(MCT) — In the winter of 1991, Notre Dame needed a new running backs coach. George Kelly, a former Irish football assistant turned school administrator, knew that coach Lou Holtz wanted someone who could recruit Chicago. His first thought was Tom Beck, with whom he occasionally shared coffee, a head coach then thriving with a crackling offense at Grand Valley State.

Holtz did not make calls. He didn’t sit with recruits unless the deal was closed, and he didn’t call coaching candidates to gauge interest. So Kelly called Beck, and Beck drove to South Bend, Ind., for an audience in Holtz’s office.