AMERICAN COACH: The Triumph and Tragedy of Notre Dame Legend Frank Leahy with College Football Analyst Ivan Maisel

Award-winning sportswriter Ivan Maisel brings the forgotten legend of Notre Dame head football coach Frank Leahy back to life, based on rare and complete access to Fighting Irish football historical archives and the Leahy family. In conversation with media executive Terry Dinan, the voice of New Canaan Football, Maisel will speak about Leahy’s complex legacy, Notre Dame’s defining program, and the history of college football.

When Frank Leahy retired from Notre Dame after the 1953 season, he had the second-best record in the history of the game (107139, .864), second only to Knute Rockne, his college coach and mentor. He still does today, and yet Leahy is virtually forgotten, in many ways a victim of his own insatiable need to compete and win. Maisel tells the story of an archetypal coach who was a celebrity in his day but rankled opposing coaches and clashed with the priests at Notre Dame. These conflicts, coupled with the toll that Leahy’s innate drive demanded of his health, brought his career to a premature end, hampering his legacy in the years to come. And what a legacy: only Nick Saban and Bear Bryant have won more national titles. The records of iconic coaches such as Bobby Bowden, Woody Hayes, and Eddie Robinson pale in comparison. 

Ivan Maisel has covered college football for more than four decades, most prominently at ESPN from 2002-2021. He also served as Editor-at-Large for ESPN College Football 150, the multi-platform history project that in 2019 commemorated the sesquicentennial of the sport. Most recently, he served as Vice-President, Editorial, and part-owner of On3, a new college football website/app. He has been honored nine times for Best Story by the Football Writers Association of America, and twice by The Associated Press Sports Editors, which in 2019 named him one of the 10 best sports columnists. He has written five books, including I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye, a memoir of dealing with grief after the death of his son in 2015. Maisel earned a bachelor’s degree in American Studies at Stanford University in 1981.