Today, we head into the YouTube archives to journey back to the 1971 college football season during the Era of Ara. The Fighting Irish were operating throughout the first half of this season on a whole different level than the competition, especially defensively.

On their way to a 5-0 start only 16 total points were given up by the Irish defense. That’s a cool 3 drives worth of points in Brian VanGorder exchange rates.

By the time Southern California came to town in late-October it was about to go down. The prior year, Notre Dame put together one of its best seasons ever only to be upset by a Trojan squad that had just lost 4 out of its last 6 games. That loss would sting after the Irish defeated #1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl but finished No. 2 in the AP Poll.

So here were were again in 1971 with an undefeated Notre Dame team matching up against an underachieving USC team that had already lost 4 games already. Whatever magic joo joo USC head coach John McKay was able to conjur up against Ara Parseghian was present once again on this day.

“So they

[Notre Dame] were down 28-7, we had the ball and we were driving down once again and, out of frustration, some idiot named Marx, Greg Marx, started a fight with, well, the worst guy to pick on, John Vella, because he could wipe out half the Greek Army just with his breath. Well, he started on Vella, and Vella was a brawler. He was my roommate, nobody messed with Vella. Vella took him down and it organically happened. It started with two or three guys here, then it was six guys there and then it was offense versus defense. The state troopers had to come in, the local police couldn’t handle it, it was out of hand. The game stopped for no less than 20 minutes. They started the fight, we finished it.

“Well, that game was my senior year and I can tell you that we were not defeated the rest of the year and we once again became a tough team. We won with pride and felt satisfied after that game. We recovered an identity, which was very valuable.

“Not only that, Coach McKay himself changed his demeanor somewhat after that game. He was short on words but there was great gravity to what he would say. After the game he said, ‘Thank you, men, it looks like we’re back to our winning ways.’ That’s all. He had the cigar, the Coke and the big smile. It was very satisfying — we felt like we were in it together again. He started reaching out to the players more and that continued into the ’72 team, which was one of the greatest college football teams of all time, if not the greatest.”

The above quote is from John Papadakis, father of Petros Papadakis who would go on to also play for USC in the late 1990’s and is now a famous radio and media star in Los Angeles. If you know him you just read this sentence in his very distinctive voice.

Okay, let’s walk through this play. The first thing that jumps out to me is Notre Dame stacking the line of scrimmage with 7 defenders and still looks like they could easily be out-manned at the point of attack. Secondly, there’s this romanticism involved with these old games and how tough everyone was but there was a lot of cut blocking–generally perceived to be “less tough” and even “sissy” these days. It’d be interesting to see an Irish team block like this nowadays. Even the Holtz teams cut-block a lot.

USC was looking for some sort of quick short pass on this play, perhaps a slant, and at 0:08 seconds of the video you can almost hear the quarterback scream. Within a second Notre Dame’s DT has already shoved USC’s tackle to the side and is barreling down on the QB, with the Irish end not far behind completely unblocked.

Also, sneaky good block by the Notre Dame defensive end by giving a last-second little chip to knock down the USC tight end. That receiver was probably going to be the main target a couple of seconds later and I’d imagine he didn’t get out into his route all that well.

Plan B on this play is to take a shot down field after the QB buys some time and rolls back and to his right. The only problem is that one of his fullbacks slips on the traditional trash Notre Dame grass while becoming a useless blocker.

gotem

So the quarterback got lit up!

That’s John Vella #75 who comes torpedoing into the pile a second late and he’s immediately dealt with by another #75 in Greg Marx. I love this type of reaction, you just don’t see it much these days. Well, you don’t see many brawls these days either.

Check out the ref, apparently in the baggiest official pants known to football history, just casually strolling towards the melee at the 0:21 mark. In the days before instant replay someone has to find that ball, forget the fighting the players can work that out themselves!

Bold move by the guy in the blue shirt, by the way. Apparently he thought a clipboard was going to break this fight up or something?

“It is a free-for-all. Don’t get caught on the bottom!”

That’s former Heisman winner Paul Hornung on the color. Imagine anyone in the booth saying that today! I can’t even imagine the reaction from social media, and especially Notre Dame in the aftermath, if this occurred today.

By the way, the fumble was recovered by Walt Patulski, still the last Notre Dame player* selected No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft.

If anyone was at this game, please share your memories in the comment section.

*Until DeShone Kizer this spring, that is. Just kidding, Kizer come on back for 2017!