‘ CATHOLICS VS. CONVICTS’
1988 warm- up brawl, Holtz pregame speech fired up Notre Dame to upset No. 1 Miami
SOUTH BEND, IND. Lou Holtz did not condone fighting. He always told his players to stay first class, keep their composure and not get involved in shoving matches.
But on Oct. 15, 1988, he apparently changed his mind.
It was a warm, breezy fall day in South Bend as No. 4 Notre Dame prepared to host No. 1 Miami ( Fla.). Back then both teams were undefeated, among the national elite. The Fighting Irish were looking for revenge on this particular day because the senior class had lost to the Hurricanes as freshmen and juniors. Miami ran up the score and beat Notre Dame 58- 7 in Gerry Faust’s final game in 1985, and the Irish got shut out 24- 0 in 1987.
This time, however, Notre Dame was different. Holtz had faster, more skilled players who could keep up with Jimmy Johnson’s national championship- contending crew.
This Saturday, when Miami comes back to Notre Dame Stadium for the first time since 1990, will be nothing like that. There was some thought this year the game could spark national buzz — both Notre Dame ( 2- 5) and Miami ( 4- 3) spent time in the top 10 but quickly tumbled out of the polls
and are unranked.
There won’t be any “Catholics vs. Convicts” T- shirts circulating among the student body— none of the players were even born when the rivalry was at its peak in the ’ 80s— but that doesn’t mean there aren’t pieces that can’t be revisited.
The week leading up to the ’ 88 matchup was electric.
Fighting Irish defensive back Pat Terrell, who made the game- winning play that day, says he has never been involved in a sporting event with “such crazy hype,” even in his nine seasons in the NFL. Neither team liked the other. Miami was the flashy showboaters, winner of two of the previous five national titles.
Notre Dame was all about rich tradition, a classic brand. It was the ultimate clash of cultures.
“I couldn’t stand Miami,” backup quarterback Steve Belles said. “There was a deep- rooted dislike for them, and we didn’t mind saying it, either. They were kind of the bullies on the block.”
There’s only one way in and one way out of the field at Notre Dame Stadium ( it’s currently under renovation). While the Irish were still going through pregame warm- ups, ’ Canes players decided they would run through their lines instead of around, as visiting teams typically do, to go back through the tunnel to the locker room. Terrell remembers wide receiver Raghib “Rocket” Ismail working as a punt returner and getting knocked over. Chaos ensued. “( The game) was already on the verge of exploding with intensity,” Terrell said. “We had just had it pounded into our heads the entire season not to flinch. It started as a shoving match, but then it was an all- out brawl. I mean, security couldn’t break us up.”
Running back Mark Green wasn’t directly involved in the fight but recalls about 20- 25 players from both teams “throwing blows.” Terrell said most of the starters saved their energy for the game, but “I saw a few walk- ons and backups just cutting it loose.”
“It wasn’t like we agitated them and invited them to come over,” Green said. “They did that on their own.”
Belles remembers a few teammates managed to steal a Miami helmet amid the pandemonium and bring it back to the Notre Dame locker room. One of the equipment managers asked for it back, but it was buried under some towels for safekeeping.
“I think the mystery of who had it and all that stuff — I know it was hidden ( in the locker room) during the whole game,” Belles said. “Then it reappeared at the gathering we had afterward.”
Once Notre Dame returned to its locker room before kickoff, players were worried they might be in trouble with Holtz.
“There was a sense of, ‘ Oh, boy, what’s going to happen?’ ” Terrell said. “Coach Holtz was a disciplinarian. He’s extremely honorable and always wants us to represent our school, so we all kind of thought we were in for it.”
It took Holtz longer than usual to come to the locker room, about 10- 15 minutes. With about a minute until they were supposed to take the field, he came in “walking extremely fast,” Terrell said, and got up in front of the team for a pregame pep talk.
“His face was red,” Terrell said. “He was mad, and we had no idea what was going to come next. You assumed he was going to go off on us for fighting, but he said, ‘ We’ve got an hour to play and a lifetime to remember.’
“He said, ‘ If we want to fight in the parking lot after the game, that’s fine. You represent our school properly in the game. But do me one favor: After we kick their butts, you leave Jimmy Johnson’s ass for me.’
“When he said that, it just ignited that locker room. I’ve never seen or been in a locker room that fired up. And I can’t remember if he started talking anymore, but we just got up and everybody ran down the steps and hit that ‘ Play Like A Champion Today’ sign and went out and made history.”
That moment changed everything for Notre Dame. Green says it was then they knew they were going to win. And Notre Dame did, pulling off a 31- 30 upset. It clinched the victory when Terrell famously batted down a two- point conversion attempt in the end zone late in the fourth quarter.
“That ( speech) set the tone, because we weren’t going to let them bully us,” defensive back D’ Juan Francisco said. “It allowed us to play freely and not look over our shoulder and get in trouble. Coach Holtz gave us permission to get after them.”
“Euphoria,” Belles said when asked what it felt like to win. “A moment we felt like we had revenge on them for what they did to us our freshman year.”
Terrell, who is from St. Petersburg, Fla., and was recruited by Miami, Florida and Florida State, remembered going home for Christmas break that year before Notre Dame played West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship. He thought everyone would be so proud he made the winning play to beat the ’ Canes. He was wrong. “I remember going to the barbershop and expecting everyone to say, ‘ Hey, Pat, great game. Way to go,’ ” he said. “And it was completely different. ‘ It was nice to see you do well, Pat, but you know how much money you lost me on that game? And how could you do that to your hometown team?’ So people were really upset.”
Nowadays, players from that team don’t hold hostility toward Miami. The rivalry ended in 1990, and the programs have played twice since — in the 2010 Sun Bowl and a 2012 regular- season meeting at Soldier Field. Even with Notre Dame’s Atlantic Coast Conference membership, it doesn’t feel like the rivalry will get back on track like it was anytime soon. Players today have no recollection of what it was like back then.
“Catholics, criminals? I don’t know,” Notre Dame right tackle Alex Bars said.
The programs have changed quite a bit in nearly 30 years, and the luster of an old, powerful rivalry is long gone. But the players from the ’ 80s will always remember those showdowns.
“At the end of the day, I still brag that we have the better student- athlete compared to those guys,” Francisco said. “They’re really nice guys, but when it comes to representing the whole college experience and Catholics vs. Convicts, if you will, that’s still very memorable and one thing we’ll always hold over them.”