Notre Dame vs. Michigan

It was one of the most exciting and memorable endings to a football game that anyone at Notre Dame could remember. It was 1980 and that year Notre Dame and Michigan played what was arguably the greatest game in the long-running series between the schools. For the third consecutive year, Notre Dame and Michigan had met on the gridiron, the first time since 1898-1900 that the ancient rivals had played that many years in a row. As usual, it was a ferocious, hard-fought game, the type of contest that this series had been known for, and it will always be remembered for the heroics of Harry Oliver, who sadly passed away earlier this year at the age of 47 from cancer.

The 1980 game featured two ranked teams with #8 Notre Dame hosting #14 Michigan. On a perfect fall afternoon, the two schools played a tense back-and-forth game, serving as a prelude for many future games in this series. Michigan took the lead late in the game, 27-26, though they failed to convert a key two-point conversion. Starting on its own 23-yard line with 41 seconds to play, the Irish quickly moved down the field as QB Blair Kiel completed a number of clutch passes. With 0:03 showing on the clock, the Irish had gotten to the Michigan 34-yard line. There, Oliver, the skinny kicker from Cincinnati walked out onto the field. Oliver was seeking redemption, having missed a key extra point earlier in the game. Although the wind had been blowing into the faces of the Irish before Oliver stepped onto the field to attempt a 51-yard field goal, bizarrely, it stopped just before Oliver kicked. The ball was snapped, the hold was good and Oliver made solid contact. The ball carried through the air true and cleared the crossbar by mere inches as time expired. The Irish had won the game 29-27, one of the great victories in the program's history. Oliver was mobbed by his green-clad teammates and countless Irish fans who had stormed the field. Irish defensive tackle Pat Kramer later said, "This could only happen here."

This year, the stakes are not quite as high as they were in 1980, but still the emotion of this series runs high. Given, with the way things are for both Notre Dame and Michigan this year, Knute Rockne and Fielding Yost must be turning over in their graves. Since the 1880s Notre Dame and Michigan have been playing college football, and in all those years, the schools had never started the same season 0-2 before now. What makes this statistical aberration all the more interesting is that the ancient rivals now will square off with identical 0-2 records. Aside from the six times that the schools faced off in season-opening games, Notre Dame and Michigan have never met as winless teams.

Nevertheless, it is Notre Dame-Michigan week. This dysfunctional and emotionally-charged series has been played, off and on, since 1887. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 1887, Michigan’s football team was on the way to Chicago for a game against the Harvard Club of Chicago the following day. Making a pre-arranged stop in Niles, Michigan, they took horse-drawn carriages down to Notre Dame’s campus. There, they taught some of the students there the game of football before taking a tour of the campus and eating a meal before continuing on to Chicago. That day’s “game” was more of a scrimmage than anything, but Notre Dame gave Michigan a tough match-up before falling, 8-0.

Michigan was integral to Notre Dame’s early football history, perhaps evidenced in no better way than the fact that not only was Michigan Notre Dame’s opponent in the school’s first game, but also in N.D.’s second and third games, played on consecutive days in April of 1888. In those early days Notre Dame measured itself against Michigan, seeking validation from playing (and hopefully defeating) the power team in the Midwest in those days. Understandably, Michigan did not reciprocate, choosing to focus its energies on playing other large state schools in the Midwest, as well as the great teams from the Ivy League.

Still, Notre Dame and Michigan would play off and on throughout the 1890s and 1900s, nine times in all from 1887 through 1909. Michigan prevailed in each of the first eight games, effectively keeping their thumb on the small Catholic school and its upstart football program. In 1909, however, the tides turned in Notre Dame’s favor. In prevailing over Michigan, 11-3, Notre Dame put its program on the map, and vanquished 22 years of football frustration. Michigan’s great coach, Yost, was a proud man and took the loss badly. After losing that game, Michigan would not schedule Notre Dame for another 32 years. Yost even took to using his clout within the Big Ten to prevent other conference members from scheduling Notre Dame. Ironically, by trying to stifle Notre Dame’s football program, Yost forced N.D. to branch out and play games outside of the Midwest, helping to lay the groundwork for its future popularity throughout the country.

