By now you know that long-time controversial Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) passed away on the 4th of July.

Turns out, Helms might have helped to kill off Lou Holtz’ career at Arkansas.

According to a fascinating little story from The Northwest Arkansas Times, Holtz struck up a friendship with Helms when he was coaching at NC State in the 1970s.

A few years later, while coaching at Arkansas, Holtz shot a tv ad for a Helms’ re-election campaign back in North Carolina.  Holtz says that he felt awkward about it and the ad never aired.

A short time later, Holtz was fired by Frank Broyles.  Holtz said no reason was given.

The authors of a book on Arkansas football believe the two incidents were connected. 

“Lou’s old friend Jesse was conducting a one-man filibuster against the establishment of Martin Luther King Day while the Arkansas staff was calling black mothers trying to recruit their sons.”

So Holtz was out in Fayetteville.  He then went to Minnesota, then to Notre Dame and finally to South Carolina.  (With NCAA investigators following him all the way.)

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 8:08 am and is filed under Homepage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.