1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game
The 1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game is considered among the greatest and most controversial games in college football history played between Michigan State and Notre Dame. The game was played in Michigan State’s Spartan Stadium on November 19, 1966. Michigan State entered the competition 9–0 ranked No. 2, while Notre Dame entered 8–0 and rated No. 1. Notre Dame elected not to try to find a score on the series. Notre Dame went on to acquire or share the national title in fourteen polls (such as both AP and UPI); Michigan State won or shared in three small surveys, and Alabama, who ended with all the only undefeated and untied album, won two small surveys.
Notre Dame, which had won a national championship in 1964 (non consensus), ranked No. 1 both the AP and Coaches‘ polls. Defending National Champion Michigan State, who’d finished the 1965 season No. 1 at the UPI Coaches‘ survey, but had been upset by UCLA in the Rose Bowl the previous calendar year, entered the game ranked No. 2 in the polls. The Fighting Irish, whose bid for a national championship two years before had been snuffed out by USC, were hungry, while the Spartans had background and home-field advantage on their side. This was the first time in 20 years that a college football matchup was given the“Game of the Century“ tag by the national press, and ABC had the country’s audiences in its grip, with equal portions Notre Dame lovers and Michigan State fans. It was the very first time at the 30-year history of this AP poll the No. 1 team played the No. 2 team. The Spartans had conquered Notre Dame the prior year 12–3 holding Notre Dame to minus-12 yards rushing.
A fortuitous quirk in scheduling attracted these two teams together late in the season. When the 1966 schedules were drawn up they weren’t even supposed to fulfill. Michigan State had just nine games scheduled (although they had been allowed to possess eight ) while Notre Dame was initially scheduled to play Iowa that week, as had been the custom since 1945. But in 1960, the Hawkeyes abruptly dropped the Irish from their program, from 1964 onward. Michigan State was available and agreed to come back to Notre Dame’s program in 1965–66.
The game wasn’t shown on TV. Each group was allotted one national television appearance and two regional television appearances every year. Notre Dame had utilized their nationwide TV slot in the season opening game against Purdue. ABC executives didn’t even want to demonstrate the game anywhere but the regional place, but pressure from the West Coast and the South (to the tune of 50,000 letters) made ABC atmosphere the game on tape delay. ABC relented and blacked out the Michigan State-Notre Dame game in two states (allegedly North Dakota and South Dakota), so it might theoretically be called a regional broadcast. It would also be the first time that a college football game was broadcast to Hawaii and to U.S. troops in Vietnam. [5] The official attendance was announced at 80,011 (111% potential ) and was the most attended game in Michigan State football history at the time (the current record is 80,401 on Sept. 22, 1990 vs. Notre Dame).
Notre Dame was educated by Ara Parseghian and Michigan State was coached by Duffy Daugherty, both school legends.
A lot of the ABC telecast footage survives. The second half exists in its entirety, as do both scoring forces beginning in the next quarter (Michigan State’s field goal and Notre Dame’s touchdown).
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