George Kunz reflects on Notre Dame’s legendary Ara

By Ron Kantowski Las Vegas Review-Journal

He started his Notre Dame football career on defense before switching to tight end and getting injured against Northwestern during the Fighting Irish’s national championship season of 1966.

George Kunz was a sophomore. He would finish his college career by never catching another pass.

Ara Parseghian did him a huge favor.

Kunz was switched to right tackle and became an All-American, one of the greatest offensive linemen in Notre Dame history. He would be the second player selected in the 1969 NFL draft — behind O.J. Simpson. Kunz played nine years with the Falcons and Colts, and after eight of them he was named All-Pro.

None of that probably happens if Ara Parseghian doesn’t turn the big guy with the square jaw into an ineligible pass receiver.

“He was always meeting with his assistant coaches about personnel,” the longtime Las Vegan said of the legendary Notre Dame coach, who died Wednesday at age 94. “He was a Paul Brown disciple. He tried you at different positions on offense and defense.”

Ara Parseghian’s Notre Dame record was 95-17-4, as golden as that dome on campus. After that, he became a college football TV analyst, his dulcet tones filling countless Saturday afternoons of my youth.

George Kunz said Ara Parseghian wasn’t always so dulcet during the Saturday afternoons of his youth, especially when the Fighting Irish’s opponent was Purdue or Michigan State or Southern Cal.

“He was demanding. He wasn’t a father figure,” Kunz said. “What he wanted was the best from you — he wouldn’t settle for less — and he found a way to get it.”

Kunz described Parseghian style as more cerebral than impassioned. But when emotion was called for, such as at halftime when Notre Dame was only ahead by two touchdowns or so, he had a way of getting your attention.

“Controlled aggression,” Kunz said. “He never raised his voice.”

Fiery oratory usually wasn’t called for when Parseghian was Notre Dame’s coach. The Irish never won one for The Gipper during Ara’s Era, but seldom was Notre Dame up against it and the breaks beating the boys when he was coach.

George Kunz said he was proud to call Ara Parseghian his coach, and later in life, his friend.

“Very few people do you meet in life that exceed your expectations of them, and he did.”

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■ The first Las Vegas Reyes de Plata game — on Tuesday nights in August as part of a Minor League Baseball initiative catering to Hispanic and Latino fans, the 51s are adopting the Reyes de Plata (Silver Kings) nom de plume — was a minor success at the turnstiles, and “a lot of fun” everywhere else, 51s president Don Logan said. Especially at the team store on the third-base concourse, where the entire inventory of Reyes de Plata caps and T-shirts sold out.

■ Speaking of cool souvenirs, UNLV’s 1990 national championship basketball team was inducted into the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame in Milwaukee on Thursday. The bobblehead features mascot Hey Reb, probably because the NCAA has a silly rule preventing the likenesses of Jerry Tarkanian, Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony, et al., from being cast onto spring-driven ceramic. The Rebels are the 24th school to have their championship commemorated via officially licensed bobblehead, 216 of which are available for purchase through the National Bobblehead HOF Museum and Online Store for $40, plus $8 shipping.

■ “Hello everybody, and welcome to this year’s annual Las Vegas International Dodgeball Open, brought to you exclusively on ESPN8, ‘The Ocho’ ” … Cotton McKnight, the fictional play-by-play announcer at the equally fictional (at last check) Las Vegas University Learning Annex in the classic comedy “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” would be proud: At midnight Tuesday, ESPN3 will become ESPN8 “The Ocho” for one day, with programming that includes the 2016 American Disc Golf Championship, roller derby, trampoline dodgeball, kabaddi and the 2017 Championship of Bags.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.

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