Our Man at Notre Dame.

Return to Glory: Inside Tyrone Willingham's Amazing First Year at Notre Dame by Alan Grant Little, Brown, and Company September 2003 $24.95, ISBN 0-316-60765-7

The hiring of Tyrone Willingham as head football coach at the University of Notre Dame pushed the "fast forward" button of opportunity in the minds of many who feel that African Americans have been left out of the college-level employment process, especially in Division 1 college football.

Following a series of coaching positions before settling in as head coach at Stanford University for eight years, Willingham's move to Notre Dame in 2001 was a breakthrough. His position was both daunting and inspiring. It became unnerving in the sense that so much was expected of him; yet it was encouraging because he was given the chance to lead the Fighting Irish, one of the most storied college football teams in America.

It is for this reason that Man Grant's Return to Glory: Tyrone Willingham's Amazing First Year at Notre Dame may be viewed with fitting significance. Although Grant chronicles memories, he gives a descriptive preview of what it takes to win at Notre Dame and how Willingham's efficacy brought him to the brink of a national championship in his first year.

"The only person who thought Coach Ty Willingham was destined for Notre Dame was Ty Willingham," says Grant. "While he was respected as a winning football coach [at Stanford], he lacked all the right qualities," Grant continues, "He wasn't Irish, he wasn't Catholic, and he wasn't white." Tyrone Willingham was the first African American coach of any sport at Notre Dame in the university's 115-year history.

Grant, who spent the entire year with Willingham, is a former player of Willingham's at Stanford. He is also a former NFL player and is currently an ESPN magazine writer. In Return to Glory, Grant offers a unique perspective on what the "top-of-the-line" coaches have to do to prepare for a college football season.

Grant reminds his audience that Willingham is also chasing history. After all, he is following in the footsteps of Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy and Ara Parashegian, all successful coaching legends at Notre Dame. But Willingham has already done something that neither coach has done, and that was to win 10 games in his first year.

With such an accomplishment in his first year, the Notre Dame student body used the rallying cry of "Return to Glory" to suggest that better things were ahead. No doubt, the author used this stimulus to name his book. But regardless of where he got the title, it is the reader who will be stimulated.

Fred Lindsey is an assistant professor at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California. He has reported sports for The Baltimore Sun and the Philadelphia Daily News.