College Football: PC + D + TL + S = V

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

"A good leader never asks his men to do anything he won't do," says Notre Dame Coach Ara Parseghian, 41. He eats at the training table, does calisthenics with the team, and dresses for games in a pullover with NOTRE DAME across the front. "Progress is our most important product," he says, imitating General Electric. His half-time pep talks sound like something out of Battle Cry. "We have 30 minutes to play!" he bellows. "They're gonna make it rough for us out there! We've gotta be just as rough! Run through 'em! Murder 'em! Let's go! Let's go! LET'S GO!"

Shades of Knute. It seems to work. When he took over at Notre Dame last winter, he inherited a team that had not had a winning season since 1958. Only 16 lettermen were back from a hapless 1963 squad that won two of its nine games. Eager for a quick return to the days of Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy, when the Fighting Irish won seven national championships, alumni got a sample of Parseghian's Armenian-style blarney. "The restoration of Notre Dame's football image is my main objective," he said. "I think -I pray -that it can be done in four years."

The job, as it turned out, took only four games. Rolling over Wisconsin (31-7), Purdue (34-15), Air Force (34-7), and U.C.L.A. (24-0), the Irish suddenly found themselves the nation's No. 2-ranked college team, behind Ohio State, and the No. 1 surprise of the 1964 season. Last week, after they ran their record to 5-0 by breezing past Stanford 28-6, Ara Parseghian was being hailed as "the new Rockne."

"Consider Me a Candidate." A onetime pro halfback with the Cleveland Browns, Parseghian won 39 games, lost only six as head coach at his alma mater, Miami of Ohio -and a couple of those victories came at the expense of the powerful Big Ten. In 1955, the day before Miami was scheduled to play Northwestern, he hunted up Rival Coach Lou Saban to plead for mercy. Saban apparently swallowed the sinker. Next day, little Miami went 77 yds. on the first play from scrimmage, upset Northwestern 25-14. By the time the season ended, Saban was out of work. And who got the Northwestern job? Ara Parseghian-who wound up winning 36 out of 72 games at a school that had won only seven games in the four seasons before he arrived.

But that only whetted Ara's ambition, and last season he phoned the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, Notre Dame's executive vice president. "The only reason I'm calling, Father," he cooed, "is that the press has been calling Hugh Devore an Interim' coach. If Hughie has the job permanently, forget this call. If not, consider me a candidate."

Notre Dame was only too happy to consider-even though Parseghian was a non-alumnus and a Protestant at that. One of the first things he did was to send a note to every member of the team: "Physical Condition + Desire + Team Loyalty + Spirit = Victories." Then he pored over game movies, tailoring his offense to the available talent.