A Look Into the BC-ND Holy History

Written By Reid Oslin

Every good Catholic believes in miracles.

So there's every reason to expect some Divine Intervention this Saturday night, when the nation's two foremost Catholic schools – Boston College and Notre Dame – get together at Boston's Fenway Park for the renewal of football vows.

And, don't think that miracles haven't happened in this Vatican-tinged rivalry that dates back to the 1975 season.

In 1993, the Jesuit-trained Eagles cost the Irish – much to the dismay of that school's Holy Cross Fathers – a coveted National Championship when David Gordon's 41-yard field goal sailed through the uprights as time expired. Notre Dame had entered that Nov. 20 game in South Bend with a perfect 10-0 record and the No. 1 perch in every poll. BC brought a 7-2 and No. 17 ranking to the field situated directly under the gaze of "Touchdown Jesus" – a Notre Dame campus icon. Something had to give.

After Glenn Foley (315 passing yards, four touchdowns) led the Eagles to a seemingly insurmountable 21-point lead (38-17) with 11 minutes to play, the Irish staged one of its trademark football resurrections, scoring three times in lightning succession to take a 39-38 advantage with just 1:10 left on the clock.

Foley completed two first-down passes to tight end Pete Mitchell (who had 13 catches in the game) and then fired another strike to Ivan Boyd who planted the ball squarely in the middle of the field at the ND 24-yard line.

Onto the field trotted Gordon, a walk-on kicker who had transferred to BC from the University of Vermont where he had played varsity soccer. The game was televised nationally by NBC-TV (widely known as the "Notre Dame Broadcasting Company"), and during a long, final timeout before the kick attempt, the network showed footage of Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz lighting a votive candle in the Campus Grotto.

Gordon had never made a 41-yarder until that cold, gray, glorious day in South Bend. He hit it squarely.

Final score: BC 41, ND 39. The National Championship aspirations of the Irish had suddenly turned into fallen angels. Enterprising BC students quickly made up a hot-selling t-shirt that read: "Hey Lou – Next Time Light Two!"

Another piece of religious lore occurred in the 2004 game – also played in Indiana – when 24-year-old BC quarterback Paul Petersen, perhaps the first Mormon to play quarterback at either Catholic university, hit a streaking Tony Gonzalez in the corner of the end zone with just a minute remaining, giving the Eagles a thrilling (at least to the BC congregation) 24-23 victory.

Or what about the game in 2002? That's when Eagle linebacker Josh Ott ignored the Commandment "Thou Shalt Not Steal" to pilfer a Notre Dame pass and return it for the deciding touchdown in BC's 14-7 triumph.

That particular game in South Bend was the last time the Fighting Irish decided to wear their green game vestments instead of their traditional blue home shirts. After the loss to Ott & Co., the Notre Dame greens were stored away in mothballs, until this Saturday's contest that will see the ND team dressed in hues to match Fenway's famed "Green Monster" façade.

The Eagles' christened the new Alumni Stadium with a decisive 30-11 victory over Holtz' Irish team on Oct. 8, 1994 – BC's first football win in the newly-constructed gridiron chapel.

Eagle fans in Chestnut Hill offered up a litany of Hail Marys during the 2003 football meeting of the two Catholic schools. The prayers apparently worked as Sandro Sciortino booted a 38-yard field goal in the closing minute to give the Eagles a 27-25 absolution.

The 1999 game was a hell-raiser, too. Coach Tom O'Brien's BC team defeated Notre Dame, 31-29, and O'Brien – who had been taught by Jesuits at Xavier High School in Cincinnati – preached to his team, "This is the last game of the season…the last game of the decade… and the last game of the century in Notre Dame Stadium.

"And Boston College won!"

The gentle hand of God has not always favored the Eagles in this Holy Football War.

Boston College finished a 9-2 regular season in 1983 and Jack Bicknell's team captured the Lambert Trophy as Eastern champions. Notre Dame, struggling under coach Gerry Faust, ended the regular season at 6-5. Somehow, the teams were matched in the Liberty Bowl to be played three days after Christmas.
Just before the game, a severe and unusual Arctic cold front moved through the region, freezing the playing field to a rock-hard consistency and paralyzing the normally temperate Memphis area.

It was 11 degrees at kickoff and the temperature kept falling as the game wore on. The Boston College and Notre Dame offenses somehow managed to score three touchdowns apiece on the frozen tundra of a playing field. BC kicker Brian Waldron, who was unable to get proper footing on the icy surface, missed two extra-point kick attempts and the Eagles failed to convert a two-point pass conversion try after their third score. Notre Dame missed two extra points, but finally clicked on a third. The Irish won, 19-18.

Perhaps Notre Dame's legendary sports information director Roger Valdiserri summed it up best after the game: "Imagine," he said, "having all those Catholics in one place and only able to make one conversion."

Amen.

Boston College Athletics

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