(I had actually once gone through year by year results during a boring winter day, and the voters ended up with a lot of ok/acceptable winners, but also nearly as many disasters as clear-cut winners)
Golden Boy was a helluva all-around player both for us and Green Bay, and Majors certainly had an illustrious career as a player & coach too (3rd was OU WR Tommy McDonald, and 4th was OU C/LB -not a typo! - Jerry Tubbs), but Brown is on the very shortlist for greatest player of all time. I think most sports fans know he was also one of the best lacrosse players ever too, but I had no idea he was also a double-digit scorer for Syracuse basketball and 5th in the nation for the decathlon - for my money, he's up with Jim Thorpe and a healthy Bo Jackson for greatest American athlete ever. The racial prejudice if not outright racism was terrible, and another blog also mentioned that both OU and ND had a massive national footprint whereas Syracuse was a regional school and played a shorter schedule.
"I don't think there will be a bigger win as long as I live," he said. "This may be the greatest comeback in Tennessee history."
I was at that game but seemed to have forgotten most of the details besides the blocked FG at the end of the first half.
ND was ahead 31-7 in the first half. Then we had to listen to Rocky Top all afternoon as Tennessee came all the way back.
Beer30 and I were there with our parents. Two sets of two tickets. We switched seats at halftime, enabling the TN comeback. Sorry, all.
Irish had 2nd & goal from the 5. Mirer took a huge sack instead of throwing the ball away. Which ultimately resulted in the scoop & score after the Hentrich blocked FG
My Tennessee friend didn't believe me.
Then I had a smoke with Moose Krause that night. The seduction he performed on my then ND-hating friend was a sight to behold. The hate was gone. Replaced with utter awe.
I remember that game like it was yesterday. What a nightmare.
ND led 31-7 at H, but it could and should have been much more.
The offense blew some chances.
Still remember the Tommy Carter pick 6.
The horrendous FG kicking/blocking. Even with Hentrich out it was inexcusable that Holtz didn't have better options.
The defense was awful with Darnell at the helm.
He deserved the BVG treatment.
Holtz should have canned him right after that game. It was warranted.
I'm pretty sure Darnell left after the season to coach at Texas or Texas A&M.
after Tennessee, if memory serves, ND got blown out at Penn State then won a shootout in Hawaii.
Without the loss to Tennessee, there may never have been a Cheerios Bowl. Now that was a great outing.
Loss.
I believe that was one of Holtz's best road wins during that 87-93 run. Tennessee was excellent and Rocket took over that game. Team effort, but Rocket had two huge punt returns that set up great field position and then the sweep where SEC talent/speed had an angle on him and he jetted past was one of the great plays I've seen him do.
Remember that sweep as it became clear the Rocket was going to split the tacklers and 100,000 fans INHALED at once. It was a sound to behold. My son was a UT student....
It was the last ND game I attended with my dad (class of '48). What a great time.
The owner of the radio station I worked at and several other guys I worked with were all Tennessee grads. It was awesome watching them squirm. Of course they had their revenge a year later...
lifetime.
ND spent so much effort on it that the next week at PSU it showed (in addition to the lost of Rocket in the second half).
You wonder - blowing a 21-7 halftime lead - how much of it was just players who were worn out.
Agree with you though.
ND seemed flat against PSU and didn't appear to have much left in the tank after playing at Tennessee the week prior.
It drove me crazy watching Holtz teams blow big halftime leads in '90(PSU-21-7) and '91(Tennessee-31-7).
Glyn Milburn basically ran in untouched for the final score at 33-16.
Our defense looked totally gassed and had given up.