Before the USC controversy, Michigan State and Notre Dame agreed to recognize 60th anniversary in 2026

[shanny4055]

Before the USC controvery, Michigan State and Notre Dame agreed to recognize the 60th anniversary of the 1966 Game of the Century in 2026.

Notre Dame All-American Vagas Ferguson, who played on Dan Devine's 1977 national title team, and I will be signing copies of my
book that include chapters on the Game of the Century. A Spartan TBA also will join us.

Michigan State can look ahead to past better times, thanks to Notre Dame’s respect for 1966 – Tom Shanahan Report

Follow me on Twitter @shanny4055

 

[micropolitan guy]

Are ties required attire for all attending Notre Dame players/coaches/fans?

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Game of the Century?

 

[waterytart]

No 1971 Nebraska v Oklahoma partisans here?

 

[micropolitan guy]

 

[dixiehack]

1946 called.

 

[Bubbler]

 

[micropolitan guy]

View attachment 21522

1946 called.

Harry Wismer, original owner of the New York Titans/Jets.

 

[MarkWatney]

My dad and I (age 8) are about halfway up the stands in this pic.

Do I get a cookie??

 

[LanceyHoward]

For those of you to young to remember (and I wish I was) the game the 1966 MSU-Notre Dame game ended in a 10-10 tie. Notre Dame got the ball with about two minutes left and ran out the clock, These were two tremendous teams and Notre Dame pounded the USC 51-0 nothing the next week and won the national championship in the UPI and AP polls, So Notre Dame was rewarded for going for a tie.

I might have gotten over it by now except I despise the brand of the football team being wrapped around the "Luck of the Irish" that has been promulgated by many bad sportswriters. So Notre Dame received no sympathy from me when Miami jumped Notre Dame in the CFP poll.

 

[Huggy]

View attachment 21523

Mmmmmm Summer Bartholomew

 

[dixiehack]

For those of you to young to remember (and I wish I was) the game the 1966 MSU-Notre Dame game ended in a 10-10 tie. Notre Dame got the ball with about two minutes left and ran out the clock, These were two tremendous teams and Notre Dame pounded the USC 51-0 nothing the next week and won the national championship in the UPI and AP polls, So Notre Dame was rewarded for going for a tie.

I might have gotten over it by now except I despise the brand of the football team being wrapped around the "Luck of the Irish" that has been promulgated by many bad sportswriters. So Notre Dame received no sympathy from me when Miami jumped Notre Dame in the CFP poll.

My former college roommate, who obviously was not alive for this game, has RBDN66 as his vanity plate because Alabama did not win the national title despite a perfect record. It was felt that the Tide was denied due to voter fatigue (they had won the last two nattys) and a shot across the bow to George Wallace and a segregated team and state.

Instead, everyone blamed Notre Dame playing for a tie.

 

[LanceyHoward]

I think Notre Dame only had one black player that year (though it was Alan Page). Michigan State was enjoying their only sustained success because they were recruiting some really talented black players that year, most notably Bubba Smith. But I think either team beats Alabama.

 

[dixiehack]

I think Notre Dame only had one black player that year (though it was Alan Page). Michigan State was enjoying their only sustained success because they were recruiting some really talented black players that year, most notably Bubba Smith. But I think either team beats Alabama.

Likely so. That undefeated team was the last hurrah before a mini-crash that saw Bama lose 17 games over the next four seasons, the final ones as an all-white team.

Michigan State did indeed find a gold mine of success in the 60s recruiting Southern blacks when few others would, at least at the volume the Spartans did.

 

[shanny4055]

My former college roommate, who obviously was not alive for this game, has RBDN66 as his vanity plate because Alabama did not win the national title despite a perfect record. It was felt that the Tide was denied due to voter fatigue (they had won the last two nattys) and a shot across the bow to George Wallace and a segregated team and state.

Instead, everyone blamed Notre Dame playing for a tie.

Two of 1966 Michigan State's College Football Hall of Famers were Bubba Smith as a 6-7, 285 DE and George Webster a 6-4, 245 Rover. They were taken 1st overall and 5th overall in the 1967 NFL draft.

