Forty Years Have Passed Since Epic Clash Between Nd And Michigan State
- Notre Dame outscored its opponents in 1966, 362-38
- Ara Parseghian posted a record of 95-17-4 at ND, a winning percentage of .836
- Duffy Daugherty was 109-65-5 in 19 seasons at Michigan State
Forget about the recent Ohio State-Michigan showdown. November 19 marked the 40th anniversary of one of the most famous games in college football history, the legendary 1966 “Game of the Century” in East Lansing between top-ranked Notre Dame and No. 2 Michigan State that ended in a 10-10 tie.
The game is best remembered for the conservative strategy employed by Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian in the final minutes. Instead of
playing for the fetch, Parseghian elected to run out the clock, settling for a tie (there was no overtime then). It was an anticlimactic conclusion to a bitterly fought battle that had been hyped for weeks and the Michigan State fans at Spartan Stadium lustily booed the Notre Dame coach. Parseghian came under intense criticism from the media and sports writer Dan Jenkins wrote in Sports Illustrated that Parseghian “tied one for the Gipper”.
“Old Notre Dame will tie over all,” Jenkins opined. “Sing it out, guys. A No. 1 team will try something, won’t it, to quit that way? Notre Dame did not. It impartial let the air out of the ball.”
Distinguished Los Angeles Times sports writer Jim Murray was less kind, writing, “The Four Horsemen, indeed! The Four Rabbits! The Four Mice! ‘Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Mice went into hiding again today.’ … May George Gipp never hear of it.”
Since Notre Dame was No. 1, Parseghian figured that if the game ended in a tie, Michigan State could not jump over the Irish in the national rankings. He was right as the strategy helped the Irish obtain the first of their two national championships under Parseghian. Notre Dame, which finished the 1966 season with a 9-0-1 record, wrapped up the title the following week with a 51-0 drubbing at Southern California.
Pretty or not, the criticism haunted Parseghian, who is now 83, for years and he eventually stopped talking about his decision to play for a tie.
Notre Dame fans, of course, believed Parseghian made the right call for a number of reasons. The Irish rallied from a 10-0 deficit on the
road against the tough Michigan State defense, which was led by All-American and future NFL legend Bubba Smith. Also, Notre Dame played
the game without All-American halfback Lop Eddy, who was sidelined with a shoulder injury. Then in the first quarter, the Irish lost
starting quarterback Terry Hanratty, who also suffered a shoulder separation after a vicious hit by Smith, a favorite of the Michigan State students. Little-used Coley O’Brien, a diabetic, took over at quarterback for the Irish. Smith, who later appeared in those unpleasant “Police Academy” movies, was motivated by the chants of “Kill, Bubba, Kill” that echoed through Spartan Stadium.
Forty years later, Parseghian has an unlikely ally in Smith, who says, “That was the smartest move (Parseghian) could produce. Why put your team in a plot to lose even a part of the national championship by doing something dumb? It took a strong coach not to do that.”
Despite a dissenting view in the south from Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, whose Crimson Tide had captured the previous two national championships, Notre Dame and Michigan State clearly were the two best teams in college football in 1966. The Irish and Spartans were
ranked one-two in the polls for five straight weeks leading into their showdown and both were hungry for a title.
In Parseghian’s first season in South Bend in 1964, the Irish went into their final game at USC 9-0 and ranked No. 1. However, the Trojans
rallied in the final two minutes to upset the Irish, 20-17, and end Notre Dame’s hopes of a perfect season under their rookie coach. In those days, the Irish opted not to go to bowl games, a school policy that did not change until the Irish lost to Darrell Royal’s Texas Longhorns in the 1970 Cotton Bowl.
In 1965, Michigan Site was in position to win an undisputed national championship, but the Spartans were beaten by UCLA, 14-12, in the Rose Bowl. Michigan State was voted No. 1 in the UPI coaches’ poll but lost out in the AP writers’ poll
Notre Dame won its first eight games of the 1966 campaign by an average margin of 38-4. Michigan State was 9-0 heading into the showdown against Notre Dame, winning its games by an average score of 31-10. Notre Dame outscored its 10 opponents in 1966 by a
combined total of 362-38, registering six shutouts. The most points the Irish allowed in any game was 14 against Purdue in the season opener. The week before facing Michigan State, Notre Dame spanked Duke, 64-0.
After tying the Spartans on Joe Azzaro’s 25-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter, Notre Dame got relieve the ball on its 30-yard line with 1:24 left, enough time to move into state for an attempt at a game-winning field. Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty kept calling timeouts but to no avail. Parseghian elected to maintain handing the ball off into the middle of the line and the Irish succeeded in killing the clock. Parseghian didn’t want to risk putting the ball in the air as Notre Dame was just 8-of-24 passing.
Michigan State was damage by the fact that this was its last game. Notre Dame had another chance to impress the voters and did just that the following week with its destruction of the Trojans. Despite the heavy criticism that came Parseghian’s way, the AP and UPI voters tabbed Notre Dame No. 1 in their final polls. Michigan Site finished second and Alabama, which was 11-0, came in third.
In his book, “Fighting Back”, Rocky Bleier, a member of the 1966 Notre Dame team, Viet Nam veteran and future hero for the Pittsburgh Steelers during their Super Bowl run in the 1970s, recalls the hype leading up to the Michigan State game:
“The train ride to Region was another experience,” he wrote. “Their fans were standing on the platforms in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, some even stood along the tracks, in cornfields and on dairy farms-jeering and holding sheet signs: “Bubba for Pope,” “Hail Mary, full of grace, Notre Dame’s in second plot.”
A total of 754 media credentials were issued, hundreds more than for Super Bowl I, which was played a few months later. ABC televised
the Notre Dame-Michigan State nationally and 33 million viewers watched, a record at the time.