A generation later, Notre Dame and Michigan would appear on each other’s schedules in 1942 and 1943. As two of the great programs in the 1940s, Michigan and Notre Dame, appropriately enough, split the two games. The 1943 game, played at Michigan Stadium, was the first to feature the teams ranked #1 and #2 in the Associated Press poll, a game the Irish won, 35-12. As the story goes, #1 Notre Dame defeated #2 Michigan so badly that Michigan coach Fritz Crisler refused to schedule Notre Dame again. His claim was that the Irish won by playing dirty. Notre Dame coaches and players responded with claims that Crisler was upset at losing so badly on his home field. Regardless of the reasons, once again the Notre Dame-Michigan series went on a long hiatus.

Only after Crisler’s death did Michigan place Notre Dame on its schedule again. The series resumed again in 1978. Since that time, the teams have been fixtures on each other’s schedules. Each September the schools separated by only 175 miles meet on the gridiron to renew one of the oldest rivalries in college football. Until modern times, this series was more defined by the long gaps between games than for action on the gridiron. Since 1978, however, the teams have played virtually every year with only periodic two-year breaks interrupting the series. In the past 29 years, the teams have played some truly spectacular games.

Michigan holds the lead in this series, 19-14-1, but Notre Dame holds the advantage in games since the series resumed in 1978, 12-10-1. Between 1987 and 1990 Notre Dame registered its longest-ever winning streak against Michigan, winning four straight games. The 1989 game was a #1 vs. #2 match-up and is remembered best for Irish flanker Raghib Ismail’s two kick returns for touchdowns at Michigan. In more recent years Notre Dame and Michigan both have had memorable wins. In 2003, for example, Michigan rolled up a series record 38-0 win over the hapless Irish, while in 2004 and 2005, underdog Notre Dame teams pulled out improbable wins over highly favored Michigan squads. Last season, #11 Michigan throttled the #2 Irish at home, 47-21, as several Irish miscues and great QB play by Chad Henne led to Wolverine victory.

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Other notes:

-Since 1985, 14 of the 18 series games played have been decided by ten points or less.

-The Irish have won three out of the last five games in this series, dating back to 2002.

-Saturday will be the first game since the AP poll started in 1936 not to feature a ranked team.

-Notre Dame and Michigan have split the previous twelve series games played at Michigan Stadium, dating back to 1943.

-Michigan (19-14-1) is one of only seven current Division I-A schools with a winning record against Notre Dame. The others are: Nebraska (8-7-1); Florida State (4-2-0); Ohio State (3-2-0); Oregon State (2-0-0); Georgia (1-0-0); and North Carolina State (1-0-0).

-With Saturday’s loss at Penn State, Notre Dame started a season 0-2 for only the seventh time in school history (1888, 1896, 1963, 1978, 1986, 2001, 2007).

-Notre Dame’s only 0-3 start came in 2001.

-Also on Saturday, Notre Dame lost its fourth consecutive game dating back to last season. This is the tenth losing streak of four games or longer in school history.

-During this four-game losing streak, the Irish have been outscored 149-51, a margin of 98 points. This is the worst point-differential of any four-game losing streak in the annals of Notre Dame football.

-Notre Dame has not lost five consecutive games since 1985-86, when the Irish lost the last three games of the Faust years, and the first two games of the Holtz Era.

-The only full-time Notre Dame head coaches to lose five or more games in a row are Terry Brennan (1954-58), who lost five straight in 1956, and Joe Kuharich (1959-62), who lost an inconceivable eight straight in 1960. It should be noted that neither coach was still at N.D. three seasons past their five-game losing streak.

-Notre Dame and Michigan recently agreed to an unprecedented 20-year extension of this series. They now are scheduled to continue meeting annually through 2031.

-These schools rank #1 and #2 in all-time winning percentage and all-time wins.

-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand after last week:

Unranked Michigan lost to unranked Oregon, 39-7, dropping their record to 860-284-36 for a winning percentage of .7441. This week, unranked Michigan hosts unranked Notre Dame.

Unranked Notre Dame lost at #14 Penn State, 31-10, dropping their record to 821-271-42 for a winning percentage of .7425. This represents Notre Dame’s lowest winning percentage since November 1910. This week, unranked Notre Dame travels to unranked Michigan.

Michigan’s lead stands at 16/10,000ths of a point.

The game kicks off at 3:30 EDT on ABC.

Go Irish! Beat Wolverines!
Big Mike

Just for fun, compare these two calls of the famous Harry Oliver kick at N.D. in 1980:

-N.D.’s Tony Roberts: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5qiAEeudOs8

-UM’s Bob Ufer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRlk0QB4pUY

copyright Michael D. McAllister 2007