The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Parseghian gave Yale’s Cozza his coaching start
Ara Parseghian, who died this week at the age of 94, was the last college coach and first coaching boss for legendary Yale coach Carm Cozza.
One of the best things about changing vehicles is that new car smell. Well, it’s has already been lost to the aroma of lingering McDonalds and wet dog. But it was a wonderful 48 hours. • There’s good reason Miami (Ohio) University is referred to as “The Cradle of Coaches.” The place has produced some of the most prominent football coaches in history. It’s an extensive list that covers generations, from Paul Brown to Weeb Ewbank to Bo Schembechler to John Harbaugh.
Legendary Yale coach Carm Cozza is among those immortalized with a life-sized campus statue. And so is Ara Parseghian, Cozza’s last college coach and first coaching boss.
Parseghian, who passed away at age 94 this week, is best known for bringing Notre Dame football back to prominence. He led the Irish to national championships in 1966 and 1973 after the program had fallen on hard times, achievements that notched his place alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy on the Holy Trinity of Notre Dame coaches.
Before becoming an Irish legend, Parseghian coached at Miami, hired prior to Cozza’s senior season. Cozza tells the story of a road trip to Wichita State. Miami had a couple of black players and a hotel the team booked said they weren’t allowed to stay there.
As Cozza tells the story, Parseghian instructed his team not to unpack because they were leaving. It was no idle threat. They found another hotel.
A year later, Cozza got his first job offer as a graduate assistant on Parseghian’s staff, and the experience convinced Cozza that his future was in coaching, a storied career that earned him induction to the College Football Hall of Fame and a bronze statue alongside his mentor, Parseghian, at Miami.
Parseghian retired from coaching at 51, a surprising move considering he was a year removed from a national championship. But he never looked back.
He worked as a television broadcaster for many years, in the press box at Yale Bowl for one of Cozza’s biggest wins, the stunner over Navy in 1981. When three of Parseghian’s grandchildren were fatally-stricken with Niemann-Pick Disease, a blood ailment, he established a foundation, raising tens of millions to find a cure.
“He was a very special human being,” Cozza told John Pierson of WTNH earlier this week. “Not only was he a great coach and teacher. He had a feel for people and wanted to help save anyone in trouble with diseases.”
• Yale men’s hockey coach Keith Allain will serve his third stint as an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic team. Only two others in history have coached Team USA at three Winter Games: Dave Peterson and John Cunniff.
• As a few readers have noticed, my outlook on the AL East race changes week to week. To be honest, more like day to day. The only thing I’m certain of after the past month is that the World Series won’t be in New York or Boston.
• The NFL exhibition season exists so a few dozen anonymous players can claw their way into two or three available roster spots while the starters run one series in which everyone prays they don’t get injured. Makes perfect sense.
• The current quarterback depth chart for the New York Jets: Josh McCown, Christian Hackenberg, Bryce Petty. On the bright side, it’s only been 49 years since the franchise’s lone Super Bowl championship.
• Bravo to the University of New Haven, which announced this week that it has renamed the athletics court in Chargers Gymnasium for retired athletic director Debbie Chin, whose impact and influence over a 40-year coaching and administrative career at the school is immeasurable. The Deborah Chin Court will be officially dedicated on Sept. 30.
• No matter how much you prepare for Yankee Stadium concession prices, you never get over the grim reality of forking over $28 for two skimpy hot dogs, an order of fries and a lemonade.
• Austin Jackson’s catch in the Red Sox insane 1210 victory over Cleveland on Tuesday night may well have been the most remarkable individual defensive effort in the history of Fenway Park. It had everything. Long pursuit. Perfect timing. Leaping so high it looked like he used a trampoline. Flipping headfirst over the wall. Hanging onto the baseball.
The only thing that could have made it better is if Jackson caught the ball in his hat. And that’s debatable.
• And though it likely won’t go into Red Sox lore as one of the great games every played at Fenway, if only because regular season games don’t carry the same staying power as playoff games, it certainly was deserving.
• Gary Sanchez has career designated hitter written all over him.
• Westbrook’s Sam Grigo, a junior baseball player at Brown, was named an Academic AllAmerican by the College Sports Information Directors of America. He was the only Ivy League player to be so honored. Grigo was salutatorian of Westbrook High’s class of 2014, where he starred in soccer, basketball and baseball. At Brown, he holds a 4.0 GPA in economics.
• Many times over the course of the week I come across a great line that I wish I’d written myself. This one, courtesy of this week’s edition of Sports Illustrated, made me laugh out loud. On Aaron Judge: “He chipped a tooth during a postgame celebration. Statcast hasn’t yet posted the exit velocity.”
• In an effort to appear more health conscious and hip, Dunkin’ Donuts is considering rebranding itself as simply Dunkin’. Might we suggest something more worthwhile? Like improving the coffee?