Famous tie in 1966 recalled by Notre Dame, Michigan State football players

EAST LANSING – They gathered together in a circle, arms around each other, their voices growing louder and building to a crescendo.

“Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame! Wake up the echoes cheering her name!”

When they finished, Terry Hanratty popped up off his perch and peered over the circle, a quarterback barking out instructions and offering challenges.

“I bet you don’t know your fight song!”

Michigan State, once again, responded. This time, though, it was note for note rather than blow for blow.

“On the banks of the Red Cedar, is a school that’s known to all!”

Everyone clapped and cheered. Fittingly, another tie.

It was 51 years ago when they last met inside Spartan Stadium together, on a cold Saturday in 1966. On Friday night, alums from both teams who played in “The Game of the Century” 10-10 tie gathered there again to share pizza, pop and memories inside the Varsity S Club.

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It was the first time the Spartans and Fighting Irish players came together in a group to reminisce since they fought to a deadlock on Nov. 19, 1966.

“It’s been really nice and exciting, after all these years, to finally put a face to the name,” said former MSU quarterback Jimmy Raye, one of about 30 former players from both teams in attendance. “We still have that competitive spirit and camaraderie of playing against one another in a game that kept us relevant because neither one of us won.”

The genesis of the event began a year ago. And it came about because of some Detroit muscle.

Notre Dame welcomed a big reunion of its 1966 national championship team before the Spartans’ 36-28 victory last September in South Bend. MSU honored its 1966 team throughout homecoming week in October last year. The Spartans finished second in the polls to the Irish, thanks to that season-ending tie and Notre Dame’s 51-0 blowout USC the following week.

At a panel discussion on campus last year, former MSU Academic All-American Pat Gallignagh and ex-Notre Dame offensive lineman George Goeddeke – who still live in the area and were among 10 former Detroit Catholic League players in the 1966 game – decided it was time to get as many of their college teammates together to remember the legendary game.

It worked. About 30 former players from those 1966 teams, including a handful from Notre Dame, made it back between Friday’s pizza party and Saturday’s pregame lunch and ceremony.

“We’ve been trying to do it for years and years. Never came to fruition,” Goeddeke said. “This was special, even though we’ve only got a handful of guys here. But we’d been talking, and we pulled it together, which is great.

“We had a very healthy respect for the Spartans, and it was a great rivalry. It still is a great rivalry. And being a Michigander myself in Detroit, it’s special to me to be with these guys. They’re just a bunch of great guys.”

They’ve all told their stories of the 10-10 tie countless times, the implications have been dissected by a number of authors and scholars, and there have been plenty of previous reunions. The numbers from that game remain etched in history – 25 All-Americans, 42 pro football draft picks (10 of them first-rounders), 33 pro players, eight College Football Hall of Famers (including MSU coach Duffy Daugherty and Notre Dame’s Ara Parseghian). A number of them, including Parseghian on Aug. 2 this year, have died.

But their memories were honored, in words and images.

A video of the highlights and old interviews played on all the screens inside the Varsity S Club on Friday night, starting with Brent Musberger’s long-after-fact recap of how Nick Eddy aggravated a shoulder injury while getting off the train as the Irish arrived at the station just west of campus.

Hanratty, who got knocked out of the game after a vicious hit by Bubba Smith, recalled standing on the sidelines as time was running down and Parseghian opted to run out the clock after Duffy Daugherty decided to punt the ball with about a minute and a half left.

“They’re really good guys, and we’ve always had a good time together,” Hanratty said. “We fought like hell on the field. But off the field, we were good friends.”

Hanratty said had he not been sidelined with a first-quarter shoulder injury from Smith's tackle, he believes the Irish would have won 35-10. Raye – who went on to a long career as an NFL assistant coach – laughed when he heard that proclamation, breaking into some quarterback bravado and bluster of his own.

“If he stays in, we probably win 35-10,” Raye chuckled. “Our defense with George and Bubba and Mad Dog Thornhill, they were gonna harass him. He had the target on him.”

However, when time ran out that day in 1966, both teams walked off the field with their heads hanging. Some remembered consoling their opponents and voicing the same frustrations in return.

A tie. No winner, no loser.

Just a shared place in college football history that lasts to this day.

“Even guys who weren’t born then have heard about the 10-10 tie game,” Gallinagh said, “so we all got a little sliver out of immortality out of that because of the way it ended.”