USC Football: USC’s biggest enemies in the 1970’s

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.