Michigan State can look ahead to past better times, thanks to Notre Dame’s respect for 1966
PHOTO: Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty (L) and Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian are seated as they celebrate sharing the National Football Foundation’s MacArthur Bowl Trophy as co-national champions. College Football Hall of Famers George Webster and Clinton Jones of Michigan State and Jim Lynch of Notre Dame also attended the NFF dinner at the historic Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.
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Visit my homepage: TomShanahan.Report
— Click here for review and purchase link: THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s and here for a purchase link to RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans.
— Watch a three-minute video to learn about our documentary at the fundraising stage, GAME CHANGERS OF THE CENTURY, and the Investment Deck.
— Documentary synopsis: Duffy documentary snynopsis.pdf – Google Drive
— How Duffy Daugherty and the MSU Team Changed College Football History
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By TOM SHANAHAN
Notre Dame returned to the Top 10 this week in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Irish, last year’s runner-up to Ohio State, appear positioned for a return trip to the post-season.
Meanwhile, Michigan State dropped to 3-6 with a sixth straight defeat. The Spartans, who have a bye this week, are all-but-mathematically eliminated from a bowl trip for a fourth straight season.
One of these two programs isn’t living up to next year’s 60th anniversary of the 1966 Game of the Century. The quasi-national championship matched the unbeaten No. 1-ranked Irish and the unbeaten No. 2 Spartans. Adding to the drama was the season-long buildup to November 19 at Spartan Stadium.
In recent years, one of the two programs has regained its stature despite stumbling through its down years from bad hires and failing to keep up with the changing landscape of college football.
The other remains a roller-coaster ride now caught in another downcycle from hires that backfired. Although Michigan State enjoyed a prolonged upswing under Mark Dantonio, 2007-19, without the program adapting to today’s transactional sport, George Webster, Bubba Smith, Clinton Jones, Gene Washington and Jimmy Raye aren’t walking through the Duffy Daugherty Building doors.
But let’s take a moment to look ahead to 2026 and credit Notre Dame for shuffling its schedule to invite Michigan State to the party recognizing the 60th anniversary.
The Spartans play Notre Dame next season on September 19 in South Bend. Notre Dame plays a return game at Michigan State in 2027. The Irish did the same for the 50th anniversary when the teams played in South Bend in 2016 and East Lansing in 2017.
You might ask why, should Michigan State thank Notre Dame? Some Spartans might gripe that the 60th anniversary game should be played in East Lansing to be an authentic anniversary.
Well, Notre Dame could recognize the 60th anniversary game by inviting their players next year against the opponent of its choosing. The Irish don’t need the Spartans to celebrate their 1966 national championship.
MORE 1966 GAME OF THE CENTURY HISTORY
Watch a 1966 Game of the Century video here.
RAYE OF LIGHT purchase link and THE RIGHT THING TO DO purchase link.
Thank you, Notre Dame bookstore, for inviting Notre Dame All-American Vegas Ferguson and me for a 2024 book signing: Vagas Ferguson and I set record straight on Dan Devine’s legacy and college football integration leadership history – Tom Shanahan Report Weve’ also been invited by the book store for a return book signing September 19, 2026, for the 60th anniversary of the Game of the Century in South Bend.
Although the game ended in a 10-10 tie, the poll era distorts memories. Notre Dame was voted No. 1 by the Associated Press, United Press International and the Football Writers Association of America. That’s the finish primarily recited in college football lore.
But the National Football Foundation, recognizing the 10-10 tie on the field and 9-0-1 season records, crowned the Spartans and Irish co-champions. That gets forgotten.
The NFF was one of the four bodies sanctioned by the NCAA, along with AP, UPI and the FWAA, to name an official national champion. The MacArthur Bowl, symbolic of the NFF national title, was on the Notre Dame campus for six months and Michigan State the other six.
Notre Dame’s 1966 players sometimes need to be reminded of this fact. Terry Hanratty, Notre Dame’s quarterback enshrined next month in the College Football Hall of Fame, admitted that a few years ago when he went to watch his son play for the Irish at Spartan Stadium and was confused by “1966” listed among the Spartans’ national title seasons.
College football lore overlooks another chapter to Game of the Century drama. After the teams played to a tie, which included criticism of Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian running out the clock to settle for a tie, the following week the AP poll, voted by writers, retained Notre Dame as No. 1, but UPI, voted by coaches, moved Michigan State to No. 1. However, with Michigan State’s season concluded against Notre Dame and the Irish playing one more game, routing USC 51-0 in Los Angeles, Notre Dame swept the final AP and UPI votes.
