Prez vs. Prez | by Jay
(The following is from our friend Jeff.)
There was a thread over on NDN a few weeks ago debating the hiring record of Monk vs. Father Ted as it relates to the football program.
I thought I'd take the discussion a bit further, look at all the ND presidents throughout history and compare the records of the football teams based on who was in charge when the hire was made. (For entertainment purposes only, of course.)
Here's what we've got (sorted by winning percentage):
| President | Years / Coaches | Games | Wins | Losses | Ties | Pct. |
| John W. Cavanaugh | 1908-1930 (Place thru Rockne) | 200 | 171 | 19 | 10 | .880 |
| John J. Cavanaugh | 1946-1953 (Leahy, postwar) | 77 | 63 | 8 | 6 | .857 |
| John O'Hara | 1941-1943 (Leahy, first time) | 30 | 24 | 3 | 3 | .850 |
| Hugh O'Donnell | 1944-1945 (McKeever, Devore) | 20 | 15 | 4 | 1 | .775 |
| Andrew Morrissey | 1894-1907 (Morison thru Barry) | 107 | 74 | 25 | 8 | .729 |
| Charles O'Donnell | 1931-1940 (Anderson, Layden) | 90 | 63 | 22 | 5 | .728 |
| Ted Hesburgh | 1954-1996 (Brennan thru Holtz) | 474 | 329 | 137 | 8 | .703 |
| Edward Malloy | 1997-2004 (Davie, Willingham) | 97 | 56 | 41 | 0 | .577 |
(It's embarrassing that a Morrissey is ranked lower than not one, but two Cavanaughs...but I digress.)
Despite Hesburgh's relatively low overall percentage (if you can call 70% low), Father Ted owns the all-time record for wins, and unless we see another 40-year tenure for a president at ND, this one's gonna stand up for time immemorial.
Also...check out that dropoff for you-know-who. Cough.
By the way, here's the record for wins according to the AD in charge at the time. Note that before Moose, Notre Dame didn't really have independent athletic directors; Rockne, Leahy, etc, all served as their own ADs.
| Athletic Director | Games | Wins | Losses | Ties | Pct. |
| Krause | 285 | 199 | 81 | 5 | .707 |
| Corrigan | 189 | 130 | 56 | 3 | .696 |
| Wadsworth | 60 | 35 | 25 | 0 | .583 |
| White | 37 | 21 | 16 | 0 | .568 |
Where's Dick Rosenthal, you ask? Well, he came in after Holtz was hired, and left before Davie, so technically he's never hired a coach at ND. That's not to minimize the great job Rosenthal did as AD; it's just that he doesn't qualify for this (narrow) study.
Finally, here's the backup data for all of this, just for the hell of it.
| Coach | First | Last | Years | Games | Win | Loss | Tie | Pct. | Prez | AD |
| James L. Morison | 1894 | 1894 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | .600 | Andrew Morrissey | |
| H.G. Hadden | 1895 | 1895 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 | Andrew Morrissey | |
| Frank E. Hering | 1896 | 1898 | 3 | 19 | 12 | 6 | 1 | .632 | Andrew Morrissey | |
| James McWeeney | 1899 | 1899 | 1 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | .600 | Andrew Morrissey | |
| Pat O'Dea | 1900 | 1901 | 2 | 20 | 14 | 4 | 2 | .700 | Andrew Morrissey | |
| James F. Faragher | 1902 | 1903 | 2 | 18 | 14 | 2 | 2 | .778 | Andrew Morrissey | |
| Red Salmon | 1904 | 1904 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | .625 | Andrew Morrissey | |
| Henry J. McGlew | 1905 | 1905 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | .556 | Andrew Morrissey | |
| Thomas A. Barry | 1906 | 1907 | 2 | 14 | 12 | 1 | 1 | .857 | Andrew Morrissey | |
| Victor M. Place | 1908 | 1908 | 1 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0 | .889 | John W Cavanaugh | |
| Shorty Longman | 1909 | 1910 | 2 | 14 | 11 | 1 | 2 | .786 | John W Cavanaugh | |
| Jack Marks | 1911 | 1912 | 2 | 15 | 13 | 0 | 2 | .867 | John W Cavanaugh | |
| Jesse C. Harper | 1913 | 1917 | 5 | 40 | 34 | 5 | 1 | .850 | John W Cavanaugh | |
| Knute Rockne | 1918 | 1930 | 13 | 122 | 105 | 12 | 5 | .861 | John W Cavanaugh | |
| Hunk Anderson | 1931 | 1933 | 3 | 27 | 16 | 9 | 2 | .593 | Charles O'Donnell | |
| Elmer F. Layden | 1934 | 1940 | 7 | 63 | 47 | 13 | 3 | .746 | Charles O'Donnell | |
| Frank W. Leahy | 1941 | 1943 | 11 | 30 | 24 | 3 | 3 | .800 | John O'Hara | |
| Ed McKeever | 1944 | 1944 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | .800 | Hugh O'Donnell | |
| Hugh J. Devore | 1945 | 1945 | 1 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | .700 | Hugh O'Donnell | |
| Frank W. Leahy | 1946 | 1953 | 1 | 77 | 63 | 8 | 6 | .818 | John J Cavanaugh | |
| Terry Brennan | 1954 | 1958 | 5 | 50 | 32 | 18 | 0 | .640 | Ted Hesburgh | Krause |
| Joe Kuharich | 1959 | 1962 | 4 | 40 | 17 | 23 | 0 | .425 | Ted Hesburgh | Krause |
| Hugh J. Devore | 1963 | 1963 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 0 | .222 | Ted Hesburgh | Krause |
| Ara Parseghian | 1964 | 1974 | 11 | 116 | 95 | 17 | 4 | .819 | Ted Hesburgh | Krause |
| Dan Devine | 1975 | 1980 | 6 | 70 | 53 | 16 | 1 | .757 | Ted Hesburgh | Krause |
| Gerry Faust | 1981 | 1985 | 5 | 57 | 30 | 26 | 1 | .526 | Ted Hesburgh | Corrigan |
| Lou Holtz | 1986 | 1996 | 11 | 132 | 100 | 30 | 2 | .758 | Ted Hesburgh | Corrigan |
| Bob Davie | 1997 | 2001 | 5 | 60 | 35 | 25 | 0 | .583 | Edward Malloy | Wadsworth |
| Tyrone Willingham | 2002 | 2004 | 3 | 36 | 21 | 15 | 0 | .583 | Edward Malloy | White |
| Kent Baer | 2004 | 2004 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | Edward Malloy | White |
So here's a good question: should Monk get credit for Charlie Weis? Or does Charlie represent the first Jenkins coach? Technically, Monk presided over the Weis hire, but given his opinion on the transition, it just wouldn't seem right. Give Charlie to Father Jenkins.
