1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game
The 1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game is considered one of the most significant and most controversial games in college football history played between Michigan State and Notre Dame. The match has been played in Michigan State’s Spartan Stadium on November 19, 1966. Michigan State entered the contest 9–0 and ranked No. 2, while Notre Dame entered 8–0 and ranked No. 1. Notre Dame elected to not try for a score on the series the game ended at a 10–10 tie. Notre Dame went on to win or share the national title in fourteen polls (including both AP and UPI); Michigan State won or shared in three small polls, and Alabama, who finished with the only undefeated and untied record, won two small surveys.
Notre Dame, which had won a national championship in 1964 (non consensus), rated No. 1 both AP and Coaches‘ polls. Defending National Champion Michigan State, who’d finished the 1965 season No. 1 in the UPI Coaches‘ poll, but had been upset by UCLA at the Rose Bowl the previous year, entered the match ranked No. 2 in the polls. The Fighting Irish, whose bid for a national championship two years before was snuffed out by USC, were hungry, while the Spartans had history and home-field edge on their side. This was the very first time in 20 years that a college football matchup was awarded the“Game of the Century“ tag by the national press, and ABC had the nation’s audiences in its grip, with equal parts Notre Dame fans and Michigan State fans. This 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 defeated 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. They were not even supposed to fulfill when the 1966 programs were drawn up. Michigan State had just nine games scheduled (even though they were allowed to have eight ) while Notre Dame was initially scheduled to play Iowa that week, as had been the custom since 1945. But in 1960, the Hawkeyes suddenly dropped the Irish from their program, from 1964 onward. Michigan State was accessible and agreed to return to Notre Dame’s program in 1965–66.
The match wasn’t shown on TV. Each group has been allotted one national television appearance and two regional television appearances each season. Notre Dame had utilized their national TV slot in the season opening game against Purdue. ABC executives did not even want to demonstrate the game everywhere but the regional place, but pressure from the West Coast and the South (to the tune of 50,000 letters) made ABC air the game on tape delay. ABC relented and blacked out the Michigan State-Notre Dame game in just two countries (allegedly North Dakota and South Dakota), therefore it could technically be called a regional broadcast. It would also be the first time 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% capacity) and was the most attended match 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.
Much of the ABC telecast footage resides. The second half is present 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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