Neither team played in a bowl game in in 1966. In those days, Notre Dame followed its practice of no bowl games until 1969. Michigan State was barred from a return trip to the Rose Bowl or any bowl game by the Big Ten’s archaic rule that was in place until 1975.
Don’t assume the modern-day media will responsibly provide the depth required of a full accounting. The same is true of 1965’s national title slices. The modern media — influenced by Alabama coach Bear Bryant sycophants — sloppily credits Alabama (9-1-1) with the 1965 national title over Michigan State (10-1-0). Yes, Alabama was voted No. 1 by the AP and co-champion by the FWAA, but Michigan State was national champion by UPI and NFF as well as co-champion by FWAA.
Keith Dunnavant wrote 2007 book, The Missing Ring, about reverse racism costing Alabama the 1966 national title when third to Notre Dame and Michigan State. Allen Barra, another Bryant biographer who questions Bryant’s legacy as an integration leader, wrote in an LA Times review the claim was “borderline irrational.”
The media has been getting it wrong for a half-century, missing the influence of Notre Dame-Michigan State and the Game of the Century on college football’s future.
The Notre Dame-Michigan State roster reflected larger players in two-platoon football the NCAA adopted in 1963. Michigan State College Football Hall of Famer Bubba Smith was a 6-foot-7, 285 pounder and Notre Dame College Football Hall of Famer Alan Page 6-4, 245. Alabama was still in the single-platoon era of smaller players who could go 60 minutes. Alabama All-American offensive tackle Cecil Dowdy was 6-0, 202.
Smith and Page were first-round NFL draft picks with long pro careers. Dowdy was a ninth-round pick with limited playing time in two seasons. But Dunnavant’s claims are trumpeted by HBO, ESPN and the national media.
The Notre Dame-Michigan State Megaphone series began as an annual game in 1948 through a friendship between Notre Dame president Father John Cavanaugh and Michigan State president John Hannah.
Hannah, named Michigan State’s president in 1941, envisioned building a world-class university. He hired Syracuse head coach Biggie Munn as the Spartans’ head coach in 1947 to build a national power as the school’s front porch. Munn (1947-53) brought with him Duffy Daugherty as his top assistant. When Munn retired to the athletic director’s office, Daugherty (1954-72) was promoted.
Hannah viewed playing a college football giant such as Notre Dame annually as helping Michigan State’s case for the Spartans to gain admission to the Big Ten to replace the University of Chicago, which dropped out in 1939. In 1950, Michigan State was invited to join, although the Spartans’ first Big Ten football season wasn’t until 1953.
Father Ted Hesburgh succeeded Cavanagh as Notre Dame’s president in 1953, and the series continued. Hannah and Hesburgh also were close. They served together on the Civil Rights Commission formed in 1958 that was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
PHOTO: The 1958 Civil Rights Commission: John Hannah is second from left, Father Hesburgh third from left and President Eisenhower fourth from left.
“Those traditional rivalry games we played are important to college football,” said Notre Dame’s George Goeddeke, the Irish’s senior center in 1966 from Detroit’s St. David’s High who went on to play five NFL seasons. “It’s good to see Michigan State back on the schedule.”
In the days before conference realignment greed disrupted college football traditional rivalries, the Spartans and Irish played annually between 1948 and 2013 (with four exceptions).
Following the breakup of the Big East, Notre Dame needed to find a conference home for its men’s and women’s teams. The ACC accepted the Irish — although football retained its treasured independent status — in exchange for Notre Dame football playing five ACC opponents as non-conference games.
Notre Dame was thus forced to trim traditional rivalry games. The Irish chose to drop Purdue and Michigan State and keep USC and Navy.
The reason Notre Dame plays Navy annually — as opposed to old rival Army infrequently — is the Irish have felt indebted to Navy since the World War II years. Notre Dame faced financial insolvency until the Navy established an officer training program in South Bend to speed the officer training. My uncle, my namesake, was one of those future U.S. Marine officers educated at Notre Dame. Navy and Notre Dame play for the 97th time on Saturday in South Bend.
The USC series dated to Knute Rockne and 1926, although now that rivalry is in jeopardy. The game is currently not listed on the USC or Notre Dame 2026 schedules. The series came about in large part for the simple reason Rockne’s wife enjoyed the late-season trips to Southern California for its warm weather and Beverly Hills shopping in a burgeoning district now famously known as Rodeo Drive.
