Editor's note: This story is an excerpt from the book "American Coach: The Triumph and Tragedy of Notre Dame Legend Frank Leahy," by Ivan Maisel, to be published on Sept. 16 by Grand Central Publishing.

They came from near and far to the gleaming new Athletic & Convocation Center at Notre Dame to honor the football coach they once called The Master.

The calendar said that Frank Leahy was 60 years old on that last night of January 1969. One look at Leahy would have labeled the calendar a fabulist. He still stood erect, 5-foot-11, and his waistline barely had wavered from those postwar days when he strode the Fighting Irish sideline, an American celebrity at the peak of his command. But the crevasses in Leahy's face, the ruddy cheeks, and the thinning gray hair indicated the ravages take

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