Joe Yonto Passes Away

Former long time Notre Dame assistant coach Joe Yonto passed away Sunday night.

Tim Prister had a very nice tribute to Yonto on Irish Illustrated that is worth a read for anyone who has the time.  Here’s one of the better excerpts.

People often throw the term “Notre Dame man” around a bit loosely. But trust me when I tell you that in my 30 years of involvement with Notre Dame, as a student-athlete to a journalist that has covered Notre Dame for more than a quarter of a century, Joe Yonto ranks among the top five most impressive men I’ve known with an affiliation to the school. I would make that statement regardless whether he defended me during the transitional years of my career or not.

UND.com had a special piece on Yonto prior to the beginning of the 2006 season.

Yonto was a peerless defensive coach. In addition to masterminding national championship defenses in 1966 and 1973, Yonto led the 1980 defense through five straight games without giving up a touchdown, culminating in a 7-0 shutout of number-four Alabama in Birmingham. With that resume, Yonto would be in huge demand for head coaching vacancies today – but he has no regrets.

“My goal in life was to make it to Notre Dame,” he says. “There was no sense in going anywhere else. I was there for 31 years (as a coach and special assistant to the athletic director) and they treated me great.