The Game Of The Century: Michigan State vs. Notre Dame, 1966
“For me, it was the hardest-hitting college or pro game I ever played in,” George Goeddeke would say. Joe Doyle of the South Bend Tribune said, “I’d never seen a game as intense as this was. The hitting was savage.”
In the first quarter, Hanratty was leveled by Smith and left the game for good with a separated shoulder. Two plays later, Goeddeke, the Irish’s starting center, went down with a sprained ankle.
Michigan State made the most of things in the early part of the game, as Regis Cavender scored from five yards out to give the Spartans the early 7-0 lead. Richard Kenney, who hailed from Hawai’i and kicked bare-footed, buried a 47-yard field goal to up the lead to 10-0.
The Irish, now quarterbacked by recently-diagnosed diabetic Coley O’Brien, who required two insulin shots on the sideline to be able to finish the game, scored on a 34-yard pass to Bob Gladieux before the half to cut the Spartan lead.
They tied the game early in the fourth quarter on a 42-yard field goal by Joe Azzaro. That drive that had nearly been stopped when Michigan State recovered a fumble, only to have it overturned on a penalty. Gerald Scott of the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1986, “Duffy Daugherty… said that he was so incensed at that and other controversial calls that he sent the game film to the Big Ten supervisor of officials for review but that nothing ever came of it. The name of the Big Ten supervisor of officials in 1966? Irish Creager.”
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The way the two teams handled the fourth quarter was a large part of the controversy that followed. In the fourth quarter, trying to lead his team down the field for a game-winning score, Raye was intercepted for the second time in the game by Tom Schoen, who returned the interception to the 18. Dan Jenkins would write in Sports Illustrated that, “unlike the Irish, the Spartans gambled.”
The Spartan defense held, though, and the Irish only went backward on that drive. Azzaro missed a 41-yard field goal and the game remained tied late in the fourth quarter.
Michigan State punted the ball away on fourth down with 1:35 left in the fourth. Notre Dame’s Tom Schoen muffed his attempt at a fair catch, but the Irish recovered at their own 30, less than half a field away from field goal range.
Three plays later, Parseghian faced fourth and one at his own 39 with 30 seconds left. Instead of punting, he decided to go for it. O’Brien got two yards on a run and Michigan State called timeout. The next play, Parseghian called a pass play, but Smith sacked O’Brien and Michigan State called their last timeout with five seconds left.
The absence of starters, a sickly backup quarterback and a lack of good field position were enough to convince Parseghian that the best course of action to preserve his team’s undefeated record, number-one ranking and chance to win a national championship was to simply run the out the final seconds and take the tie.
So he did. The Irish ran a quarterback draw, picking up five yards, and watched the final seconds tick away, ending the game at a 10-10 standstill in the days before overtime.