Remembering the 1966 ‘game of the century’ – a 10-10 tie

Everybody who gives a hoot about college football has a favorite team to cheer for…as well as an evil rival that’s so sweet to beat.

A homemade banner that a pair of Michigan State University students paraded along the sidelines at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Mich., on a cold, dank, gray Saturday deep into November of 1966, expressed the hope of the “green and white” faithful who packed the place. 

Their sign read: “Hail Mary Mother Grace! Notre Dame’s in Second Place!” 

Oh, yes. Amen. We said that “prayer” with our full hearts.

 

A chant rang down repeatedly from the Michigan State student section: “Kill Bubba Kill.” It was the war cry for the Spartans’ jumbo-sized defensive end Bubba Smith and his mates to create mayhem in the Norte Dame backfield and bring “victory to MSU.”

What was about to unfold was hyped as the “greatest game of the century.” Both teams were undefeated with the Fighting Irish (naturally) sitting atop the rankings, while MSU was right behind. The goal for the home team, as the banner indicated, was to flip the rankings.

Dan Jenkins (shown below) was there to cover the game for Sports Illustrated. Here’s some of what he wrote: The “ferocious thudding in the line…was mostly responsible for five fumbles, four interceptions, 25 other incompletions and a total of 20 rushing plays that either lost yardage or gained none,” Jenkins said.

 

Recapping the action in 1966 at Spartan Stadium, Jenkins said: “The game was marked by all of the brutality that you somehow knew it would. The featured gladiator was Michigan State’s 6-foot-7, 285-pound Bubba Smith.”

“Bubba killed, all right. He killed Notre Dame quarterback Terry Hanratty early in the first quarter,” Jenkins said. “When Hanratty…slid off right tackle on a keeper, Bubba Smith whomped him in the left shoulder and separated it. It looked as if Hanratty had been smacked by a giant swinging green door.”

 

“‘That didn’t help us any,’ Bubba said later. ‘It just let them put in (Coley) O’Brien, who’s slippery and faster and gave us more trouble.’” (Another writer described O’Brien as being “leprechaunish.” Not a good omen for the Spartans.)

Next, Notre Dame’s center George Goeddeke went out with a first-quarter ankle injury, “also courtesy of Bubba,” Jenkins said. “Nick Eddy, the best Irish ballcarrier, never even got into the game. The Grand Trunk got Eddy.”

“The Grand Trunk is not another name for Bubba Smith,” Jenkins said. “It is the railroad train that Notre Dame rode from South Bend, Ind., to East Lansing on Friday.” When the train arrived, Eddy slipped and fell on the icy slick steps, smashing an already injured shoulder. 

From the outset, both teams sputtered on offense. “It seemed the two teams would never settle down,” Jenkins said. “Of the four passes Terry Hanratty threw before he met Bubba Smith, three were atrociously off target.”

“The Irish runners went nowhere, primarily because of linebackers George Webster and Charlie ‘Mad Dog’ Thornhill, defensive tackle Jeff Richardson and Bubba. And Notre Dame failed to get off a fourth-down punt because of a poor snapback,” Jenkins said.

“Michigan State countered with a fumble, a delay penalty, a clip and a penalty for interfering on a punt catch. It looked like a big intramural game….”

 

Here is MSU Coach Duffy Daugherty with some of his prized athletes, from left: Clinton Jones, Bob Apisa, Bubba Smith, Gene Washington and George Webster.

Michigan State’s quarterback Jimmy Raye was a prized recruit of head coach Duffy Daugherty. Raye came out of E. E. Smith High School in Fayetteville, N.C.

At MSU, Raye had a weapon in the form of split end Gene Washington, “one of the surest and fastest receivers in the country.” Washington, who was the Big Ten hurdles champion, “simply outran people,” Jenkins said.

Raye dialed up Washington on a long pass play near the end of the first quarter. Now deep in Notre Dame territory, nine battering ground plays moved the ball to the 4-yard line.

Making a crucial tackle to hold Michigan State out of the end zone was Irish defensive end Alan Page. He nailed MSU’s backup fullback Reggie Cavender with a crushing blow that shattered Cavender’s left shoulder pad, according to sports journalist Jack Ebling (shown below).

 

In Ebling’s words, “Cavender hobbled to the huddle, wincing noticeably. When right guard Mitch Pruiett asked, ‘What’s wrong?’ Cavender gasped, ‘I’ve got to get out of here. My shoulder’s hurt.’ To which Pruiett responded, ‘My shoulder hurts, too. There’s no time for pain!’”

“He couldn’t have been more correct,” Ebling reported. “When Jimmy Raye got the play from the sideline, the call was for Cavender to slam off right tackle in a Split-T formation. If the Spartans were going to score a TD, it had to be then. And No. 25 (Cavender) had to be the one.”

“As the ball was snapped, Cavender stepped forward, then veered to the right. His first move sucked linebacker Jim Lynch into the pile. When Cavender turned to take the handoff from Raye, Pruitt and tackle Jerry West created a crevice. That left one defender, safety Tom O’Leary.”

“Along came Jones,” Ebling said, referring to a block from MSU halfback Clinton Jones, “and a long scoreless tie was about to end.”

 

In postgame comments to Ebling, Cavender said: “I’m just glad the play was called to the right. My left arm was useless. On a run to the left, I would’ve had to carry the ball in both arms. Going to the right, that wasn’t a problem. The toughest part was when I came to the sideline and everyone whacked my shoulder or bumped my ribs. They said if I couldn’t take a little celebration, I shouldn’t visit the end zone.”

