Why I Admire Lou Holtz and You Should Too

 

Do you know who Lou Holtz is? You know, the eternally optimistic ESPN commentator who is a College Football Hall of Fame coach. Being the fifth coach to bring our beloved alma mater to a national championship, he always favors the Irish. This might be seen as a fault to some, but it is most definitely is not a fault in my eyes. 

When Chris and I were planning our wedding, we decided it would be fun to send out a few invitations to celebrities that we admired. We wrote letters telling of why we looked up to them and thought they were the bee's knees, found addresses to send the invites to, and then expected to never hear from them. 

At the time of the wedding, our celebrity guest tally was as follows:

Pope Benedict XVI - no response.
Mike Golic - no response
Jim Caviezel - no response
Coach Brian Kelly - sent his response card back checked, "Regretfully decline."
Lou Holtz - no response

We were zero for five, or at least we thought until after we had returned from our honeymoon. My parents came for my college graduation ceremony and gave me a large envelope. I couldn't believe the return address. I opened the envelope to find this:
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April 12, 2011

...

Dear Christopher and Katrina,

Congratulations on your wedding and I wanted to tell you how sorry I was that I didn't receive your invite until April 8th. Anytime it's sent to ESPN they take a month or two to get the correspondence down to me. 

I'm not sure I could have attended the wedding but I certainly could have written you a letter and congratulated you both on the success you've achieved thus far in your lives. But nothing is more important than your marriage. My wife and I will celebrate our 50th anniversary this July 22nd, and predominantly because our relationship is based completely on trusting one another. I'm sending you both a Notre Dame key chain I had made up and I hope you'll think of Our Lady on the dome when you use it. Sorry I couldn't be with you, but I am most honored that you thought enough of me to invite me to the most important event in your life.

Sincerely,
Lou Holtz
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We use one, and then we are saving one for when our boys are driving.

He sure is a man of character.