Happy Birthday @Rich Starkey !!! You have been one of the best things to happen to this board since I've been a member!
In the obligatory read, Official Weather Thread (https://notredame.forums.rivals.com/threads/official-weather-thread.160248/#post-3155737) you asked about the ND-BC Rivalry. It may not be a rivalry in the truest of senses and it may not be one to ND fans, but it's a big deal to BC fans and to people in New England. Here's a little background as I remember it growing up:
The two teams first met in 1975 in a game at the old Schaeffer Stadium. It wasn't much of a game with ND winning 17-3, but in a heavily Irish area, it was a thrill that mighty Notre Dame had come to town.
Now here comes the rub. It actually started before the 1975 game but it continued through the 70's and early 80's. Boston College was largely a commuter school with financial issues, nothing like the multi-billion dollar endowment school it is now. In fact, there were points in the 70's where the school almost went bankrupt. To help with finances and recognition, BC made a conscious decision to emulate ND in football. It went okay until a guy named Flutie came along.
Flutie led BC against ND in the 1983 Liberty Bowl. It was a much more competitive game, but ND prevailed 19-18 and Flutie was the MVP of the game. The next year Flutie and BC beat Miami, 47-45, on the Flutie "Hail Mary" to Gerard Phelan. Well, college football was never bigger around here than it was then. It likely never will be again, either. That win leads to the "Flutie Effect" and transforms BC from a nearly insolvent commuter school (with an excellent academic reputation, nonetheless) into a internationally recognized university (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flutie_effect). Mission accomplished using the Notre Dame model. For all those folks that want to diminish football at ND, keep that in mind.
Even with that, BC was still the little brother of the only 2 Catholic schools in the FBS. Another regular season game is scheduled in 1987 and again, it's competitive but ND wins it 32-25. After that though, the two schools get to talking about being regular opponents and in 1990 I believe they sign a deal to play regularly each year. In Boston this was big news and I remember a TV sports host saying that he couldn't believe ND would agree to regularly play another Catholic school because it diminished their brand. It was also looked at as a great deal for BC on one hand because of the regular national recognition they would get but but bad on the other hand because it was David vs. Goliath and it would almost certainly be a loss you could pencil in every year.
That's exactly what it turned out to be in the first meeting in 1992 with ND crushing BC 54-7. If you watched the game on Saturday you saw the infamous fake punt that greatly offended the Eagles and had them hell bent on revenge.
That leads us to the 1993 game. At that time, Boston sports absolutely sucked. Larry Bird retired the year before and Reggie Lewis died earlier in the year. Bill Parcells was the next coach of the James Busch Orthwein-owned Patriots and his record was 1-8 at game time. The Red Sox were dreadful and the Bruins were a decent team but destined for an early out in the playoffs. Anyway, I'll omit the game save for David Gordon's (fixed with thanks to @Silent Banjo ) 41 yard FG. David felled Goliath and New England rejoiced. I remember it like it was yesterday. The euphoria of New England college football fans was something that I had only seen in that 1984 BC-Miami game.
Never mind Under the Tarnished Dome, Monk Malloy, Kevin White, George O'Leary, Ty Willingham, many people I know think that that was the downfall of ND football. Not me, though. No, that came the next year.
IN 1994 ND went to Chestnut Hill where Lou Holtz told his players that, "This team and this team only prevented you from winning a National Championship last year." The motivation didn't work and ND lost again, 30-11. Goliath might have stumbled the year before, but he died there. If you kip a few years, BC owned ND for a stretch there as well, most notably beating an 8-0 Ty Willingham led squad in 2002 14-7 in South Bend. This series has greatly benefited BC. ND not so much.
Things have never been quite the same for ND football since then and in that way it's kind of a rivalry. Well except that maybe Brian Kelly has it trending back, both for ND and dominance over BC. For the firs time (really over the past couple of years) we have a good, balanced team with a solid defense and I think you're really going to start seeing some great football moving forward.
