Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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44 DECEMBER 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI T here will be no bowl for the 2016 Notre Dame football team to partake in with its losing record. However, on Dec. 10, the Fight- ing Irish faithful should be tuned in to ESPN for the football team's own ver- sion of "postseason action" this year. Right after the network's telecast of the Heisman Trophy presentation, its award-winning "30 For 30" series will debut the two-hour "Catholics Vs. Catholics" feature on the Oct. 15, 1988 showdown between No. 1-ranked Mi- ami's football dynasty (1983-93), ver- sus No. 4 Notre Dame, a past dynasty that was battling to regain respect af- ter falling on tough times. The story opens with the 58-7 hu- miliation Miami handed Notre Dame on Nov. 30, 1985, in head coach Gerry Faust's final game with the Fighting Irish. ND ended the season with a 5-6 record, while the beating also spawned an enmity between the two programs that would boil over in coming years. The director of the film, Patrick Creadon, was a freshman at Notre Dame during that 1985 season. His grandfather was recruited by Knute Rockne and was a student at Notre Dame when it won its first consensus national title in 1924. A generation later, Creadon's father then witnessed as a Notre Dame student himself the greatest upset in Fighting Irish foot- ball history, the 7-0 win at Oklahoma in 1957 to end the Sooners' NCAA record 47-game winning streak. So for Creadon, an Irish senior in 1988, directing and narrating this documentary was a labor of love. However, the story is about far more than Notre Dame rising from the ashes and the game itself. There are numerous compelling backstories, with Creadon's roommate and best friend Pat Walsh the central figure. Walsh, who was pursuing the dream of making head coach Digger Phelps' basketball roster as a walk-on (which he would achieve), also was an entrepreneur who had developed an underground T-shirt empire on campus. He had become so success- ful with his profits that the university issued him a warning to shut it down. However, as the build-up for that 1988 meeting with Miami began to reach epic levels, Notre Dame bas- ketball captain Joe Fredrick recom- mended to Walsh to create a Catho- lics Vs. Convicts T-shirt. "No way," Walsh replied. "That shirt will get me kicked out of school." Ultimately, the temptation became too great, and how that piece of cloth- ing developed and what transpired thereafter was entertaining in itself. Just as compelling were some of the individual stories of quarterback Tony Rice, flanker Pat Eilers and safety Pat Terrell, among others, as vital figures in Notre Dame's march to its most recent national title. Per usual, 1986-96 head coach Lou Holtz offered his own commentary. Equal time was given in this docu- mentary to star Miami players such as quarterback Steve Walsh, fullback Cleveland Gary, whose fourth-quar- ter fumble at the Irish 1-yard line is hotly debated, and tackle Leon Searcy, among others. Miami head coach Jimmy Johnson and defensive coordinators Dave Wannstedt (Miami) and Barry Alva- rez (Notre Dame) also offered their perspectives. For a generation of Notre Dame fans, there never was never a more antici- pated, pulsating game at home than when No. 1 Miami arrived in 1988. The 5-0 start by the Fighting Irish provided some salve to a rough 43-36-1 period from 1981-87, but the show- down with the Hurricanes always lurked, like the bully around the cor- ner ready to take your lunch money. Here are at least five reasons why it became the greatest game ever played at Notre Dame Stadium, and one for the ages in college football annals: The Domination In four games from 1983-87 (no meet- ing in 1986), the Hurricanes outscored the Irish 133-20. Only one other time had a program so dominated Notre Dame in four straight games. Michi- gan State outscored Notre Dame 121-20 in the four meetings from 1956-60 (no meeting in 1958). A CLASSIC REMEMBERED ESPN's '30 For 30' on Dec. 10 will feature backstories behind the 1988 Notre Dame-Miami 'Catholics Vs. Convicts' battle Emotions were at a fever pitch for the 1988 showdown between No. 1 Miami and No. 4 Notre Dame, which led to a pregame scuffle in the tunnel prior to the start of the game that was won by the Irish 31-30. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS