1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game
The 1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football match is considered among the greatest 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 competition 9–0 and ranked No. 2, while Notre Dame entered 8–0 and ranked No. 1. Notre Dame elected not to try to find a score over the series the match finished at a 10–10 tie. Notre Dame went on to acquire or share the national title in fourteen polls (such as the AP and UPI); Michigan State shared or won in three small polls, and Alabama, who ended with all the only undefeated and untied record, won 2 minor polls.
Notre Dame, which had last won a national championship in 1964 (non consensus), ranked No. 1 both the AP and Coaches’ polls. Defending National Champion Michigan State, who’d completed the 1965 year No. 1 at the UPI Coaches’ survey, but had been upset by UCLA at the Rose Bowl the past year, entered the match ranked No. 2 in the polls. The Fighting Irish, whose bid for a national championship two decades earlier had been snuffed out by USC, were hungry, while the Spartans had history and home-field edge on their side. This was the first time in 20 years 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 fans and Michigan State fans. It was the tenth time in the 30-year history of this AP poll the No. 1 group played the No. 2 team. The Spartans had conquered Notre Dame the previous year 12–3 holding Notre Dame to minus-12 yards rushing.
A fortuitous quirk in scheduling brought these 2 teams together late in the season. When the 1966 programs were first drawn up, they were not even supposed to fulfill. Michigan State had just nine games scheduled (even though they had been permitted to possess ten) while Notre Dame was originally scheduled to play Iowa that week, as had been the custom since 1945. But in 1960, the Hawkeyes suddenly dropped the Irish out of their schedule, from 1964 onward. Michigan State was accessible and agreed to come back to Notre Dame’s program in 1965–66.
The match wasn’t shown live on TV. Each group was allotted one nationwide television appearance and also two regional television appearances every year. 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 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 from the Michigan State-Notre Dame match in two states (allegedly North Dakota and South Dakota), so it could technically be called a regional broadcast. It would also be the first time a school 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 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 coached by Ara Parseghian and Michigan State was coached by Duffy Daugherty, both college legends.
Much of the original ABC telecast footage survives. The second half exists in its entirety, as do both scoring drives starting in the second quarter (Michigan State’s field goal and Notre Dame’s touchdown).
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