This was pretty much all from memory so if somebody finds a mistake or knows more of the story please correct me.
In the obligatory read, Official Weather Thread (https://notredame.forums.rivals.com/threads/official-weather-thread.160248/#post-3155737) you asked about the ND-BC Rivalry. It may not be a rivalry in the truest of senses and it may not be one to ND fans, but it's a big deal to BC fans and to people in New England. Here's a little background as I remember it growing up:
The two teams first met in 1975 in a game at the old Schaeffer Stadium. It wasn't much of a game with ND winning 17-3, but in a heavily Irish area, it was a thrill that mighty Notre Dame had come to town.
Now here comes the rub. It actually started before the 1975 game but it continued through the 70's and early 80's. Boston College was largely a commuter school with financial issues, nothing like the multi-billion dollar endowment school it is now. In fact, there were points in the 70's where the school almost went bankrupt. To help with finances and recognition, BC made a conscious decision to emulate ND in football. It went okay until a guy named Flutie came along.
Flutie led BC against ND in the 1983 Liberty Bowl. It was a much more competitive game, but ND prevailed 19-18 and Flutie was the MVP of the game. The next year Flutie and BC beat Miami, 47-45, on the Flutie "Hail Mary" to Gerard Phelan. Well, college football was never bigger around here than it was then. It likely never will be again, either. That win leads to the "Flutie Effect" and transforms BC from a nearly insolvent commuter school (with an excellent academic reputation, nonetheless) into a internationally recognized university (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flutie_effect). Mission accomplished using the Notre Dame model. For all those folks that want to diminish football at ND, keep that in mind.
Even with that, BC was still the little brother of the only 2 Catholic schools in the FBS. Another regular season game is scheduled in 1987 and again, it's competitive but ND wins it 32-25. After that though, the two schools get to talking about being regular opponents and in 1990 I believe they sign a deal to play regularly each year. In Boston this was big news and I remember a TV sports host saying that he couldn't believe ND would agree to regularly play another Catholic school because it diminished their brand. It was also looked at as a great deal for BC on one hand because of the regular national recognition they would get but but bad on the other hand because it was David vs. Goliath and it would almost certainly be a loss you could pencil in every year.
That's exactly what it turned out to be in the first meeting in 1992 with ND crushing BC 54-7. If you watched the game on Saturday you saw the infamous fake punt that greatly offended the Eagles and had them hell bent on revenge.
That leads us to the 1993 game. At that time, Boston sports absolutely sucked. Larry Bird retired the year before and Reggie Lewis died earlier in the year. Bill Parcells was the next coach of the James Busch Orthwein-owned Patriots and his record was 1-8 at game time. The Red Sox were dreadful and the Bruins were a decent team but destined for an early out in the playoffs. Anyway, I'll omit the game save for David Gordon's (fixed with thanks to @Silent Banjo ) 41 yard FG. David felled Goliath and New England rejoiced. I remember it like it was yesterday. The euphoria of New England college football fans was something that I had only seen in that 1984 BC-Miami game.
Never mind Under the Tarnished Dome, Monk Malloy, Kevin White, George O'Leary, Ty Willingham, many people I know think that that was the downfall of ND football. Not me, though. No, that came the next year.
IN 1994 ND went to Chestnut Hill where Lou Holtz told his players that, "This team and this team only prevented you from winning a National Championship last year." The motivation didn't work and ND lost again, 30-11. Goliath might have stumbled the year before, but he died there. If you kip a few years, BC owned ND for a stretch there as well, most notably beating an 8-0 Ty Willingham led squad in 2002 14-7 in South Bend. This series has greatly benefited BC. ND not so much.
Things have never been quite the same for ND football since then and in that way it's kind of a rivalry. Well except that maybe Brian Kelly has it trending back, both for ND and dominance over BC. For the firs time (really over the past couple of years) we have a good, balanced team with a solid defense and I think you're really going to start seeing some great football moving forward.
This was pretty much all from memory so if somebody finds a mistake or knows more of the story please correct me.
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