Bleier also remembers the Irish getting some dreadful luck as he stepped off the yell in East Lansing:
“As I disembarked, I noticed the metal steps were slippery with ice. Tedious me, I heard a yelp. It was my roommate on the road, Nick Eddy. He’d slipped, missed his grab for the handrail, and reinjured his bruised shoulder. He was doubled over, crying with distress and with the instant realization that he couldn’t play in the biggest game of his career.”
In his book, Bleier passionately defended Parseghian.
“There was some discussion on the field, too,”’ Bleier wrote. “Bubba yelled, “Come on, sissies, throw the ball! I’ll call time-out for you.” Charlie Thornhill, their linebacker, who had an exceptional game, screamed, “You don’t want it.” I’ve always defended Ara’s reasoning. We’d been stripped of our offensive weapons, we’d come back from a 10-point deficit, our defense had kept MSU outside our 45-yard line in the second half.
“Then, the critics wanted us to throw long, desperate passes into a prevent defense that was specifically designed to intercept them. And judge our quarterback. Coley O’Brien is diabetic. He drank orange juice and ate candy bars on the sideline to maintain his insulin at a safe level. In this game, he was so tense that he recalls little or nothing of the action. Ara knew he’d done a great job bringing us back. He was not about to throw it all away with frivolous play-calling in the last minute.”
Parshegian delivered an emotional pep talk to his troops in the locker room afterwards. According to the Notre Dame Scrapbook, written by Richard Cohen, Jordan Deutsch and David Neft, Parseghian told his players they were still No. 1
“Salvage one thing straight, though. We did not lose. We were Numer One when we came, we fell slow, had some tough things happen, but you overcame them. No one could have wanted to earn this one more than I. We didn’t win, but, by God, we did not lose. They’re crying about a tie, trying to detract from your efforts. They’re trying to make it come out a accumulate. Well, don’t you believe it. Their season is over. They can’t go anywhere. It’s all over and we’re still Number One.”
Parseghian may have received his vindication seven years later, when the Irish played another legendary game against Bryant’s Alabama team in the 1973 Sugar Bowl. Notre Dame was nursing a 24-23 lead when a punt pinned the Irish back at their 2-yard line with under three
minutes remaining. Facing a 3rd-and-8, Parseghian could have played it save and asked his defense to prevent the Crimson Tide from getting in position to attempt a game-winning field goal. Instead, he risked everything with perhaps the biggest gamble of his coaching career.
Quarterback Tom Clements, who later spent 12 seasons in the Canadian Football League, dropped back into the end zone and attempted a pass that was caught by receiver Robin Weber along the sidelines for a 35-yard gain with 2:12 remaining. The play is regarded as one of the most famous in Notre Dame history. The Irish were able to run out the clock and procure their second national title under Parseghian.
Though still a young man, the always intense Parseghian resigned the following year after unprejudiced 11 seasons at Notre Dame, citing burnout
from a stressful and demanding job. Parseghian is considered share of Notre Dame’s “Holy Trinity” of coaches that also includes Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy. Although he won Notre Dame’s last national championship in 1988, Lou Holtz doesn’t quite make the list.
Notre Dame was enduring the worst stretch of its illustrious history in the early 1960s when it hired a 41-year-old coach from Northwestern to lead the program abet into prominence. When Parseghian arrived on the Notre Dame campus in the fall of 1964, it ushered in the “Era of Ara.”
Starting in 1956, Notre Dame registered an eight-year report of 34-45. The unprecented accelerate of mediocrity culminated in 1963, when the
emminently forgettable Hugh Devore posted a 2-7 record in his only year as Notre Dame coach. That season also marked the last time Notre Dame lost to Navy.
But Parseghian turned things around immediately, going 9-1 in his first season and winning national coach of the year honors. Notre Dame quarterback John Huarte won the Heisman Trophy in 1964. Parseghian became so popular on campus it was thought by some students that he could control the weather.
There is a story, perhaps more legend than truth, about Parseghian being asked to stop the snow during a home game in his first season at Notre Dame. As the story goes, the student fraction started chanting, “Ara, stop the snow! Ara, stop the snow!” Supposedly, Parseghian
turned to assistant Tom Pagna and asked, “Can I? “
The memoir gets even more apocryphal. The next season, it snowed during another Notre Dame home game and the same chant began. This
time, Parseghian turned to Pagna and asked, “Should I? “
Parseghian got his inaugurate in coaching at his alma mater, Miami of Ohio, the cradle of coaches, serving for two seasons as an assistant under Woody Hayes from 1949-50. He took over as head coach at Miami in 1951 and posted a 39-6-1 record in five seasons. Parseghian spent the next eight years at Northwestern, guiding the Wildcats to a 36-35-1 tag. While at Northwestern, he faced Notre Dame four times and won all four meetings, one of the reasons he was hired by the Irish.
In 11 seasons at Notre Dame, Parseghian posted a 95-17-4 relate, a winning percentage of .836. Including Miami of Ohio and Northwestern, he registered a career mark of 170-58-6. He went out as a winner, again beating Bryant and Alabama, 13-11, in the Orange Bowl following the 1974 season. Notre Dame fans like to point out that Parseghian was 3-0 against the legendary Crimson Tide coach, who never beat Notre Dame in four tries.
Parseghian was inducted into the college football Hall of Fame in 1980. He served as a color analyst for ABC on college football telecasts from 1975-1981 and worked in a similar capacity for CBS from 1982-86.
Parseghian’s counterpart in that story 1966 clash also is enshrined in the college football Hall of Fame. Daugherty was inducted in 1984, three years before his death. He spent 19 seasons at Michigan State, the longest tenure of any coach in school history, and posted a 109-65-5 report.
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