There was something magical about the third year of a Notre Dame football coach’s tenure. Ara Parseghian and Dan Devine had each won a national championship in Year Three. Brian Kelly reached the BCS National Championship Game in 2012. The 1988 Notre Dame football team is a part of that third-year magic, winning a national title for Lou Holtz.
As the Catholics vs. Convicts moniker suggests, the two programs had completely contrasting public images, with Notre Dame perceived as the good guys, and Miami as the bad.
Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of sports history articles aimed at preserving the best moments of the modern sports era, from 1976 to the present. The focus is team sports—college & pro basketball and football, major league baseball and hockey. This article offers a snapshot of 1988 sports, a year that saw an epic college football clash with cultural overtones, an NBA guarantee made good and a great Super Bowl drive finally save face for America’s most popular sporting event.