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    Mike Gearin

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    Tuesday, November 7, 2017

    Catholics vs Convicts: An Eyewitness Account

    Notre Dame vs Miami, October 15, 1988

     

    (Editor's Note: This Saturday, Nov 11th, Notre Dame and Miami will play a football game with huge implications for this year's National Championship playoffs. But it won't be the first time these two teams faced off in a high-profile game. This article looks back at the 1988 Notre Dame-Miami game, still considered one of the greatest college football games ever. We reprint this article by permission. And although this article is a bit unusual for our blog page, we post it for three reasons: 1) because of Bridgedale's multiple connections to the University of Notre Dame; 2) because it is a story about excellence in academics and athletics; and 3) because it reflects the same fundamental values of tradition, sportsmanship and respect that we uphold at Bridgedale Academy.)

    By Mike Gearin, Notre Dame Grad and Sports Fan Extraordinaire

     

    The most intensely competitive sporting even I've ever seen

     

    It is still to this day the best sporting event I have ever attended. And I have attended some really good ones, including the famous Notre Dame Basketball "88 and 1" game in 1974 in which the Irish handed Bill Walton his very first loss at any level and broke the UCLA Bruins 88 game win streak.

    But October 15, 1988 was the most intensely competitive sporting event I have personally witnessed.

    It featured two of the most talented teams in college football history in an epic collision of what could not be more contrasting views of the way that college football should be played. ESPN Film’s recent 30 for 30 episode, entitled “Catholics vs Convicts,” documented the game and prompted me to reflect on and record my personal observations of the events of that day. 

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