Yonto: Essence of a Notre Dame man

Perhaps it was no coincidence that the skies in South Bend turned pitch black about 9:30 Monday morning before some much-needed rain finally fell on the parched earth. The lightning and thunder ensued about 15 minutes later.

I took it as a sign from above. For a bit earlier in the day, Notre Dame, no, the world, lost a gem with the passing of former Notre Dame assistant coach and athletic administrator Joe Yonto at the age of 83.

Born in Orrville, Ohio, Yonto played fullback and guard for the Frank Leahy-coached Notre Dame teams of 1945-46. He then established himself in the coaching ranks on the high school level with stops at Mount Carmel and St. Rita's in Chicago. His 16-year high school coaching record was 96-42-7.

Following a seven-year stint as head coach at Notre Dame High School in Niles, Ill., Yonto joined Ara Parseghian's Irish staff in 1964. He would coach for Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz while serving on Gerry Faust's administrative staff.

A steady stream of defensive linemen who would go on to All-America status would come under the tutelage of Yonto, including Alan Page, Pete Duranko, Kevin Hardy, Mike McCoy, Walt Patulski, Greg Marx, Mike Fanning, Steve Niehaus, Willie Fry, Scott Zettek and the incomparable Ross Browner.

Clearly, the largest percentage of great Notre Dame defensive linemen played for Yonto. As defensive coordinator of the Irish from 1977-80, Notre Dame ranked 11th in total defense during the '77 national championship season and 4th in 1980. No Irish defense since then has come close to the 213.2 yards allowed per game in '80.

On the football field, he was tough and relentless, but he was also consistent and a patient teacher. He wasn't very big—probably about 5-foot-6 or so—but he could get in the face of one of his burly defensive linemen, eyes bugging out, chewing out a player for his transgressions.

Yonto could get his point across without the use of profanity. He could scare the daylights out of the most talented and massive young men. He also could use reason to prove his point. And in Yonto's book, there were no shortcuts to success, no substitute for hard work.

"Joe Yonto was a strong Italian product," recalled Browner in What It Means To Be Fighting Irish. "He never let you get too big for your shoes. He kept you where you needed to be, was always very honest, and always worked you very hard.

"No matter what you did the previous Saturday, by Monday it was, 'Okay, we have to start from scratch. Let's fall on the ball. Let's do our bear crawls. Let's do our monkey rolls. Let's get down and dirty, and get your hands in the mud.' We didn't change our practice habits or his way of coaching."

For me, personally, of all the Notre Dame people I have known through the years, Yonto was one of the finest human beings I've met in my 30-year affiliation with the school. I've always said that. He was a man of great character and dignity. He represented Notre Dame with class and integrity. He carried himself like a man of distinction.

My experiences with Yonto came mainly after he was out of coaching, serving his alma mater as an administrator under Faust and then Holtz following a brief return to the field. The Faust years were tough times for Notre Dame, particularly for guys like Yonto and George Kelly, who also would leave the coaching ranks to become an administrator at Notre Dame.

Yonto had been in the trenches with Parseghian and Devine. Some of the best defenses in the history of the school were instructed up front by Yonto. Then along came Faust and the program took a steep decline.

I can remember Yonto being pressed and pulled and urged to compare his days with the new, struggling regime. Not once did Yonto utter a disparaging word on the record or in my private conversations with him. He was proud of his accomplishments, but too good of a man to offer criticism of his coaching brethren—even one as far over his head as Faust. He had too much respect for the game, Notre Dame, and people in general.

On a more personal note, my dealing with Yonto came at a time when I was just starting out in the sports journalism business for a company—first The Football Report, then Go Irish! and eventually Blue & Gold Illustrated—that was frowned upon (re: despised) by the University for its entry into the media.

It was easy for Notre Dame people to treat my cohorts and myself with disdain. We were the interlopers, the unwelcome disseminators of Notre Dame football information, and many a cold shoulder or harsh, biting comment was thrown my way during those early days in the business.

We were an easy target, and many freely indulged in target practice.

Not Yonto. Over the next few years, the comment that Yonto made to me repeatedly was, "Keep doing what you're doing; keep being true to yourself."

He knew I was stepping on some toes. But he also knew that I was a Notre Dame guy whose goal was to shed perpetual light on the glory that is Notre Dame, not just Notre Dame football.

"Keep doing what you're doing," he would say. "You're doing a fine job." If he said that to me once, he said it to me a dozen times.

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.

Perhaps not so ironically, one of my baseball players from Mishawaka (Ind.) Marian High School will be playing for Joe Yonto Jr. at Ancilla College in Indiana this year.

There's another reason why I always felt close to Yonto. He once said something that I can relate to quite well. "My goal in life was to make it to Notre Dame," Yonto said. "There was no sense in going anywhere else."

You will undoubtedly be hearing testimonials to Yonto in the days to come, from those who worked with him to those who played for him. But I wanted to be the first to say publicly how much I respected Joe Yonto. He was a Notre Dame man through and through. God broke the mold when he created this fine gentleman and extraordinary football coach.