{"id":111161,"date":"2020-12-03T19:27:22","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T03:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=111161"},"modified":"2020-12-03T19:27:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T03:27:22","slug":"the-presentation-of-the-presidential-medal-of-freedom-to-lou-holtz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=111161","title":{"rendered":"The Presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Lou Holtz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Well, thank you very much. Today it\u2019s my privilege to present our nation\u2019s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to one of the greatest coaches in American history: the legendary Lou Holtz \u2014 a friend of mine. Great gentleman. Great man.  We\u2019re delighted to be joined this afternoon by members of Lou\u2019s wonderful family, along with the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe \u2014 John, thank you for being here; and Senator Lindsey Graham, who I think most people know \u2014 I would say they know you, for the most part; and Pat Cipollone, a big fan of Notre Dame. Right? Thank you, Pat, for being here.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KNkZUAOw7TE\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Lou was born during the Great Depression in the steel town of Follansbee, West Virginia. We love West Virginia. He grew up in poverty in a two-room cellar. But as Lou says, \u201cI knew God and my family loved me, and their love was all the wealth I needed. That\u2019s everything I needed. That\u2019s all I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a child, Lou sat on his uncle and grandfather\u2019s lap and listened to Notre Dame football games on the radio. They were big fans of Notre Dame, I guess, even before you. That wasn\u2019t too long ago, was it? (Laughter.) They were big fans. And you \u2014 so he learned at an early age about Notre Dame.<\/p>\n<p>At the age of nine, he took the field in his first game. He then played throughout high school. And Lou went on to attend Kent State, where he did very well, on an ROTC scholarship.<\/p>\n<p>After graduation, Lou served as an officer in the United States Army and then pursued his dream of coaching. He wanted to be a coach right from the beginning because he knew he was a leader. He didn\u2019t have to say it; he knew he was a leader.<\/p>\n<p>In 1961, Lou made what he described as \u201cthe smartest decision of my life.\u201d And I knew your wife, and I will tell you, that was your smartest decision, right? (Laughter.) We got to know her well. She was strong and good. He married his wife of 59 years. Beth passed away just a short while ago, and it was a very tough time, I will tell you. It was a very tough time for Lou and the family. But we know that she\u2019s looking down from heaven right now with incredible pride. She\u2019s so proud of this man. I got to know her over the last few years, and she was a \u2014 she was a great woman. But she\u2019s looking down right now. She\u2019s very proud of you, Lou.<\/p>\n<p>In 1969, Lou became head coach of William &#038; Mary. And over three seasons, he won the Southern Conference and led the Tribe to their first bowl game in 22 years.<\/p>\n<p>And, by the way \u2014 and I have to tell you, when we were researching this out, I knew he was supposed to be a good coach, but I didn\u2019t know how good he was, because these stats are very amazing. You\u2019ll see. I was really very impressed, John, I will tell you.<\/p>\n<p>Lou then became head coach of North Carolina State, which had won only nine games over the previous three years. Not too good. He took it off \u2014 he took it over, and under Coach Holtz, they won the ACC title and achieved the highest national ranking in NC State\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>Lou went on to coach, and so I guess you were making a lot of money by this time because they were trying to get him to go to all these different schools. He was a hot coach. Nothing like being hot, right? (Laughter.) He had his choice. He had his choice to go into a lot of different places.<\/p>\n<p>Lou went on to coach at the University of Arkansas. He built the Razorbacks up from a five-and-five record into a top five team in the nation. They won everything.<\/p>\n<p>Lou left Arkansas with the best win-loss record ever and a very fat bank account. (Laughter.) He then coached at the University of \u2014 you were making a lot of money all of the sudden. Huh? I know how that works.<\/p>\n<p>He then coached at the University of Minnesota, which was ranked dead last in the Big Ten. Before he signed his contract, he prayed, and then he did something that was unprecedented. He inserted a clause \u2014 with great negotiation talent, which he has \u2014 that they call today the \u201cNotre Dame clause.\u201d It stipulated that if Lou did really well and went to a bowl game, he would be free to go to Notre Dame should they ask him to go.<\/p>\n<p>So he had something going, right? You great football player. You are \u2014 you are some player, I\u2019ll tell you. (Laughter.) You are something. You just \u2014 just \u2014 and you\u2019re \u2014 you weigh about 30 pounds less than you weighed when you played in the NFL, right? (Laughter.) I\u2019m very impressed.<\/p>\n<p>In just two years, he secured a top 20 ranking and propelled the Golden Gophers to victory at the Independence Bowl. So he was on his way to Notre Dame. He knew it. Nobody else did. I guess the Notre Dame officials knew it.<\/p>\n<p>He was offered a coaching job at Notre Dame immediately, and he also took it immediately, as much as he loved the team that he just left. When he became the head coach a year later, the Fighting Irish were losing team. They were doing very, very poorly. Lou got to work and quickly returned Notre Dame to the status of a football powerhouse and the legend that they were.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of Lou\u2019s first season, the team faced off against their archrivals, the University of Southern California Trojans. The Fighting Irish were down 17 points in the fourth quarter, but they soon pulled off \u2014 Notre Dame \u2014 one of the greatest comebacks in college football history. They scored two touchdowns in less than eight minutes and then kicked a field goal in the final two seconds of the game. At that moment, Holtz said he felt the spirit of Notre Dame. He loved Notre Dame. And do you still remember that game?<\/p>\n<p>MR. HOLTZ: Oh, very \u2014 my son roughed the punter.<\/p>\n<p>(Laughter.)<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I \u2014 (laughs) \u2014 you weren\u2019t too happy about that.<\/p>\n<p>MR. HOLTZ: Oh, no. I understood why a certain species of animals devour their young. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: So your son has a little of you in him as well. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n<p>For the next decade, the Fighting Irish won 80 percent of their games and went to nine consecutive New Year\u2019s Day Bowls. And in 1988, the cover of Sports Illustrated said, \u201cNotre Dame is back.\u201d \u201cNotre Dame is back.\u201d He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and many other covers. Notre Dame remained number one in the country for the longest stretch in the school\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>See, I didn\u2019t know all this stuff. I knew you were a great coach; I didn\u2019t know you were this good, to be honest. (Laughter.) This is beyond a great coach. So you had the longest streak in the history of Notre Dame at number one. What do you think about that, Lindsey? Sounds like you in the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>SENATOR GRAHAM: Yeah. (Laughter.) Except we don\u2019t play with a helmet.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: He had an easy race. You know, he had an easy race. The problem was his opponent had $140 million. That\u2019s \u2014 that was a record, I guess. Wasn\u2019t it, huh? Guess what? Here\u2019s Lindsey.<\/p>\n<p>During the tenure at Notre Dame, he coached a \u2014 Lou coached a record number of games, secured 100 victories, and delivered Notre Dame\u2019s most recent national championship. So he did some job at Notre Dame.<\/p>\n<p>Then Lou became the head coach at the University of South Carolina, which he loves. He loves South Carolina \u2014 which had won only one bowl game in 108 years. He was going to take it easy, and then he gets another offer. Man, oh, man. I\u2019m watching that money just pile up. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n<p>He was going to go and just relax now. He did his thing at Notre Dame. He won national championships \u2014 the longest streak. Then he goes to University of South Carolina, and I can imagine why. He loves \u2014 you do like money a little bit, don\u2019t you? Right? He was offered a big deal. Lou tripled that number and secured a top 20 ranking immediately.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of his career, Lou won nearly 250 games \u2014 and is one of the highest ever, by the way \u2014 and is the only coach in NCAA history to take six different teams to a bowl game. Think of that.<\/p>\n<p>Wherever Lou went, football glory followed. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008.<br \/>\nAnd I will say this about Lou: Everybody loves him. Everybody respects him. He\u2019s tough as hell, and yet they all respect Lou. They just \u2014 it\u2019s amazing. They love him, and they respect him. Sometimes it\u2019s a combination that doesn\u2019t come together, you know? They respect, but you are \u2014 you are something. \u201cI never coached football; I coached life,\u201d he said. And it\u2019s true. His players really always loved him.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s turned his inspirational story and motivational message into three best-selling books. He\u2019s also been an exceptional philanthropist. That\u2019s all that stuff that he collected. He\u2019s opened educational opportunities for students, provided insulin pumps to diabetic children.