USC Football: USC’s biggest enemies in the 1970’s
By Jason Elbaum
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
This historic college football rivalry between USC and Notre Dame dates back to 1926, and Notre Dame leads the all-time series 46-37 with five ties. The 1970’s editions of The Battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh featured an epic USC comeback, the beginning of a Notre Dame-USC tradition, and NFL legend Joe Montana suiting up for the Fighting Irish.
The 1974 edition of this rivalry is known as one of the USC’s greatest games of all-time. Notre Dame jumped out to an early 24-0 lead at the Coliseum before Pat Haden connected with Anthony Davis for a touchdown pass to end the first half.
Davis then returned the opening kickoff of the second half 102 yards for a touchdown, igniting a furious comeback by the Trojans. They would score 35 points in the third quarter and go on to thrash the Irish 55-24.
In 1977, the Trojans were coming into Notre Dame Stadium to face an Irish team that was coming off an upset loss to Ole Miss and was in desperate need of a lift.
When Notre Dame came to the locker room after its pre-game warmups, they found captains Terry Eurick and Willie Fry wearing emerald-green jerseys, and similar ones sitting in every teammate’s locker. This new look ignited the crowd and quarterback Joe Montana picked apart the USC defense in a 49-19 win.
Since then, Notre Dame has worn its green jerseys against USC at home four times and is 2-2 in those games, including the infamous “Bush Push” game in 2005.