Ron Powlus

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Ron Powlus (born July 16, 1974 in Berwick, Pennsylvania) is a former starting quarterback for the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team.

One of the most heavily-touted prospects in the history of high school football, he was an offensive standout at Berwick High School. Powlus was named Parade Magazine prep player of the year and USA Today offensive prep player of the year in 1992. After Powlus signed his letter of intent with Notre Dame that year, ESPN analyst Beano Cook predicted that Powlus would win the Heisman Trophy two times.

Powlus was a two-time Irish captain who, before the ascent of QB Brady Quinn in 2005, held 20 school records. He started all 44 regular-season games (plus two bowl games) in which he played for the Irish and finished with 558 career completions on 969 attempts for 7,602 yards and 52 touchdowns. He set the Irish single-game mark for TD passes in a game with four (three times) and at one point completed 14 straight passes. He set single-season marks in 1997 as a senior with his 182 completions and 298 attempts.

Powlus rebounded from a broken collarbone suffered in the preseason of what would have been his freshman season in 1993 and then broke a bone in his upper left arm late in the 1995 season.

After Powlus received his undergraduate degree from the Notre Dame College of Business Administration in 1997, he signed as a free agent in 1998 with the Houston Oilers of the National Football League and then was on the Detroit Lions' preseason roster in 1999 and the Philadelphia Eagles' roster in 2000. He played with the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe in the spring of 2000.

He also spent two years as executive assistant to the Democratic Policy Committee of the Pennsylvania State Senate and was later employed in the banking and pharmaceutical industries.

On March 1, 2005, Powlus returned to Notre Dame as the football team's director of personnel development under Head Coach Charlie Weis.