Notre Dame 31-Michigan 0

 Notre Dame 31-Michigan 0

On 6th of September Michigan played Notre Dame in South Bend. In thinking about Notre Dame a couple of things comes to mind: 1. My brothers favorite Detroit Lions player back in the 60s, was Leon Hart, who played for Notre Dame. 2.  Also in the 60s, the nation’s two leading teams- Michigan State and Notre Dame played in a historic gridiron battle. Michigan State was leading. 10-7, while Notre Dame had a fourth-down decision to make. Notre Dame’s coach Ara Parseghian could go either for the victory or the tie. Many were unhappy as coach went for the tie.

Jim Betts, one of the players profiled In Bo’s Warriors told the story that he was recruited to play for Notre Dame. Jim played quarterback on offense and safety on defense at a parochial high school. At the Notre Dame dinner, Notre Dame’s line coach John Ray told Jim that they wanted him to play defense because they had this quarterback named Joe Theismann coming that fall. Incidentally, John Ray, a line coach for University of Detroit recruited me to play there for the Titans. When Jim talked to his high school coach Augie, the former Notre Dame player, about his treatment, he told Jim to play somewhere else. For more about Jim, I refer you to my book.

When Mike Keller was playing for Catholic Central High School, the Sisters wanted him to play for Notre Dame. Mike did in fact, visit and talk with coach Parseghian. Notre Dame’s coach told Mike that they did not have a scholarship him for at the moment but that he was sure they would find one for him. Even though there was pressure from the faculty at Catholic Central, Mike chose to attend the University Michigan.

Notre Dame clearly outplayed Michigan. It was embarrassing and the game was very disappointing to say the least. I would’ve liked to a heard what Brandstatter, and Dierdorf had to say about the pitiful line play on the radio. And, what Thom Darden had to say about the defensive secondary as well.

Well, Michigan’s next game is against Miami of Ohio. For those of you that don’t know, Bo Schembechler was head coach there before coming to Michigan.