Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 30, 2021 15 55 Years Ago: Nov. 5, 1966 No. 1-ranked Notre Dame hosts Pitt as a 39-point favorite but leads only 7-0 at halftime. The Pan- thers had won the opening coin toss and elected to defer, so Notre Dame chose to receive. When Pitt is given the option to kick off or re- ceive in the second half, it inexplicably, in a major blunder, opts to kick off. Senior Irish halfback Nick Eddy then returns the kick for an 85-yard touch- down (his second TD runback in only four tries all season). Notre Dame's special teams then make it 21-0 when Tom Schoen returns a punt for a 63-yard tally. The Irish end up covering the spread with a 40-0 victory. 25 Years Ago: Nov. 2, 1996 Despite being a thousand miles away from their campus, the Fighting Irish are truly at home during their 54-27 victory versus Navy at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. For only the second ever, the Notre Dame varsity football team plays on foreign soil, with the first oc- curring in the 1979 regular-season finale at Tokyo, Japan, a 40-15-win over Miami. A total of 38,651 fans — about half of them Irish natives — witness the first non-Gaelic football or hurling event in the stadium. Notre Dame rushes for 303 yards, led by sophomore Autry Denson's 16 carries for 123 yards. Senior fullback Marc Edwards scores three of the team's six rushing touchdowns, and the floodgates open when defensive end Re- naldo Wynn scores on a 24-yard fumble return to give the Irish a 28-7 cushion in the third quarter. The victory also extends Notre Dame's winning streak against Navy to 33 games, setting a new NCAA record for consecutive victories versus a single opponent (32 by Oklahoma over Kansas State was the previous mark). 15 Years Ago: Nov. 4, 2006 Brady Quinn passes for four touchdowns and a season-high 346 yards to help the No. 11-ranked Fighting Irish overcome breakdowns on defense and special teams to beat North Carolina 45-26. It appears for a while the Irish would put the game away early, breaking a 7-7 tie with a pair of touchdowns and a field goal to move ahead 24-7. But the Irish surrender a 90-yard kickoff return by Brandon Tate and a 72-yard touchdown catch by Hakeem Nicks as the Tar Heels kept it respectable. Quinn connects on 23 of 35 throws with scoring passes to tight end John Carlson (11 yards), and wide receivers Rhema McKnight (seven and 14) and Jeff Samardzija (42), the latter of whom fin- ishes with six receptions for 177 yards. Samardzija's touchdown catch was the 23rd of his career, break- ing the school record set by Derrick Mayes in 1995. The Irish improve to 8-1 for the first time since 2002, when they won their first eight games un- der Tyrone Willingham. In addition, Notre Dame notches at least eight victories in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1996. 10 Years Ago: Oct. 29, 2011 Notre Dame rebounds from a disappointing 31- 17 loss to archrival USC the week before by rushing for seven touchdowns — the most for the program in 19 years — while limiting Navy to a season-low 229 yards of total offense en route to a 56-14 victory. "As a family, we all have good days and bad days. And you work through that as a family," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. "We commu- nicated with each other as a team and as a family, and you saw it today. You saw a team that played together. I told our team, that's the best collection of plays relative to all 11 players playing together." The Fighting Irish scored on five of their first six possessions and had two running backs score multiple touchdowns — Jonas Gray had three and Cierre Wood had two — for the first time since 2001. Wide receiver Michael Floyd also had two touch- downs, scoring on a 56-yard catch and a 10-yard lateral for Notre Dame, which beat Navy for only the second time in five years after winning 43 straight from 1964-2006. Anniversaries In Notre Dame Football History: Oct. 27-Nov. 5 The Fighting Irish played on foreign soil for just the second time ever in 1996, defeating Navy 54-27 at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS UNDER THE DOME YOU DON'T WAIT FOR MAIL DELIVERY! HAVE TO The digital edition of Blue & Gold Illustrated is available Sundays at BlueGoldOnline.com The Blue & Gold Illustrated digital edition includes all the great content you find in your print edition, plus: ✦ Searchable archive ✦ Downloadable PDFs ✦ Available on computers and tablets Visit BlueGoldOnline.com for the latest issue every Sunday! It's already part of your subscription! PLUS: The Blue Gold Report Midweek Update! • Emailed Every Pre-Game Wednesday • Depth Charts And Rosters For Both Teams • Updated Statistics • Columns and Much More! • Can be viewed on your computer, phone or tablet, or printed out to read later. To receive notifications, please send your email address to: newsletter@blueandgold.com. Customer Service: 1-800-421-7751