<\/p>\n<p>And we\u2019ve just brought down the price and the cost of insulin. Right? You\u2019re shaking your head. It\u2019s amazing what we did, right? Insulin \u2014 you couldn\u2019t buy it. It was destroying families. People were going without it. Now it\u2019s $35, right? You can\u2019t believe it. I see you\u2019re an insulin pro. You\u2019re involved, right? Family.<\/p>\n<p>AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: That\u2019s great. No, it\u2019s \u2014 we\u2019ve done a great job with \u2014 with costs. But insulin, maybe, Lindsey, is one of the best \u2014 $35. They were paying 10 times that amount. You couldn\u2019t get it. So we changed that around, Lou.<\/p>\n<p>And supported cancer research. And has traveled to 13 countries to visit the American troops. Lou\u2019s leadership and his faith and kindness have inspired and uplifted millions of fellow citizens.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s one of the greatest titans in American football history. And his towering reputation will endure forever in the chronicles of athletics, but more importantly, in the chronicles of life \u2014 because he\u2019s really a life teacher. That\u2019s what he is; he\u2019s a life teacher. He teaches people how to live and how to live properly, and how to live with dignity.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019d like to now ask the military aide to come forward and prepare for me to give our highest medal. We have the Congressional Medal of Honor, and we have the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And I will say, I give away a lot of Congressional Medal of Honors, and that\u2019s a tough one to get. You know, that\u2019s a tough one to get, because they come in with \u2014 when they come in, a lot of times, mostly, they can\u2019t come in for obvious reasons. But they come in where \u2014 they\u2019re unbelievably brave people. And they have had more bullet holes and bullets shot at them and in them. That\u2019s the Congressional Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n<p>Your route is a much easier one. (Laughter.) As tough as it may have been, it\u2019s a much easier one.<\/p>\n<p>MR. HOLTZ: That\u2019s true.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: I always say that about the two.<\/p>\n<p>MR. HOLTZ: I\u2019ll remember that. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: It\u2019s \u2014 your route is a much easier \u2014 the Presidential Medal of Freedom.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019d like to ask first Lou to say a few words, and then we\u2019re going to present. Thank you very much.<\/p>\n<p>MR. HOLTZ: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. I\u2019m humbled by the various comments and the opportunity to receive this award.<\/p>\n<p>But I want to assure you how proud I am not only to receive the award; I\u2019m even prouder to receive it from President Donald Trump, who I think was the greatest President during my lifetime. And the things you\u2019ve done for this country have given people the opportunity. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>As far as making money \u2014 I do have to correct one thing, Mr. President. You talk about making money. When I went to Notre Dame, they had a policy: The head football coach was not allowed to make more than the president of Notre Dame. The president of Notre Dame was a priest who took a vow of poverty. (Laughter.) I made 95,000 (inaudible).<\/p>\n<p>I get this award; I accept it humbly. And you don\u2019t go in life saying \u201cI want to win this award.\u201d You just wake up one day and it happens. But this award, as great as it is, does not define who Lou Holtz is.<\/p>\n<p>My beautiful family, my precious wife, my friends: You have determined who I am, and I just try to be a solid person. As I think it was said, the two most important days of your life was the day you were born; the other is the day you discover why you\u2019re born. When we discover we\u2019re born basically (inaudible) other people and overcome problems and difficulties that are going to come our way. And I just cannot be prouder to be a part of this country. I could not be prouder to receive this award from an individual I respect and admire as much as President Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. So nice. Thank you. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>MILITARY AIDE: Attention to orders. Louis L. Holtz, an American sports legend, is awarded the Medal of Freedom. A member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Coach Holtz\u2019s achievements include 249 wins, 12 bowl game victories, and a national championship. He is the only football coach to lead six different programs to bowl games. His tenure at Notre Dame was historic, securing 10 straight winning seasons and the 1988 National Championship.<\/p>\n<p>Off the field, he\u2019s a staple of sports television, a powerful motivational speaker, a devout Catholic, and a dedicated philanthropist. The United States proudly honors Louis L. Holtz for his contributions to our nation.