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 game has been played in Michigan State’s Spartan Stadium on November 19, 1966. Michigan State entered the contest 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 last series. Notre Dame went on to acquire 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 the only undefeated and untied record, won two small polls.
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 had finished the 1965 season No. 1 in the UPI Coaches’ survey, but had been upset by UCLA at the Rose Bowl the past calendar year, entered the game ranked No. 2 in the polls. The Fighting Irish, whose bid for a national championship two decades before had been snuffed out by USC, were hungry, while the Spartans had background and home-field edge 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 country’s viewers in its clasp, with equal portions Notre Dame lovers and Michigan State fans. This was the tenth time in the 30-year history of the AP poll that the No. 1 group played with 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 two teams together late in the season. They weren’t even supposed to meet when the 1966 schedules were drawn up. Michigan State had just nine games scheduled (even though they were permitted to possess ten) while Notre Dame was originally scheduled to play with Iowa that week, as had been the custom since 1945. But in 1960, the Hawkeyes suddenly dropped the Irish out of their program, from 1964 onward. Michigan State was available and agreed to return to Notre Dame’s program in 1965–66.
The match was not shown on national TV. Each team was allotted one national television appearance and also two regional television appearances every year. Notre Dame had used their national TV slot in the season opening game against Purdue. ABC executives didn’t even want to demonstrate the game everywhere but the regional place, but pressure in 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 match in just two countries (reportedly North Dakota and South Dakota), so it could theoretically 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 declared at 80,011 (111% potential ) and has been the most attended game in Michigan State football history at the time (the present 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 school legends.
Much of the original ABC telecast footage survives. The second half is present in its entirety, as do both scoring drives starting in the next quarter (Michigan State’s field goal and Notre Dame’s touchdown).
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