Two of Notre Dame's College Football Hall of Famers were Alan Page as a 6-4, 245 DT and Jim Lynch LB 6-1, 235. They were selected 17th in the first round and in the second round. Lynch also won the Maxwell Award (the other Heisman), although he says in both of my books, RAYE OF LIGHT and THE RIGHT THING TO DO, and in THE BIGGEST GAME OF ALL that Webster should have won the 1966 Heisman (Steve Spurrier won it).

Alabama All-American OT Cecil Dowdy is not in the College Football Hall of Fame. He was 6-1, 202. He was a ninth-round draft pick who had a cup of coffee with two NFL teams.

Who from Alabama was going to block Smith and Webster against Michigan State or Page and Lynch against Notre Dame.

Bryant was slow to adjust from smaller players who could play 60 minutes of one-platoon football to new rules in 1964
allowing for two-platoon football with larger athletes playing one side of the ball.

Alan Barra, a Bryant biographer, wrote a review of a book claiming reverse racism cost Alabama a third title. Barra wrote
that the claim was "borderline delusional."

Also, I've written Alabama's claim to three straight titles also is a stretch of the facts:

The NCAA's four sanctioned national title polls were Associated Press, United Press International, National Football Foundation
and Football Writers Association of America.

1965 poll voting: Michigan State (10-0-1) UPI, NFF, Co-FWAA.
Alabama (9-1-1) AP, co-FWAA.
Alabama only played regular-season games against segregated opponents within the Mason-Dixon Line until 1971.

1964 poll voting: Alabama (10-1-0) AP, UPI.
Arkansas (11-0-0) FWAA (Barry Switzer, an Arkansas assistant in 1964, will argue with Alabamians on this one).
Notre Dame (9-1-0) NFF

 

[shanny4055]

Game of the Century?

View attachment 21519

A true Game of the Century requires buildup.

Ohio State was No. 1 until it was upset by Michigan on November 17, 1969. Not until then did No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Arkansas move up to 1-2.
Texas beat Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl, but Arkansas lost to No. 13 Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl.
Penn State, No. 2 in the final poll, finished 11-0 with an Orange Bowl in over No. 6 Missouri.

 

[shanny4055]

I think Notre Dame only had one black player that year (though it was Alan Page). Michigan State was enjoying their only sustained success because they were recruiting some really talented black players that year, most notably Bubba Smith. But I think either team beats Alabama.

Michigan State's Duffy Daugherty was the first coach to ignore the unwritten quota limiting Black players to a half-dozen
or so on a roster. For example, USC's 1962 national title team had only five Black players and its 1967 national title team
only seven despite the population and diversity of Los Angeles.

In the 1966 Game of the Century, Michigan State lined up 20 Black players, 11 Black starters, two Black team captains voted
by a predominantly White roster, College Football Hall of Famers George Webster and Clinton Jones, and the South's first \
Black quarterback to win a national title, Jimmy Raye, who was recruited out of segregated Fayetteville, N.C.
Notre Dame's only Black player was Alan Page. And he later told Clinton Jones, when they were Vikings teammates, he wanted
to go to Michigan State, but since he was from a Catholic high school (Canton Central Catholic in Ohio), his parents wanted him
attend Notre Dame.

 

[shanny4055]

View attachment 21522

1946 called.

Notre Dame only answered Michigan State's call to schedule a 60th anniversary game in 2026.

 

[shanny4055]

No 1971 Nebraska v Oklahoma partisans here?

Of the half-dozen iterations of a "Game of the Century," the 1966 Game was the first one with Black players.
The 1971 GOC was the first with fully integrated rosters on both sides of the ball. Nebraska was coached
by Bob Devaney, a Michigan State assistant under Duffy Daugherty. Oklahoma was coach by Chuck Fairbanks,
a Michigan State player under Duffy. Oklahoma and only had three Black players until Fairbanks was hired in
1967 and he promoted Barry Switzter to OC. Barry is quoted in my book, THE RIGHT THING TO DO, that he
and Chuck agreed they were going to recruit as many Black players as they wanted.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Wasn't Rocky Bleier also on that Notre Dame team?