Maturi Attending Greatest Game Reunion

 

Former Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi and his wife Lois leave for South Bend, Indiana tomorrow and Notre Dame’s 50th reunion of the 1966 “Game of the Century.”

It will be a half century in November that the Fighting Irish and Michigan State played one of the most famous college football games of all-time in East Lansing.  Maturi, a graduate of Chisholm High School on Minnesota’s Iron Range, was a student trainer on the 1966 team.

A series of reunion events starts Friday and continues Saturday night at the game between the 2016 Fighting Irish and Spartans at Notre Dame Stadium. At halftime the Notre Dame alums from the 1966 team will be honored with a ceremony.

Attendees are also using the reunion to raise money for the helping others foundations of former Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian and Alan Page who was an All-American tackle for the Irish in 1966 and later an All-Pro for the Minnesota Vikings. Parseghian, 93, was the Notre Dame coach for 11 seasons starting in 1964 and is expected to attend the reunion.

Maturi is bringing a large number of family members to celebrate the weekend including his three-month-old granddaughter. He spent over $1,000 on game tickets but said no to Notre Dame’s policy that everyone—including infants—must have a ticket. Balking at buying a ticket for granddaughter Lucille, Maturi contacted a school official who agreed to “smuggling” the infant into Notre Dame Stadium Saturday night.

Maturi remembers many details about the famous game between the two undefeated teams with star players galore, including Irish quarterback Terry Hanratty and 6-foot-7 Spartan defensive lineman Bubba Smith. Hanratty got hurt in the game and Irish All-American running back Nick Eddy didn’t even play because of a bad shoulder. “We had lots of injuries,” Maturi remembered.

The night before Irish games Maturi visited the hotel rooms of players to provide medications. He remembered a disgruntled player greeted the knock on his door like this: “Maturi, you’re the only guy who wakes somebody…to give him sleeping pills to go to sleep.”

Maturi talked about gamesmanship even before kickoff in East Lansing on that famous November 19 day. “I remember some of the Michigan State guys standing outside greeting the bus as we were entering (the stadium). Kind of trying to intimidate, I would say, in some ways. …”

The game ended in a 10-10 tie when Parseghian decided to run out the clock rather than try to position his team down field for a possible winning field goal. Irish quarterback Coley O’Brien had taken over for Hanratty but wasn’t physically strong, Maturi said. O’Brien had diabetes and was physically run-down. Maturi believes that may have been a reason Parseghian was conservative at game’s end.

After the 10-10 tie the Irish made a statement in the next game, a season-ending 51-0 win over USC. Back in 1966 national champions were determined by polls—not playoffs—and most polls selected Notre Dame as No. 1, although some honored Michigan State.

Worth Noting

Dick Jonckowski, public address voice of Gophers basketball and baseball since the 1980s, will be presented with an Honorary M at the M Club Hall of Fame event October 20 at TCF Bank Stadium. Jonckowski starts his 31st season of Gophers basketball this fall and last spring finished his 29th season of baseball.

Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi, formerly the defensive coordinator at Michigan State and now in his second season at Pitt, will be a featured speaker at the Minnesota Football Clinic next spring. The Minnesota Football Coaches Association’s website also reports other clinic “headliners” will be North Dakota State head coach Chris Klieman and former Gophers interim coach Jeff Horton now an assistant at San Diego State.

J.D. Spielman, the 2015 Mr. Football Award winner from Eden Prairie, has yet to catch a pass or make a run in two games as a wide receiver for Nebraska. The 5-9, 180-pound freshman was one of the most explosive runners and kick returners in state history.

With a 21-6 record in nonconference games after two weeks play, and featuring five teams in the top 15 of the Associated Press college football rankings, the Big Ten Conference can do a little strutting. High scoring games have been common with five teams totaling over 50 points last weekend, including the Gophers’ 58-28 win over Indiana State. It’s the first time the Big Ten has had five teams top 50 points since September 13, 1997.

After two weeks following the 14 Big Ten teams, impressions are more solid than in August. With that introduction, here are my initial power rankings of Big Ten teams.

1. Ohio State. Urban Meyer is 52-4 as Buckeyes coach. That’s code for the talent is good and deep in Columbus where OSU is ranked No. 3 nationally.

2. Michigan. Coach Khaki has the No. 4 ranked Wolverines headed for a national championship. We just don’t know how soon.

3. Michigan State. The No. 12 ranked Spartans are defending Big Ten champions and will find out how good they are Saturday at Notre Dame. Nobody scowls better than Spartans coach Mark Dantonio.

4. Wisconsin. The No. 9 ranked Badgers defeated SEC bully and preseason national title contender LSU in their season opener. Maybe the Badgers should play all their games at Lambeau.

5. Iowa. The No. 13 Hawkeyes have got a bunch of exceptional players and a great one in cornerback Desmond King who won the 2015 Jim Thorpe award. Among Iowa’s best are senior quarterback C.J. Beathard and freshman defensive end Anthony Nelson who at 6-7 reminds some folks of the legendary Ted Hendricks.

6. Nebraska. The Huskers are 2-0 but have a lot of damage control work to do after last season’s 6-7 Mike Riley coaching debut. Probably time to start believing if Huskers, averaging 47.5 points per game and giving up 13.5, defeat No. 22 Oregon Saturday in Lincoln.

7. Minnesota. Is this too high a spot for the Gophers? They are an iffy team but we’ll know what to make of Year One in the Tracy Claeys era after Minnesota’s opening Big Ten game at Penn State on October 1. Not good that two cornerbacks are suspended and potential all-Big Ten tight end Brandon Lingen is injured again and out for an indefinite period.

The remaining power rankings look like this: 8. Penn State, 9. Indiana, 10. Northwestern, 11. Maryland, 12. Illinois, 13. Rutgers and 14.Purdue.