Friday, September 22, 2006

Notre Dame and Michigan State Celebrate 40th Anniversary of Their FOOTBALL Game of the Century

It's been a while since I last posted, but during the college basketball off-season, there's not a lot of news on the sport.

I just wanted to acknowledge tomorrow's Notre Dame-Michigan State football game, which marks the 40th anniversary of the 1966 contest between the schools -- a 10-10 tie, with both teams having come in undefeated -- that some also refer to as the "Game of the Century."

Here are some links to stories about the ND-MSU 40th anniversary match-up: MSNBC-AP (note the patch for the 40th anniversary), Lansing State Journal, and Detroit Free Press.

Getting back to college basketball, as some of you may have heard during the past season (and which you can read about in my archives), UCLA Coach Ben Howland seems to have rebuffed Houston Coach Tom Penders's request for a resumption of play between the Bruins and Cougars, including a 40th anniversary match-up in January 2008 of these schools' Game of the Century. There's still plenty of time before the 2007-08 basketball schedules are determined, but I'm not holding my breath.

I should also note that the situation between Notre Dame and Michigan State in football is different from UCLA and UH in basketball. The Irish and Spartans play virtually every year on the gridiron, so tomorrow's game is just the continuation of a long series. UCLA and Houston have met only sporadically in basketball over the past 40 years.