 * * *

On Michigan State’s next possession, now in the second quarter, the Spartans scored again. Raye got away and ran for 30 yards outside right end. And he hit Washington for 17 yards to reach Notre Dame’s 26-yard line.

A couple more passes failed, however, so the Spartans had to be content with a 47-yard field goal by its barefoot Hawaiian placekicker Dick Kenney. (The temperature on the field hovered in the low 30s for the entire game.)

 

Now trailing 10-0, Notre Dame’s O’Brien rallied his team late in the second quarter. He threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Irish halfback Bob Gladieux to cut Michigan State’s lead to 10-7, giving the Irish momentum heading into the half.

In the third quarter, Notre Dame kicker Joe Azzaro made a chip shot 28-yard field goal to knot the score at 10.

Notre Dame’s defense really put the clamps on MSU’s Clinton Jones that day, holding him to just 13 rushing yards on 10 carries, but Jones is remembered for a stunning tackle – “the loudest collision of the game,” Jenkins said.

Notre Dame’s Lynch intercepted a Raye pass and “stormed up-field, only to be met by Jones. Lynch landed on his headgear, fumbled and Jones recovered.”

Well into the fourth quarter, it looked grim for the Spartans when “Notre Dame safety Tom Schoen picked off a wild Jimmy Raye pass and skittered back with it 31 yards to the Spartan 18,” Jenkins said.

Fullback Larry Conjar ran on first down and dug out two yards. Halfback Dave Haley attempted to run wide to the left on second down, “and here’s Phil Hoag (Spartan defensive end), completely unmolested, knifing through with Bubba Smith to crack him for an eight-yard loss,” Jenkins said. “The ball isn’t on the 16 anymore; it is back on the 24.”

“Now, O’Brien fails with a frantic pass, and it is fourth down. Joe Azzaro’s field-goal try has to be from 42 yards out. It is a couple of feet off to the right, and the swoon of relief in Spartan Stadium makes the structure lean a little,” Jenkins wrote. (Other reports said the ball off Azzaro’s right foot was merely inches outside the upright.)

 

The clock showed 4:39 remaining in the game. On its final drive, Michigan State gambled and converted a fourth-and-one situation on its own 29-yard line with a quarterback sneak.

The next series of downs was unproductive. Daugherty chose to send in the punt team and hopefully pin Notre Dame deep into its own territory.

With a minute and half left in the game, Ara Parseghian’s Notre Dame team took possession of the ball near its own 30-yard line. Parseghian elected to call handoffs up the middle, instead of taking a shot at putting together a game-winning drive.

 

Notre Dame had an opportunity to win, but “it just let the air out of the ball,” Jenkins said. “Michigan State defenders…called the time-outs that the Irish should have been calling.”

“Notre Dame ran into the line, the place where the big game was hopelessly played all afternoon. No one really expected a verdict in that last desperate moment. But they wanted someone to try. When the Irish ran into the line, the Spartans considered it a minor surrender.”

“‘We couldn’t believe it,’ said George Webster. ‘When they came up for their first play we kept hollering back and forth, watch the pass, watch the pass. But they ran. We knew the next one was a pass for sure. But they ran again. We were really stunned. Then it dawned on us. They were settling for the tie.”

A 10-10 tie.

 

When questioned about his decision, Parseghian said: “We’d fought hard to come back and tie it up. After all that, I didn’t want to risk giving it to them cheap. I wasn’t going to do a jackass thing like that at this point.”

“We didn’t go for a tie,” he attempted to clarify later. “The game ended in a tie.” (Oh, please….)

Jenkins – and others – criticized the Fighting Irish coach for taking “the easy way out” by “playing not to lose” and letting time expire.

Although the Spartans gained more yards that afternoon – 284 to 219 – and had 13 first downs compared to Notre’s Dame’s 10 – the only numbers that mattered were 10-10.

Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated (shown below) remarked: “At the final gun, Spartan Stadium was plunged into a deathly silence.” One of the referees who worked the game said it was like the 80,011 fans in attendance were “stapled to their seats after witnessing a 10-10 tie.”

 

Michigan State’s season was over. The Spartans won the 1966 Big Ten Conference championship outright, but an “irritating Big Ten rule forbids a team from going to the Rose Bowl two years in a row,” Jenkins said.  

Notre Dame had one regular season game left, on the following Saturday at Southern California. (In those days the Fighting Irish chose not to participate in bowl games, which the university administration viewed as frivolous exhibition games.)

Jenkins posed the question: Who deserves to be No. 1? “Duffy Daugherty proposed a ‘co-championship,’ thinking of the Spartans’ lesser voting power in the polls.”

“Ara Parseghian, obviously, believed the Irish could outpoll Michigan State and everyone else, or he would not have been so willing to settle for a tie,” Jenkins said.

Layden agreed: “Parseghian figured Notre Dame could still sway poll voters and win the national championship. Notre Dame crushed the No. 10 USC Trojans, 51-0.”

The final Associated Press and United Press International polls gave the edge to Notre Dame, with Michigan State second.

However, the College Football Researchers Association selected Michigan State as national champion. The Helms Athletic Foundation selected MSU and Notre Dame as co-national champions.

So, technically, MSU could and did legitimately claim a “share” of the college football title in 1966.

Thus, for MSU fans, justice…sort of…was served.

Years after the game, Dan Jenkins told ESPN that he still contended that Parseghian’s decision to play for a tie and not for a win in the “game of the century” in 1966 was a despicable, gutless, contemptible action…or perhaps he used a synonym that begins with the word “chicken…”?

“Hail Mary Mother Grace!”