The day Carolina introduced Joe Montana to the world.
Notre Dame makes a ninth visit to Kenan Stadium Saturday in a series that overall dates back to 1949 and stands 21-1 in the official record book.
On the field, the Tar Heels have beaten the Fighting Irish twice, both in Chapel Hill. The thrilling 29-24 victory in 2008 was later vacated by the NCAA for rules violations in the Butch Davis regime.
The Heels did pull off a 12-7 shocker in 1960 – Jim Hickey’s second year after succeeding the late Jim Tatum – and the next closest call came 15 years later in 1975 when the football world had its first real look at sophomore quarterback Joe Montana, a second-stringer on the 15th-ranked team in the nation.
(It was also the season that inspired the story and movie about Dan “Rudy” Ruettiger, the walk-on who sacked the Georgia Tech quarterback on the last play of a 24-3 blowout.)
After a scoreless first half, Carolina jumped out to a 14-0 lead on a 12-yard touchdown run by Mike Voight and a 39-yard pass from Billy Paschall to Mel Collins.
Although Irish quarterback Rick Slager got them on the scoreboard early in the fourth quarter, coach Dan Devine called the kid wearing No. 3 off the bench with 5:13 left in the game, and within a minute Montana led the Irish on a 73-yard touchdown drive. His two-point conversion pass tied the game at 14-14 with 4:18 left.
“Slager has held onto the starting quarterback spot at Notre Dame, but I wonder how long when you see Joe Montana perform,” chirped TV announcer Don Criqui.
Trying to avoid a tie against the three-touchdown underdog, Montana hit wide receiver Ted Burgmeier, who broke two Tar Heel tackles on an 80-yard scoring pass down the left sideline with 63 seconds left in the game.
“And where has Joe Montana been?” Criqui said. “It might be a good song title.”
Montana spent all of 1:02 on the field and had 129 yards passing. Notre Dame survived 21-14 and sent a capacity crowd of 49,500 fans home bitterly disappointed.
With Montana taking over after coming off the bench the next week to engineer a 21-point comeback win over Air Force, the Irish finished 8-3 as Bill Dooley’s Tar Heels slumped to 3-7-1 after four bowl seasons. Leading the Irish to the 1977 national championship, No. 3 at Notre Dame became No. 16 in the NFL and remains in the debate with Tom Brady as the greatest QB1 of all time.
And, to think, it all started here.
Featured image via University of Notre Dame
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