubled man off it in a fair way that does justice to his incredible coaching performance but cautionary to a life of pushing our well-being beyond the appropriate limits – hence the tragedy as noted in the subtitle.   Leahy was a great American coach and despite his Irish heritage and Catholic upbringing he found refuge at the one place in the nation in early 20^th century America where he would be fully accepted and even expected to triumph.     

 

·       You may like this book if you want to learn more about legendary Notre Dame head coach Frank Leahy.

·       You may like this book if you enjoy reading about Notre Dame football.

·       You may like this book if you like to read about college football and college football coaches.

·       You may like this book if you relish reading biographies about college football coaches.  

 

Learn more about the author on X:    https://x.com/Ivan_Maisel