Jim Lynch, a 1966 National Champion, Maxwell Award Winner and College Football Hall of Famer has passed away at the age of 76.
Lynch was the captain of the 1966 national championship team and a consensus first-team All-American as a senior with the Fighting Irish. He led the ‘66 Irish with 106 tackles and earned the Maxwell Award as the nation’s most outstanding college football player. He also was an Academic All-American and earned a postgraduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation.
“I am often asked who was the best player to coach and Jim Lynch always comes to mind,” the late Hall of Fame coach Ara Parseghian once said about his team captain.
“He was All-America in every sense – talented, hard-nosed, and honest.”
The anchor of two Notre Dame defenses (1965 and 1966) that rank among the most dominating in program history, Lynch would move on to play 11 years in the National Football League for the Kanas City Chiefs helping them to a Super Bowl championship in 1969.
Lynch was named to the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame in 1990 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1992.
He is survived by his wife, Georgia, daughters Megan and Kara, son Jake and nine grandchildren.