National Football Foundation

Following his undergraduate studies at Notre Dame, Father Hesburgh attended Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, but was forced to come back to the states due to the breakout of World War II. He finished his seminary at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., in 1945.

After serving as Chaplain for the National Training School for Boys in Washington in 1943 and 1944, he became Chaplain to Veterans at Notre Dame. He worked his way up from Assistant Professor of Religion to Head of the Department of Religion to vice president, then finally to the President of Notre Dame in 1952. Hesburgh held this role for 35 years.

Under his leadership, the university’s enrollment doubled, thanks in part to admitting females beginning in 1972, and its endowment rose significantly. The Fighting Irish football team, though it had its ups-and-downs in Hesburgh’s tenure, took home three national championships. College Football Hall of Fame head coach Ara Parseghian led the team to titles in 1966 and 1973, and Hall of Fame coach Dan Devine won another in 1977. Notre Dame fielded 11 eventual Hall of Famers and 13 NFF National Scholar-Athletes during Hesburgh’s 35 years at the helm.

Hesburgh’s off-campus efforts included leading Catholic universities to autonomy from the church hierarchy in the 1960s, giving governing power to the laity. President Dwight D. Eisenhower named Father Hesburgh to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission at its inception in 1957, a position he held for 15 years.

Hesburgh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, the Army’s Sylvanus Thayer Award in 1980 and the inaugural NCAA Gerald R. Ford Award in 2004. He holds the Guinness Book of World Records title for “Most Honorary Degrees”, having been awarded 150. Up until his death, he resided on the Notre Dame campus.