Notre Dame and MSU play to a classic tie
On November 19 1966 in college football first-ranked Notre Dame and second-ranked Michigan State play to a 10-10 tie at Spartan Stadium.The Irish per coach Ara Parseghians instructions ran out the clock at the end of the game instead of passing to score and risking an interception.After the game Parseghian defended his decision.
Wed fought hard to come back and tie it up he told reporters in the locker room.After all that I didnt want to risk giving it to them cheap.Notre Dame was playing without several of its star players that day.Back Nick Eddy had slipped on the ice at the East Lansing train station.
The Spartans 290-lb defensive end Bubba Smith had flattened quarterback Terry Hanratty at the beginning of the game dislocating his shoulder and sending him to the bench and Hanrattys backup Coley OBrien was diabetic and plainly not feeling like himself.As a result the Spartans took an early 10-0 lead.The Irish managed to tie the score in the second half and with a little more than a minute left to go in the game they got the ball back in plenty of time to scorebut Parseghian was reluctant to chance a run at the end zone.
After all MSUs defense was practically impenetrable and a turnover would have given the Spartans a chance at victory.So he opted to run out the clock instead preserving his tie and for the moment his teams ranking.Neither the Irish nor the Spartans would play in a bowl game that year Notre Dame because the university thought postseason play would interfere with the football teams studies and Michigan State because theyd gone to the Rose Bowl the year before and going twice in a row was against the Big Tens rules.Since the national championship hadnt been settled on the field it went to a vote the end-of-year AP and UPI polls.
Complicating matters was Bear Bryants undefeatedand crucially unintegratedUniversity of Alabama team a stark contrast especially to an MSU squad that had welcomed many black players from the South.In the end in a vote that many people viewed as a rebuke to the segregated obstructionist Alabamians Notre Dame kept its No.1 ranking.
MSU came in second and Alabama came in third.(Its worth noting that all-white teams from the South had won six of the previous nine championships and a stubbornly unintegrated Texas team captured the first-place ranking in 1969.Still many voters were certainly aware of and dismayed by Alabamas racist stance.
Meanwhile Bubba Smith had another explanation for Notre Dames triumph All the sportswriters he said are Catholic.)The Notre Dame-MSU tie was the first college football game to be broadcast to U.S.troops in Vietnam.At first ABC wasnt going to show the game at all but 50000 fans wrote letters and signed petitions in protest and the network changed its mind.
And the reversal paid off The game got higher ratings than the next years first-ever Super Bowl did.
