1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game
The 1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game is considered among 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 competition 9–0 ranked No. 2, while Notre Dame entered 8–0 and ranked No. 1. Notre Dame elected to not try to find a score on the final series; thus, the game ended at a 10–10 tie. Notre Dame went on to win or share the national title in fourteen polls (including the AP and UPI); Michigan State won or shared in three minor polls, and Alabama, who finished with all the only undefeated and untied record, won 2 minor surveys.
Notre Dame, which had last 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 was upset by UCLA at the Rose Bowl the previous calendar year, entered the match ranked No. 2 in the polls. The Fighting Irish, whose bid for a national championship two decades before was snuffed out by USC, were hungry, although the Spartans had background and home-field advantage in their side. This was the very first time in 20 years that a school football matchup was given the»Game of the Century» tag by the national media, and ABC had the nation’s viewers in its clasp, with equal portions Notre Dame lovers and Michigan State fans. It was the tenth time at the 30-year history of this AP poll that the No. 1 group 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 2 teams together late in the season. When the 1966 programs were drawn up they weren’t even supposed to fulfill. Michigan State had only nine games scheduled (although they were allowed to have eight ) while Notre Dame was initially scheduled to play Iowa that week, as had been the custom since 1945. However, in 1960, the Hawkeyes abruptly dropped the Irish out of their schedule, from 1964 onward. Michigan State was available and agreed to return to Notre Dame’s schedule in 1965–66.
The match wasn’t shown live on nationwide TV. Each group was allotted one nationwide television appearance and also two regional television appearances each season. Notre Dame had used their national TV slot at the season opening game against Purdue. ABC executives did not want to show the match 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 just two states (reportedly North Dakota and South Dakota), so it could technically be called a regional broadcast. It would also be the first time that a college football game was broadcast to Hawaii and also to U.S. troops in Vietnam. [5] The official attendance was declared at 80,011 (111% capacity) and has been 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 college legends.
A lot of the 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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