Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1185700
52 NOV. 23, 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." — John F. Kennedy I n recent decades, many a change has occurred in college football to which Notre Dame has had to adapt. The practice of redshirting beyond medical reasons be- gan to emerge in the 1980s. Joining the "arms race" with better facilities, higher salaries, training table and — egads! — even installing FieldTurf and a video board in the revamped Notre Dame Stadium have all hap- pened more recently. Fifty years ago — Nov. 17, 1969 — the Notre Dame football program made what was then a ground- breaking decision to end its 44-year ban on going to bowl games. To some, that was almost as dramatic as putting a man on the moon for the first time in history several months earlier, a seemingly prepos- terous ambition Kennedy had imple- mented earlier that decade. On Jan. 1, 1925, head coach Knute Rockne's Fighting Irish defeated Stanford 27-10 in the Rose Bowl to clinch a national title — but that was the lone postseason event at the time. It wasn't until 1935 that the Orange, Sugar and Sun Bowls were added, with the Cotton Bowl joining in 1937, the year after the first Associated Press poll was released. However, such outings at the time were deemed in many circles as un- necessary expenses and travel, and inconsequential to final rankings. Neither Notre Dame nor any other team had to go to a bowl game in or- der to win a national title because the final Associated Press ballots (begun in 1936) were tabulated at the end of the regular season. A demonstration of how irrel- evant bowl games were occurred in 1953, when 10-0 Maryland finished the regular season No. 1 while 9-0-1 Notre Dame was No. 2. The Terrapins accepted an invitation to play No. 4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl — and the Sooners pulled off the 7-0 upset. However, Maryland already had been declared the national champion by the AP and UPI polls, so there was no automatic elevation of the Fight- ing Irish to the top rung to take its place, even though head coach Frank Leahy's final Notre Dame team opened the year with a 28-21 win at Oklahoma (the Sooners' final defeat until four years later to Notre Dame). THE WINDS OF CHANGE In 1965, the AP decided for one year to hold off voting for the na- tional champion until after bowl games had been played. This benefitted the University of Alabama when No. 1 Michigan State was upset in the Rose Bowl by UCLA, while No. 2 Arkansas was upset by LSU in the Cotton Bowl. So when the No. 4 Crimson Tide toppled No. 3 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, the Spartans remained national champs in the eyes of the UPI, while 9-1-1 Alabama was awarded the title by the AP. The following year (1966), the AP decided to reverse its course again and declare the champion at the end of the regular season. As a result, head coach Ara Parseghian's 9-0-1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish became college football's last national cham- pion without playing in a bowl game. ADDING PUNCH TO THE BOWL Fifty years ago, Notre Dame football ended its ban on postseason play No. 9 Notre Dame fell 21-17 to No. 1 Texas in the final minutes of the 1970 Cotton Bowl, the Fighting Irish's first bowl appearance in 44 years. The team's effort propelled Notre Dame to a final ranking of No. 5 in the Associated Press poll. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS