Blue and Gold Illustrated

seasons in the NFL, lost a fumble that was recovered by tackle Mike Calhoun. That proved to be the next vital mo- mentum swing. Notre Dame embarked on an 86-yard drive that would actually cover 119 yards. A 30-yard run by Vagas Ferguson was negated by MacAfee's illegal proce- dure — "the only one of my career," he said with a laugh. Then a Ferguson 11-yard run was called back because of a clip — and an incensed Devine came out on the field to pick up the flag himself, hold it mock- ingly toward the official and call him "a disgrace to football." That incurred 15 more yards of pen- alty yards and forced Notre Dame into a second-and-31. Montana found Ma- cAfee for 27 yards, and then on fourth- and-two he dumped off a 16-yard pass to the tight end to take the Irish to the Clemson 11. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Montana snuck over for the touchdown to help cut the deficit to 17-14. "That was a huge, huge drive," Brad- ley said. "After all that we went through and still scored, everything just picked up. We felt we could deal with anything. Even though we were still behind, we had so much confidence and thought, 'Game over.'" Still, it would take Clemson's fifth turnover (and fourth lost fumble) to set up the game-winner. A four-yard Fuller run resulted in a fumble that Calhoun again recovered at midfield with 9:24 remaining. On second-and-10, the Irish perfectly executed a screen to the left to Ferguson that netted 36 yards. On third-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Montana plunged over again to give Notre Dame the lead for good, 21-17, with 7:11 remaining. Led by Browner, whose four tackles for loss in the game was a stadium re- cord until South Carolina's Jadeveon Clowney recently broke it with 4.5, Clemson was held to minus-four yards total on its last two possessions and the Irish offense ran out the clock. Notre Dame dropped from No. 5 to No. 6 in the Associated Press poll, but felt immense relief to still be 8-1 and in the title hunt. It barely won despite having a 5-1 advantage in turnovers. "It's one place I wouldn't like to re- visit, that's for sure," MacAfee said. Notre Dame will head back to Death Valley again this season, with lofty dreams still in play just like 38 years ago. EPILOGUE This game in many ways produced two national champions. Notre Dame went on to capture the 1977 national title by winning its final three games. Because the game was not nationally televised — there was a limit of two or three games per year in that era of how many times a team could appear on regional or national telecasts — the battle at Clemson has become somewhat obscured. Meanwhile, that Notre Dame game was one of the biggest recruiting week- ends in Clemson history and landed it one of its greatest classes ever because of the excitement from that contest. Among its signees were College Foot- ball Hall of Fame members in safety Terry Kinard and linebacker Jeff Da- vis, plus future All-American receiver Perry Tuttle. They became the nucleus of Clemson's 1981 national title team. ✦

• Cover