RIP, Harry Oliver

Notre Dame lost a legend on Wednesday when Harry Oliver died at age 46 after battling cancer for the past two years.

“The man who made the most famous kick in Irish football history is dead at the age of 46. Harry Oliver had battled cancer for the past two years. He died Wednesday in his hometown of Cincinnati.”

Oliver made the most famous field goal in Notre Dame history when he booted a 51 yard field goal to beat Michigan in 1980. Youtube has the Michigan and Notre Dame calls f the kick.  Make sure to listen to the Michigan call and notice how distraught Bob Ufer was that he messed up the final score twice before finally getting it right with “Notre Dame wins 29 to 27.”

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For a little more on just how special Oliver’s field goal was, he’s an excerpt from Irish Legends.

There were four seconds to play when coach Devine sent in his left-footed field goal kicker, Harry Oliver. Oliver’s longest field goal had been 38 yards in a JV game. Now he was asked to kick a fifty-one yarder against a stiff fifteen mile per hour wind.

Then a remarkable thing happened. Just as Oliver lined up to kick the ball, the wind died down. Oliver calmly stepped into the ball and kicked his way into Notre Dame’s Hall of Fame with a fifty one-yard kick over the crossbar–just as the final gun sounded for the end of the game and a Notre Dame victory, 29-27.

I also came across these classic quotes from Harry Oliver about the kick.

“Behind me was the library with its huge mosaic of `Touchdown Jesus.’ The ball went up and cleared the crossbar by 3 inches. I know that wind stopped at that second, and I’m convinced `Touchdown Jesus’ gave the ball a little nudge to get it over.”

“Everyone was jumping on top of me. Unfortunately my leg got caught up in a weird position, and I started to scream. Joe Gramke, a teammate who also had played at Moeller, started pulling off the people. Then I got out. That field goal was the greatest thrill of my life.”

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4 Comments

  1. I remember the flags going limp just before the kick. Hysteria reigned long afterward. Then, to learn what a marvelous and devout young man Harry Oliver was, had to make you believe in SOMETHING. He also kicked a long field goal that season to salvage a tie with Georgia Tech. His name and his strength of character will never be forgotten by the ND faithful.

  2. Harry was 46. I lived two doors down from him my freshman year and that was my first Notre Dame game. Harry was the kindest, nicest guy you could ever meet.

  3. I’m a Nebraska fan, and Notre Dame are bitter rivals. However, Harry Oliver’s field 51-yard field goal will always be seared into my memory. I was 15 years old, and I remember my brother Mark getting into the car with our friends, and saying “Notre Dame won on a last second field goal, 29-27. They went crazy.”

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