Former Irish Coach Hugh Devore, and Player Under Rockne Die

Hugh Devore, a former college and pro football coach and the man credited with recommending Vince Lombardi as coach of the Green Bay Packers, died Tuesday at the home of a daughter in Edmond, Okla. He was 82.

Devore, twice the head coach at Notre Dame, also coached the Philadelphia Eagles and was an assistant for Green Bay and the Houston Oilers. He also coached at Holy Cross, Fordham, St. Bonaventure, New York University and the University of Dayton.

Devore was a freshman at Notre Dame in coach Knute Rockne’s final year and was the Fighting Irish’s captain his senior year. He went to Notre Dame from St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J.

From 1958-67 he was freshman coach and recruiter at Notre Dame and was head coach for two separate one-year periods. He later was assistant athletic director.

At Fordham, he coached the “Seven Blocks of Granite,” including Lombardi.

Jack Elder, who scored the only touchdown in the game that clinched Knute Rockne’s 1929 national championship at Notre Dame, died, apparently of a heart attack, Sunday in Palm Springs. He was 86.