CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Donald Trump on Thursday honored former college football coach Lou Holtz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Holtz was born in Follansbee, West Virginia, and won the 1988 national championship with the University of Notre Dame. Holtz also coached at the College of William & Mary, North Carolina State University, the University of Arkansas, the University of Minnesota and the University of South Carolina. He also coached the New York Jets for 13 games in 1976.
Holtz is also a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and served in the U.S. Army Reserves.
“He’s one of the greatest titans in American football history. And his towering reputation will endure forever in the chronicles of athletics, but more importantly, in the chronicles of life — because he’s really a life teacher,” Trump said. “He’s a life teacher. He teaches people how to live and how to live properly, and how to live with dignity.”
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest honor for civilians.
Holtz has been vocal about his support for Trump; he spoke during this year’s Republican National Convention, calling Joe Biden a “Catholic in name only.” Biden, who is now the president-elect, is a practicing Catholic.