Dan Devine, former college and NFL coach, dead at 77

PHOENIX -- Dan Devine, who coached Notre Dame to the 1977 national championship, died Thursday at his Tempe home after a long illness. He was 77.

Devine went 172-57-9 (a .742 winning percentage) over 22 seasons at Notre Dame, Missouri and Arizona State. He also coached the Green Bay Packers for four seasons, going 25-27-4.

He was elected to the National Football Foundation's college Hall of Fame in 1985.

Arizona State hired Devine as coach at age 31 in 1955. After three seasons and a 27-3-1 record, he moved to Missouri, where he was 93-37-7 in 13 seasons, with two Big Eight championships and six bowl appearances.

He went to Green Bay in 1971. After going 4-8-2 in his first season, the Packers won the NFC Central at 10-4 the next season. But they fell back to 5-7-2 in 1973 and 6-8 the next year.

By then fans had grown disenchanted and ran Devine out of town. So angry were some, that Devine's dog was shot to death.

His final and greatest coaching tenure occurred at Notre Dame, where he replaced Hall of Fame coach Ara Parseghian in 1975. In five seasons under Devine, the Fighting Irish were 53-16-1 and won three bowl games.

In 1977, Notre Dame, quarterbacked by Joe Montana and with Bob Golic anchoring a tough defense, won the national championship. The Irish (11-1) beat previously undefeated Texas, led by running back Earl Campbell, 38-10 in the '78 Cotton Bowl.

The Irish returned to the Cotton Bowl the next season and pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in bowl history. Behind an ill Montana, they rallied from a 34-12 deficit in the final 7:37 to beat Houston 35-34 in the freezing rain.

"I have nothing but the kindest thoughts for him," said Rev. Edmund Joyce, the man who hired Devine and now serves as Notre Dame's executive vice president emeritus. "He was a true gentleman and a wonderful coach. ... He did not have Ara's charisma but his record was as good. I respected him as a man and a coach."

Devine was a self-described "fussbudget" who required shoes to be shined and pants pressed daily.

He brought the first black players to Arizona State and to Missouri, but never considered himself a pioneer in integration.

In a 1999 interview with The Tribune newspaper of Mesa, Ariz., a former player remembered how Devine would motivate them by making them angry. The night before Missouri played Alabama in the 1968 Gator Bowl, he hung signs that said "Roll Tide" on the hotel room door of every player.

"We got sick of it," said linebacker John "Nip" Weisenfels, "so we went out and beat their brains in."

Missouri won the game 35-10.

He once played "Boomer Sooner" in the Missouri locker room before a game against Oklahoma.

Devine left coaching in 1980 and returned to Arizona State as executive director of the Sun Angel Foundation, a fundraising group. In 1987, he moved to job directing an Arizona State program to fight substance abuse.

In 1992, he returned to Missouri as athletic director and served in the job until his retirement in 1994.

Devine was born on Dec. 23, 1924, in Augusta, Wis. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Minnesota at Duluth in 1948 and a master's degree in guidance and counseling from Michigan State.

Devine, who had been sick for some time, underwent quintuple bypass surgery last February in Mesa, Ariz., and had post-surgery complications and did not recover well, his family said at the time.

His son, Dan Jr., is football coach at Jefferson Junior High in Columbia, Mo. Devine's wife, Joanne, died, Dec. 19, 2000.