WATCH: Ex-Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz Rages Against Changing School’s ‘Fighting Irish’ Nickname to Ingraham

Notre Dame legendary head coach Lou Holtz ranted to Fox’s Laura Ingraham about the possibility of his former school’s mascot, the Fighting Irish, changing its name Thursday night.

“I want to quickly get to your view on the now push to get Notre Dame to reconsider the fighting Irish nickname, okay?” Ingraham asked. “As a former coach at Notre Dame, what are your thoughts on that? Apparently that’s now politically incorrect.”

Ingraham referenced a column from sports blog Fansided entitled, “Is it time to reconsider Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish nickname” that asked the question after Washington’s NFL team recently decided to conduct an internal review if they should change their name from a slur against Native Americans.

“They were named the Fighting Irish because the Ku Klux Klan tried to attack the catholics,” Holtz yelled back. “They went down and fought the Ku Klux Klan and that is where the name the fighting Irish came. Next thing you tell me they want to topple my statue Notre Dame, that’s when I would really get mad.”

Notre Dame’s website references a 1924 clash where students fought with anti-Catholic Ku Klux Klan in that year, but says it “may have inadvertently contributed to Fighting Irish lore.” The University instead writes that the Fighting Irish was “first coined for the Irish immigrant soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War in what became called the Irish Brigade, including three regiments from New York.”

In January 2019, Notre Dame covered up a Christopher Columbus mural after months of protest. It’s unclear if Notre Dame is considering removing or covering up any more murals or statues in the future.

Holtz coached at Notre Dame for a decade, between 1986 and 1996, and won a national championship in 1988. The College Football Hall of Famer also said he disagreed with some conferences delaying college football seasons amid the coronavirus pandemic on Fox.

“There is so many valuable lessons you learn when you are part of a team, people want to be part of something — that is how games came about,” Holtz said. “When they start advertising athletics in schools, people started enjoying the game because people want to be part of something. You are going to take that away from them?”

Watch above, via Fox News.