Gerry Faust
| Sport(s) | Football |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
May 21, 1935 Dayton, Ohio |
| Playing career | |
| 1955–1957 | Dayton |
| Position(s) | Quarterback |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1962–1980 | Moeller HS (OH) |
| 1981–1985 | Notre Dame |
| 1986–1994 | Akron |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 73–79–4 (college) 178–23–2 (high school) |
| Bowls | 1–1 |
Gerard Anthony Faust (born May 21, 1935) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Notre Dame from 1981 to 1985 and at the University of Akron from 1986 to 1994, compiling a career college football record of 73–79–4. From 1962 to 1980, Faust was the head football coach at Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he tallied a mark of 178–23–2 and won four High School Football National Championships. Before coaching, Faust enjoyed a successful stint as a quarterback at the University of Dayton, where he played under former Notre Dame coach Hugh Devore. Faust was offered a partial scholarship to Notre Dame, but enrolled at Dayton, where he graduated in 1958.
Faust had a highly successful run at Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio from 1962 to 80, where he built the program from scratch. The Crusaders under Faust had a 178–23–2 record and included seven unbeaten seasons, four national prep titles, and five Ohio state titles in his last six seasons. One of Faust's linebackers at Moeller was John Boehner, who later became a United States Congressman and the 61st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
It was his amazing high school record, sound ethics and the quality football players from Moeller who later played at Notre Dame, that led Notre Dame officials to take a calculated gamble and hire him when Dan Devine stepped down after the 1980 season. For Faust, a devout Roman Catholic, it was a dream come true. He had coveted the head coaching job at Notre Dame for years and said all along that he would never leave Moeller for anything else. Faust inherited a solid squad that included nine of his former players from Moeller. He switched the team's home jerseys from green back to blue, although initially it was a lighter Madonna blue shade than the navy blue that had been previously worn (and returned to in 1984), and kept the players' names on the backs. A self-proclaimed eternal optimist brimming with enthusiasm, Faust had visions of winning more games and national championships and coaching at Notre Dame longer than anyone else. Then when he saw Notre Dame's schedule, he was quoted as saying, "I hope my lifelong dream doesn't end in a nightmare." Sadly, it proved to be a prophetic statement and his era at Notre Dame, initially referred to as "The Bold Experiment", fell far short of expectations.
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