Iconic moment: Lou Holtz bust to be unveiled | News, Sports, Jobs

Morning Journal/ Michael S. Burich
A bronze bust of Lou Holtz receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom will be unveiled May 21 at East Liverpool High School.

EAST LIVERPOOL — Lou Holtz has had many iconic moments in his long life that happened on the football field.

In May, the College Football Hall of Fame coach will return to his old East Liverpool stomping grounds to reflect on another iconic moment away from the football field.

A bronze bust of Holtz receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom will be unveiled on May 21 at East Liverpool High School. The bust is to be permanently displayed in the Potter Fieldhouse lobby.

The sculpture was finished in summer of 2021 and brought to Columbiana County shortly thereafter. There were initial plans to unveil the bust in a virtual ceremony due to the pandemic and the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Lou Holtz/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame. Those discussions morphed into an attempt to do a live ceremony during the 2021 football season, but those plans fell through.

Now it will be a part of a large ticketed event on May 21.

The day will kick-off with a grand re-opening of the Lou Holtz/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame from 2 to 4 p.m. at the museum at 120 East 5th Street. The action will move to the high school at 5 p.m. where Holtz is scheduled to be present for the unveiling of the bust.

Following the unveiling ceremony, a barbeque dinner — prepared outdoors — will be served in the East Liverpool High School cafeteria. Wellsville’s Sgro Brothers will play prior to the induction of the final five individuals into the Hall of Fame.

Inducted will be the late riverboat pilot Hans Dietz, Wintersville fire chief Robert Herrington, Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary boys basketball coach Dru Joyce, the late East Liverpool car dealer Mike Turk and former Evening Review sports editor Bob Duffy.

Holtz was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump in a morning ceremony on Dec. 3, 2020 at the White House.

“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 (President Trump),” Holtz said at the ceremony.

The 1954 East Liverpool High School graduate won 249 games as a college coach including 12 bowl game victories and the 1988 national championship with Notre Dame. He is the only coach to lead six different programs to national titles. He had 10 straight winning seasons at Notre Dame.

After football he has continued to make an impact in sports media and as a motivational speaker.

“I never made a block or a tackle, but I did try to teach people to make good choices,” Holtz said at his ceremony.

The Medal of Freedom has been given to many American sports legends — including such all-time greats as Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods — since it first was issued by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

The bust was designed by sculptor Jerry McKenna, a Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame member and Notre Dame University graduate. McKenna, 84, has a deep family history in East Liverpool and consequently spent summers at his grandmother’s home off Thompson Avenue in the 1940s.

“I can’t be 100 percent sure, but I think me and Lou were running loose at the same time on Thompson Avenue,” McKenna said.

McKenna is one of the most famous sculptors of sports figures in the United States and has nearly 300 creations to his name. His works include statues of Notre Dame’s national championship coaches — including Holtz — which sit at gates around the Notre Dame Stadium. He’s also done statues of the Four Horsemen, Steubenville Big Red great Calvin Jones, hockey’s French Connection and more than two dozen busts at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

McKenna said he was proud to have the honor of sculpting Holtz getting the Medal of Freedom.

“It was wonderful,” McKenna said of the ceremony. “I am very happy for him, I just wish (Lou’s wife) Beth (Holtz) was around to see it.”

Beth Holtz died on June 30, 2020 after a two decade struggle with throat cancer.

The bust was commissioned by South Bend auto dealer and ardent booster of Notre Dame Mike Leep as well as the Holtz Hall of Fame.

Richardson Monuments of Lisbon supplied the 5-foot high granite base.

Tickets are available to the general public for $100 each through the purchase of an all-area access pass which can be used for admission to the Hall of Fame open house, the bust dedication, the barbeque dinner and induction ceremony. A commemorative ticket and program will also be included.

Send name, address and telephone number along with credit card payment information or check to The Lou Holtz/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame , P.O. Box 888, East Liverpool, OH 43920.