John Huarte can hardly believe it’s been 50 years since he won the Heisman Trophy, the award presented annually to the most valuable player in college football.
Huarte won it as the senior quarterback at Notre Dame in 1964 and he was invited to South Bend, Indiana, on Oct. 4 to celebrate the honor with his old coach Ara Parseghian and witness the Fighting Irish beat Stanford.
Accompanying the 21-year Huntington Palisades resident were many Corpus Christi Church parishioners, all of whom are connected to Stanford or Notre Dame, including Huarte’s own daughter Monica Kennedy and her family (part of the Irish clan) and former NBA star Adam Keefe and his wife, former Olympic volleyball player Kristin Klein, both members of the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame.
Huarte goes back once or twice a year to cheer for his alma mater but his most recent visit was the most memorable — and not just for him.
“A special thing for me is that they offered to take my grandchildren into the locker room where they filmed the movie “Rudy” and then five hours before kickoff they got to run out on the field at the 50-yard line,” Huarte said. “They honored our 1964 team and I had a wonderful time.”
The game was an instant classic, as Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson orchestrated a late drive and, on fourth-and-23, threw to tight end Ben Koyack in the back of the end zone for the winning touchdown with 1:01 left. Just like Huarte back in the day.
“I really like what Coach [Brian] Kelly has done,” Huarte said. “He’s building a strong program and one thing Notre Dame has lacked in recent years is speed. We might lose one or two games, but I like where it’s going.”
Parseghian, 91, coached Notre Dame to national titles in 1966 and 1973 and his emphasis on discipline left a lasting impression.
“Ara had an intensity and a clarity that demanded attention,” Huarte recalled. “He’d always tell us we can’t hold, we can’t be offside, we have to stay disciplined. I never saw his teams flat. He always had us ready to play.”
Huarte was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005. His three daughters all live in the Palisades, Monica in the Huntington and Mariah and Bridget in the Alphabet Streets. He also has two sons, Matt and Mark.
“Winning the Heisman was the high point of my career,” Huarte said. “Nothing can top that.”
— Steve Galluzzo
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