Legendary Notre Dame coach back home and receiving treatment

Hall of Fame Coach Ara Parseghian is back home after spending time at a nursing facility.

He spent more than a week in the facility because of an infection in his surgically repaired hip.

Paul Flatley tells the Associated Press that The 94-year-old former Notre Dame and Northwestern coach is still receiving 24-hour care.

Ara Parseghian came to town in 1964 and left with a record of 95-17-4, making him the most successful Notre Dame coach of the modern era.

Ara retired after 11 seasons but stayed in Michiana, going into private business and working as a color analyst.

In November of 1994, Ara and his family faced a battle much larger than any on the gridiron. He learned that three of his four grandchildren had a mysterious disease called Niemann-Pick Type C.

He formed The Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation, which seeks a cure.

Ara couldn't save his grandchildren, but great progress has been made. In a conversation with NewsCenter 16's Maureen McFadden in 2009, Ara used a football analogy to explain how far the foundation has come.

"We wound up with the ball on our own one-foot line with the goal 99 and two thirds away when we found out about Niemann-Pick. With our research, our investigative work, we pushed that ball out to the 30-, 40-yard line. We're in the four down area now," Ara explained.

He says the ball is now on the other side of the field with drugs in clinical trial.