Notre Dame-Miami, 1988: An Epic Classic Remembered
There will be no bowl for the 2016 Notre Dame football team (4-8) to partake in this month. However, on Saturday evening, Dec. 10, the Fighting Irish faithful should be tuned in to ESPN (9 p.m. ET) for the football team’s own version of “postseason action” this year.
Right after the network’s telecast of the Heisman Trophy presentation, its award-winning “30 For 30” series will debut the two-hour “Catholics Vs. Catholics” feature on the Oct. 15, 1988 showdown between No. 1-ranked Miami’s football dynasty (1983-93), versus No. 4 Notre Dame, a past dynasty that was battling to regain respect after falling on tough times.
The story opens with the 58-7 humiliation Miami handed Notre Dame on Nov. 30, 1985 in head coach Gerry Faust’s final game with the Fighting Irish. It ended the season with a 5-6 record, and also spawned an enmity between the two programs that would boil over in the coming years.
The director of the film, Patrick Creadon, was a freshman at Notre Dame during that 1985 season. His grandfather was recruited by Knute Rockne and was a student at Notre Dame when it won its first consensus national title in 1924. A generation later, Creadon’s father then witnessed as a Notre Dame student himself the greatest upset in Fighting Irish football history, the 7-0 win at Oklahoma in 1957 to end the Sooners’ NCAA record 47-game winning streak.
So for Creadon, an Irish senior in 1988, directing and narrating this documentary was a labor of love. However, the story is about far more than Notre Dame rising from the ashes and the game itself. There are numerous compelling back stories, with Creadon’s roommate and best friend Pat Walsh the central figure.
Walsh, who was pursuing the dream of making head coach Digger Phelps’ basketball roster as a walk-on (which he would achieve), also was an entrepreneur who had developed an underground T-shirt empire on campus. He had become so successful with his profits that the University issued him a warning to shut it down.
However, as the build-up for that 1988 meeting with Miami began to reach epic levels, Notre Dame basketball captain Joe Fredrick recommended to Walsh to create a Catholics Vs. Convicts T-shirt.
“No way,” Walsh replied. “That shirt will get me kicked out of school.”
Ultimately, the temptation became too great, and how that piece of clothing developed and what transpired thereafter was entertaining in itself.
Just as compelling were some of the individual stories of quarterback Tony Rice, flanker Pat Eilers and safety Pat Terrell, among others, as vital figures in Notre Dame’s march to its most recent national title. Per usual, 1986-96 head coach Lou Holtz offered his own colorful commentary.
Equal time was given in this documentary to star Miami players such as star quarterback Steve Walsh, fullback Cleveland Gary, whose fourth-quarter fumble at the Irish one is hotly debated, and tackle Leon Searcy, who could open his own comedy show, among others.
Miami head coach Jimmy Johnson, viewed as the anti-Christ by Notre Dame faithful, and defensive coordinators Dave Wannstedt (Miami) and Barry Alvarez (Notre Dame) also offered their perspectives.
ESPN research has revealed that its most consistently top-rated show is a documentary that follows the Heisman Trophy presentation. It included “The U.” in 2009, which detailed the bad boy Miami football image, “Pony Excess” in 2010 that highlighted the NCAA death penalty given to SMU, “The Marinovich Project,” released in 2011 revealing the upbringing of former USC quarterback Todd Marinovich, the “You Don’t Know Bo” story on Auburn legend Bo Jackson, and others.
“Catholics Vs. Convicts” promises to be another blockbuster.
For a generation of Notre Dame fans, there never was never a more anticipated, pulsating game at home than when No. 1 Miami arrived in 1988.
The 5-0 start by the Fighting Irish that season provided some salve to a rough 43-36-1 period from 1981-87, but the showdown with the Hurricanes always lurked in the background, like the bully around the corner ready to take your lunch money.
Here are several reasons why it became the greatest game ever played at Notre Dame Stadium, and one for the ages in college football annals:
The Domination
Four times from 1983-87 (no meeting in 1986), the Hurricanes outscored the Irish 133-20. Only one other time had a program so dominated Notre Dame in four straight games. Michigan State outscored Notre Dame 121-20 in the four meetings from 1956-60 (no meeting in 1958).
The Dynasty
Miami’s 36-game regular season winning streak was the second longest in college football history since 1914, surpassed only by Oklahoma from 1953-57 (also ended by Notre Dame). Under Johnson, Miami had won 20 straight road games in the regular season.
In six straight seasons from 1983-88, the Hurricanes defeated the preseason No. 1, including a 31-0 dismantling of Florida State to open the ’88 campaign. The defending national champs also played for No. 1 in four of their previous five bowls, a feat matched by Nebraska from 1993-1997 and Alabama from 2011-15 — and probably to be surpassed this year.
The Shirts
Catholics vs. Convicts T-shirts became the iconic best-selling item, but many others became popular, in particular, “You can’t spell scum without UM.” The loathing was palpable.
“Everyone on campus has been wearing shirts about Miami,” commented third-year Notre Dame head coach Holtz a week before the game. “This is an intelligent student body. They know they won’t be able to wear them after the game.”
Facing No. 1
Notre Dame had lost four straight games at home to No. 1 teams by a count of 113-32, and hadn’t knocked off No. 1 at home since 1936, the first year of the Associated Press poll. This also was the first time since 1968 that two AP Top-5 teams played in Notre Dame Stadium.
The Pregame Fight
Okay, we all know of the Holtz “Save Jimmy Johnson’s ass for me,” comment in the locker room. That stole the show.
But the pregame brawl in the tunnel between the two teams was the day when, in their best Charles Atlas form, Notre Dame no longer accepted getting sand kicked in its collective face by the beach muscleman.
“It kind of got everybody over the pregame jitters,” recalled Irish linebacker Wes Pritchett, the team’s top tackler that year. “Guys were seeing blood. I’ve never seen the kind of emotional display like I saw in the locker room before that game.”
The Once And Future Empire Restored
With the 31-30 victory, the once and future kings of college football had been officially restored. Sports Illustrated ran Rice’s photo on the front cover with the headline, “Notre Dame Is Back!”
No greater joy had ever overtaken the Notre Dame campus after a home football game than on that Indian summer afternoon 28 years ago.
This Dec. 10 and thereafter, it can be relived.
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