"The calendar said that Frank Leahy was sixty years old on that last night of January 1969. One look at Leahy would have labeled the calendar a fabulist. He still stood erect, five foot eleven, and his waistline barely had wavered from those postwar days when he strode the Fighting Irish sideline, an American celebrity at the peak of his command. But the crevasses in Leahy's face, the ruddy cheeks, and the thinning gray hair indicated the ravages taken by time and leukemia."
"Once he had radiated a fiery mettle fueled by his desperate need for success. In many ways, Leahy personified the American Dream narrative that served as the backbone of national culture for most of the twentieth century. He had come from nothing. He had worked hard, gone to church, used football to go to college, married the right girl, climbed the coaching ladder, all at a furious pace."
"As a coach, the more Leahy won, the more pressure he applied to himself to match public demand. Leahy drove his players hard, and in return they played so fiercely that his Fighting Irish teams lived with accusations of dirty play. They fought hard because Leahy demanded it. He tried so hard to live up to the Notre Dame legacy of success that losing devastated him."
Frank Leahy appeared at a final public tribute in January 1969 while visibly weakened by leukemia and aging. He retained erect posture and stature but his facial creases and thinning gray hair reflected illness. Leahy rose rapidly from humble beginnings through hard work, faith, and football to become a national champion as both player and coach by his early thirties. He internalized doubt as motivation, demanded fierce play from his teams, and attracted accusations of dirty play. Leahy equated success with validation, and losing caused him profound emotional devastation.
Read at ESPN.com
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