When No. 1-ranked Notre Dame faced No. 2 Michigan State University on Nov. 19, 1966, at Spartan Stadium, the game was watched by 33 million viewers — college football’s largest TV audience at the time.
Ending in a 10-10 tie, it became known as the “Game of the Century.” That year, MSU was awarded its second consecutive national championship.
Now 60 years later, MSU and Notre Dame are renewing their rivalry for the Megaphone Trophy at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 19. The teams will meet again at Spartan Stadium in 2027.
In 1966, the “Game of the Century” was highly anticipated since the Spartans and the Fighting Irish teams were both top-ranked, featured 25 players who would receive All-American recognition, including 31 future NFL players as well as 10 first-round picks and the future No. 1 overall selection in the draft: Bubba Smith.
The Spartans and the Fighting Irish were then led by legendary coaches Duffy Daugherty and Ara Parseghian. Daugherty served as the MSU head football coach from 1954 to 1972.
“Michigan State entered the game as a 4-point underdog to a team who had outscored their previous opponents 301-28; the Fighting Irish had both the top scoring offense and defense in the nation,” according to a story written by Nick Kurtansky for On the Banks of the Red Cedar. “The country’s best two teams met in East Lansing on November 19, 1966, in 33 degree temperatures under cloudy skies, in front of an attendance of 80,011.”
Integration of college football
The 1966 MSU football team’s most important legacy was its role in the integration of college football.
Daugherty traveled the South recruiting student-athletes — including many who went on to become All-Americans — who were denied an opportunity to play in their home states. By 1966, the Spartan roster included 20 Black players — an unprecedented number at a time when many major college football programs remained segregated.
When MSU was awarded the national championship in 1966, Jimmy Raye became the first Black quarterback from the South to win a national championship.
In the seasons that followed that historic game, college teams across the nation began to fully integrate. MSU and those 20 brave Spartan student-athletes changed college football forever.
Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Dungy narrates this game-changing story
The first Black head coach to win the Super Bowl, Dungy later was an analyst on NBC’s “Football Night in America” and is one of the most influential figures in football.
Dungy’s fascination with football began in Jackson, Michigan, where he grew up in the 1960s. A fan of the MSU Spartans, his family lived on campus while his father, a college professor, attended MSU to work on his doctorate.
During this time, Dungy attended many MSU athletic events and idolized quarterback Jimmy Raye. Seeing black players such as Raye in leadership roles on the field inspired Dungy and an entire generation of athletes.
This story was first shared in 2018. Top image: Michigan State fullback Reggie Cavender (No. 25) hurtles past the Notre Dame defensive forward wall on his way to an 11-yard gain to the Irish 9-yard line early in the second quarter of the 1966 game. Photo courtesy of University Archives and Historical Collection.
More on the Game of the Century:
- Check out this video from Michigan State Athletics featuring historical footage
- 'How can you forget a game like that?' Hear from an alumni who was at the game
- Spartan Stadium art installation will permanently honor 1965 and 1966 championship teams
