126: The Coolest Notre Dame “Streak” No One Knows About

While chatting up some of my fellow Irishmen on uhnd one day, I asked them to come up with the most random Notre Dame-related statistic they could find. Frankly, I was disappointed in the effort. I gave them a huge canvas to work with, and all they could come up with was A) the favorable ratio of “women” to men in South Bend and B) some generic, off-the-cuff statement about the number of times we’ve been shafted by the refs against USC. Pathetic.

Of course, the poor showing might have something to do with the fact I “Zbikowskied” everyone right off the bat with a peerless, random stat of the highest order.

My stat?

Since their 31-30 loss to Notre Dame on October 15, 1988, the University of Miami Hurricanes have won 126 consecutive games in which they’ve scored 30 or more points.

10/15/88: If you’re old enough to remember that date, it’s likely etched into your brain for time immemorial. I was seventeen years old. In the McSweeney household we referred to them only as “the evil Miami Hurricanes.” My father, the most humble man I know this side of Jesus Christ, told a Miami fan at the Friday night pep rally, “If the Soviet Union suited up a team and played you guys, I’d have to flip a coin to decide who to root for.” To us, Miami was the Devil in shoulder pads. They were everything that was wrong about football—Cokehead Irvine and Testicle-verde in army fatigues, the trash talking, the dubious academics and recruiting, and Jimmy Johnson. While ND of course represented everything that was right and good—the khakis and blazers, the gold helmets, the Virgin Mary, the 100% graduation rate, and Lou Holtz. Blessed, blessed St. Lou. Grandpa Johnny was in the stands with me and Dad when Notre Dame free safety Pat Terrell knocked down that two-point conversion with 45 seconds remaining. All three of us were crying. Grandpa told me, “This is the best feeling I’ve had since VE Day.” The Canes came to South Bend with the #1 ranking and a 36-game regular season winning streak. They left with a 31-30 loss, looking up at the Golden Dome and up in the polls at the newly crowned #1 team in the country, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. (For the record, I do not profess in anyway for this to be a 100% accurate or necessarily healthy perception of the college football world. But come Saturdays every fall, I put on the blue-and-gold blinders, light a candle to the Virgin Mary, stuff my Grandpa’s old rosary in my pocket, occasionally even drink the blood of Christ–yes, His REAL blood–and swallow the ND mystique in all its gloriously over-the-top pomposity. I cry everytime I watch Rudy, I clean my house every gameday morning because I’ve convinced myself the Lord frowns on a dirty house and will smite me with a Notre Dame loss, and I’m a granola-eatin’ liberal who refuses to ever take potshots at Ronald Reagan simply because he played The Gipper.)

But I digress…

After posting that 126-game stat, I got three emails–two from ND fans and one from a Miami fan. All three accused me of fabricating the number, although for different reasons. The Irish guys simply couldn’t believe a streak like that was possible. And given ND’s defensive woes in recent years, I could understand where they were coming from. After all, two of Notre Dame’s three losses just last year came in games in which we scored at least 30 points. But the Miami fella just didn’t make any sense. He went on some manic tangent about how self-absorbed and obsessed Irish fans were. (Apparently the irony of a Canes fan trolling the message board of a team “the U” hadn’t played in 15 years escaped him.)

Long story short, in the interests of full disclosure, I present to you all 126 games since that fateful October day in 1988: