Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/98978
Under the Dome Anniversaries In Notre Dame Athletics History: January 40 Years Ago: Jan 13, 1973 On the heels of a 6-20 finish in his first season and a 1-6 start in his second, 31-year-old Notre Dame head basketball coach Digger Phelps and his Fighting Irish pull off their first watershed moment with a 71-69 upset of No. 4 and 11-0 Marquette ��� ending the 81-game home winning streak of head coach Al McGuire���s powerhouse program. Trailing by 10 early in the second half, Notre Dame whittles away at the lead with sophomore guard Gary Brokaw finishing with 28 points and junior center John Shumate ��� unable to play a year earlier because of a blood clot ��� adding 21. But sophomore point guard Dwight ���Iceman��� Clay steals the show on a corner jumper with four seconds left for the winning points. Just more than a year later (Jan. 19, 1974), Clay would hit another corner shot in the closing seconds in another game that would finish with a similar score (71-70), with the Irish rallying from a double-digit second-half deficit to snap UCLA���s NCAA-record 88-game winning streak. This was the appetizer toward glory days for Notre Dame basketball under Phelps in the 1970s. 35 Years Ago: Jan. 2, 1978 Notre Dame is elevated all the way from No. 5 to No. 1 with a convincing 38-10 triumph against 11-0 and No. 1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl at Dallas. The stunning rout begins when head coach Dan Devine���s Fighting Irish score three unanswered touchdowns in a span of 7:28 ��� six- and 10-yard runs by fullback Terry Eurick, and a 17yard touchdown pass from Joe Montana to tailback Vagas Ferguson ��� to build a 24-3 cushion in the second quarter. That sudden three-touchdown flurry is eerily similar to the one seven years earlier in the 1971 Cotton Bowl against another No. 1 Texas team when the Irish tallied three touchdowns in a span of 9:30 to take a 21-3 lead on their way to a 24���11 upset. Notre Dame continues its assault in the second half with two more touchdown runs by Ferguson, who finishes with 100 yards on 21 carries while fullback Jerome Heavens has 101 yards on 22 attempts. More remarkable is an Irish defense that forces six turnovers (three interceptions and three fumbles) and limits Heisman Trophy winner Earl Campbell to 116 hard-earned yards on 29 carries. Middle linebacker/nose Tailback Vagas Ferguson rushed for 100 yards on 21 carries and caught a touchdown pass to help Notre Dame defeat Texas 38-10 in the 1978 Cotton Bowl. photo courtesy notre dame media relations