GREEN & WHITE FOOTBALL

Michigan State-Notre Dame rivalry hits longest break in nearly 70 years after Saturday

Chris Solari
Lansing State Journal
In a photo provided by Michigan State University, Notre Dame's Terry Hanratty carries the ball against Michigan State, Nov. 19, 1966 in East Lansing.

EAST LANSING – They are moments so ingrained in Michigan State and Notre Dame fans that only a few words are needed to evoke emotions.

The Game of the Century.

Smoker to Haygood. The flag plant. The rain game.

Little Giants.

It’s a rivalry that spans 120 years and so much shared history beyond the field between the schools. And Saturday’s 79th meeting between the Spartans and Irish will be the last before it goes on hold, an under-the-lights primetime meeting (8 p.m./Fox) in a series filled with memories and misery.

“I just think that we just need to embrace the rivalry, embrace what's going on and have fun,” MSU coach Mark Dantonio said this week. “You know, as much as anything, I want our guys, when they enter that stadium that they look around and they understand that this is a life moment. Every opportunity to play in Spartan Stadium is a life moment – enjoy it, play as hard as you can and play with great toughness and execute.”

The two teams are not scheduled to meet again until 2026, but there always is a chance of a bowl game matchup and the potential for a one-off meeting, possibly on a neutral field, before then.

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And while much of the current history of the series revolves around the classic and epic 10-10 tie between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 MSU in 1966, considered by a number of historians to be one of the most important games ever in college football, the relationship between the schools began far before that.

In the second year of football at Michigan Agricultural College, Harry Keep’s 1897 team ventured to South Bend and lost, 34-6. Notre Dame’s program began five years earlier.

The Irish dominated the early years against the Aggies, winning 13 of the first 15 meetings between the two college football independents. Both Notre Dame losses came at then-Macklin Field in East Lansing, in 1910 and 1918.

And then came the first long break. The two schools did not play from 1921 until the series resumed in 1948. They created the Megaphone Trophy in 1949, which has been given by the schools’ alumni clubs since. And the Spartans gained entry into the Big Ten that year before becoming a member in 1954. A big supporter of MSU’s admission was Notre Dame president Father John Cavanaugh, an Owosso native who befriended then-Michigan State College president John Hannah.

Author and historian Dr. David J. Young, an East Lansing native who went to Notre Dame, researched the ties between the two schools and how much his alma mater helped.

“In 1946, John Hannah was really trying desperately to rev up the football program because he knew that’s where all of the notoriety for the school was going to come from. It was the best advertising for Michigan State as he was trying to develop it into a major university,” said Young, who has written two books on MSU’s history. “With that opportunity to play Notre Dame, it really set Michigan State up in terms of evolving into the university it is today.”

Since the rivalry began again in 1948, there only have been six years in which the two programs did not meet. The series took its first two-year pause in 1995 and 1996, and then again in 2014 and 2015.

Hannah and Cavanaugh’s successor, Father Theodore Hesburgh, also fostered a strong bond and friendship to help continue that relationship. And the biggest game, without question, came under their direction in 1966.

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That’s when Ara Parseghian’s top-ranked Fighting Irish and Duffy Daugherty’s No. 2 Spartans dueled to a tie at Spartan Stadium. It remains legendary. Alums from both schools teams will meet again for a reunion this weekend.

“For me, it was the hardest-hitting college or pro game I ever played in,” former Notre Dame offensive lineman George Goeddeke told the Free Press last year for the 50th anniversary of that game.

Dantonio was an assistant on four of MSU’s teams that won five straight from 1997-2001. He is 4-4 against the Irish as the Spartans’ head coach, but just 2-3 against Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly.

Dantonio won the first battle with an overtime fake field goal that Aaron Bates threw to Charlie Gantt for a touchdown in 2010. Kelly won three straight before the Spartans went to South Bend and powered their way to a 36-28 victory.

“They have been good games, great games, and they are always going to be packed houses and they are always going to be nationally televised,” Dantonio said. “And there's always going to be a little something that goes with that game.”

Notre Dame still leads the all-time series 48-29-1, but last year’s loss is one Kelly wants his players to remember Saturday.

“We want the megaphone,” Kelly told reporters this week. “I mean, it's all about the megaphone.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.