<\/p>\n<p>Signed, Donald J. Trump, the President of the United States of America.<\/p>\n<p>(The Medal of Freedom is presented.)<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Beautiful. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>MR. HOLTZ: Thank you. Whoa. Okay, that\u2019s it. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n<p>Q Mr. Holtz, congratulations. How are you feeling?<\/p>\n<p>MR. HOLTZ: I feel so indebted to so many people in my life that had such a positive influence on it. For a guy that graduated in the lower third of his high school class, I feel fortunate to be able to be here but also to be part of this great country and to be next to an individual that I respect as much as him.<\/p>\n<p>So I say it: You\u2019ve honored a lot of people. You go look at all the people \u2014 in Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus \u2014 they\u2019re recognized for what they did. I\u2019m recognized for what other people did. I never made a block or a tackle, but I did try to teach people to make good choices. That\u2019s all I\u2019ve ever tried to do. But thank you.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Such a great statement. Thank you, Lou.<\/p>\n<p>Q Mr. President, Mitch McConnell says COVID relief may be in sight. Will you support this bill? Do you support \u2014<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: I will. And I think \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Q \u2014 the 900-billion-dollar \u2014<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: \u2014 we\u2019re getting very close. And I want it to happen, and I believe that they\u2019re getting very close to a deal. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Q And you\u2019ll support it? You\u2019ll sign it?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: I will. I will. Absolutely. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Q Okay. And, Mr. President, can I ask you to respond to the comments by your Attorney General who indicated he has not seen, at this point, any evidence of fraud enough to overturn the election results? Given that, why is now not the time to concede?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Well, he hasn\u2019t done anything. So he hasn\u2019t looked. When he looks, he\u2019ll see the kind of evidence that right now you\u2019re seeing in the Georgia Senate. You know, they\u2019re going through hearings right now in Georgia, and they\u2019re finding tremendous volume. So they haven\u2019t looked very hard, which is a disappointment, to be honest with you, because it\u2019s massive fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you go to Wisconsin, where we just filed a case, or Michigan, or if you look at what\u2019s happening in Georgia, as an example, or Pennsylvania; if you look at Nevada, which is moving along very rapidly, or Arizona \u2014 you saw those numbers come out yesterday \u2014 we found massive fraud. And in other states also. This is a \u2014 probably the most fraudulent election that anyone has ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>Q Do you still have confidence in Bill Barr?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Uh, ask me that in a number of weeks from now. They should be looking at all of this fraud. This is not civil; he thought it was civil. This is not civil; this is criminal stuff. This is very bad criminal stuff.<\/p>\n<p>So I just say this: We went through an election. At 10 o\u2019clock, everybody said, \u201cThat was an easy victory for Trump.\u201d All of a sudden, the votes started disappearing \u2014 miraculously disappearing. We found much of it, but we found far more votes than we need in almost all of these states. And I think I can say in all of these states, far more votes than we need to win every one of them.<\/p>\n<p>And I want to just thank my team because my team is doing an unbelievable job. And more importantly, I want to thank the 74 million-plus people that voted, which, Lou, is the largest amount of people that a sitting President has ever had \u2014 74 million-plus. And because the level of \u2014 of loyalty, I\u2019ve never seen anything like it. All over the country, they know it was a fixed election. It was a rigged election. They know it, and I appreciate their support.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you all very much. (Applause.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Well, thank you very much. Today it\u2019s my privilege to present our nation\u2019s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to one of the greatest coaches in American history: the legendary Lou Holtz \u2014 a friend of mine. Great gentleman. Great man. We\u2019re delighted to be joined this afternoon by members of Lou\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-life-style","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Fullscreen-capture-1232020-72433-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/111162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}