Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/176703
Champions An excerpt from the book Unbeatable: Notre Dame's 1988 Championship and the Last Great College Football Season by Jerry Barca The following is an except from the chapter "Catholics vs. Convicts" in Jerry Barca's book about Notre Dame's most recent national championship season. This chapter sets the scene on the afternoon of Oct. 15, 1988, when the Irish achieved an iconic moment in program history by snapping Miami's 36-game regular-season winning streak with a 31-30 victory that set the tone for the 12-0 season. This excerpt begins late in the chapter with the Irish clinging to a 31-24 lead with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter and Miami going for it on fourth down near the goal line. Some of the players and coaches referenced below include: quarterback Steve Walsh, running back Cleveland Gary and head coach Jimmy Johnson for Miami, and head coach Lou Holtz, defensive lineman Chris Zorich, linebacker Frank Stams, quarterback Tony Rice, defensive back Pat Terrell and defensive coordinator Barry Alvarez for Notre Dame. N otre Dame rushed three players, dropping eight men back into pass coverage. The pocket opened up around Walsh. He threw to Gary at the 2-yard line, already past the first-down marker. Gary turned and dove toward the goal line, extending his arm into controversy and the end zone. Safety George Streeter had lunged at Gary, getting an arm across his helmet, chest, and leg as the Hurricane reached for the touchdown. The ball came loose. Gary tried to regain possession and pushed the ball out of the end zone to the 1-yard line, where Notre Dame's Michael Stonebreaker dove on it. After three seconds of discussion, an official waved his arm signaling Notre Dame ball. "It would've been easy to stop a couple feet from where he was," Streeter said. "Everything was about feet and inches. We just didn't give up, and there was just some hope that we would make a play." Johnson kept waving his arm forward, yelling, "First down," on the Miami sideline. "It wasn't a fumble. The ball was in