Today’s Michigan State players walking through the Duffy Daugherty Building doors are no doubt unaware of Michigan State-Notre Dame was once among the sports’ storied annual rivalries. The same is true of MSU’s current student body. They were in elementary school when the teams last played on annually.
The history they don’t know is a consequence of MSU’s poor-to-awful job of educating new players and students who have cycled through the Banks of the Red Cedar. There are too many Michigan State people that fail to understand Duffy Daugherty’s influence is a singular story. Michigan State is separate from another Minnesota or Illinois.
Michigan State losing touch with its past happened a little at a time and then all at once. First, Hannah stepped down as MSU’s president (1941-69) to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Then Munn suffered a stroke in 1971 while serving as athletic director (1954-71), Daugherty retired in 1972 after 19 seasons (1954-72) and Burt Smith, a former Daugherty lieutenant and Biggie’s AD successor, was fired in 1976. Smith had his flaws as an administrator, but he was a keeper of the flame.
A series of past presidents, athletic directors and football coaches subsequently were disconnected from the Spartans’ Biggie/Duffy history. Oddly enough, some of these MSU people have taken offense to me pointing out the failure in my books and articles rather than addressing an egregious error.
But we now have a president and athletic director interested in learning Michigan State’s history. The 1965 and 1966 teams wouldn’t have been enshrined into the MSU Hall of Fame in 2024 without the influence of school president Kevin Guskiewicz, who was only on the job a few months by the 2024 Hall of Fame induction. Another encouraging sign is athletic director J Batt, upon taking the job, has cited the importance learning MSU history.
Notre Dame scheduling Michigan State in 2026 demonstrates its respect for the 60th anniversary moment in college football history.
The 1966 Game of the Century was a seminal moment in college football that launched the TV sports-mega event. A record 33 million people tuned in to watch – one in six Americans in a population of 195 million. Space-age technology allowed for the first live broadcast of a football game in Hawaii as well a live broadcast for the American military serving in Vietnam.
The Game of the Century TV ratings were higher than for Super Bowl I that was played two months later when the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
At Spartan Stadium, an overflow crowd of 80,011 jammed into the 76,000-seat venue. A young college referee named Jerry Markbreit worked the game on his way to his long NFL career. He said the crowd intensity was bigger than any Super Bowl he later worked.
PHOTO: President John F. Kennedy (R) with Michigan State president John Hannah (L), who was serving chairman of the Civil Rights Commission, in the White House Oval Room.
I believe if President John F. Kennedy had lived and had been re-elected in 1964, he would have attended the game. After all, he enjoyed attending other college games, he knew Hannah well from the Civil Rights Commission and it would have appealed to him that Daugherty’s Michigan State teams led college football integration in the 1960s.
Kennedy, with his brother Robert F. Kennedy serving as the U.S. Attorneys General, forced two racist governors, Mississippi’s Ross Barnett and Alabama’s George Wallace, to admit African American students. Mississippi admitted James Meredith in 1962 and Alabama Vivian Malone and James Hood in 1963.
President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts, but after he attended a Texas game at the Cotton Bowl, he was known to hate sitting in a stadium watching football instead of talking politics.
Who shows up for the 2026 game isn’t as important as appreciating Father Cavanaugh, Father Hesburgh and Hannah. They can join football monsignors Parseghian and Daugherty watching together from a heavenly mancave.
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I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055
I’ll put my facts on the true pioneers of college football integration versus Bear Bryant fairytales against anybody, anytime, anywhere. Watch here.
Click here for my story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and Segregation and Alabama.
— Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter with two books on college football integration, “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans,” and “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” They are the most accurate accounts of college football integration in the 1950s and 1960s. They also debunk myths about the 1970 USC-Alabama game. The false narrative co-opted the stories of the true pioneers who stood up to Jim Crow and the KKK.
— Two children’s books also explain Michigan State College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty’s impact on integration through the Underground Railroad and the Hawaiian Pipeline: “DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” and “HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP.”
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PURCHASE LINKS, non-fiction books
— RAYE OF LIGHT, August Publications or on Amazon.
— THE RIGHT THING TO DO, August Publications or on Amazon.
PURCHASE LINKS, children’s books
— DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Order from Barnes and Noble here and Amazon here.
— HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP, coming soon on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
