ESPN 30 for 30 : Catholics v. Convicts Trailer
ESPN is currently putting the finishing touches on an upcoming 30 for 30 on the epic 1988 Notre Dame – Miami clash known better as the Catholics vs. Convicts and released the trailer today.
(Mobile Users: Direct link to the video here)
The trailer looks positively fantastic. Everything in the 30 for 30 series is though so that shouldn’t be a surprise. I don’t necessarily like how much the trailer focuses on the controversial fumble, but then again that’s smart marketing on their part to get people fired up.
Miami will be coming to South Bend later this month for the first time since 1990 when they lost to the Irish yet again. Our friends over at SportsCrack.com have revived the old “Catholics vs. Convicts” t-shirt with a 2016 edition that is worth a look.
This year’s clash won’t feature the same hype since the Irish already have three losses on the season and face two opponents that could add to the L column before the Hurricanes come to South Bend.
Miami, on the other hand, has done its part in building hype for the game with a 4-0 record and shocking #10 ranking under new head coach Mark Richt. I say shocking because their early season schedule might be one of the worst sets of September “contests” I’ve ever seen from a power 5 school. Miami faced Florida A&M, Florida Atlantic, and Appalachian St before finally joining the rest of the FBS in playing actual football games this past weekend against Georgia Tech. The Citadel obviously must have been busy last weekend.
Things start getting real for Miami this weekend though with a visit from #23 Florida State followed by a visit from #17 North Carolina before they travel to Blacksburg to take on #25 Virginia Tech. With that line up, Notre Dame might not be the only team with three losses by the time they face the Irish.
Notre Dame and Miami face off October 29th at 3:30 in Notre Dame Stadium. If you’re headed to the game and need tickets, our partners at TicketIQ have a lot of great seats available at some great prices!
Bruce G.,
The founding fictions of this country were promulgated by WASPs. Thanksgiving! Plymouth Rock! Long before either, regular eucharists (lit. thanksgiving) were held in St. Augustine, whose founding was celebrated with thanksgiving prayers and offerings. But since this was done by Catholics it’s forgotten by WASP historians.
Anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice in this otherwise PC country!
Go Irish!
SteelFanRob,
Anti-catholic attitudes for sure! During a game at Georgia Tech, the fans pelted our team with fish.
A Stanford band did a mock-up of the Potato Famine.
1,000,000 Irish catholics died during the famine while the British soldiers occupying Ireland were well fed (and while, for 10 years, Ireland was a net exporter of food).
I mean that’s real funny material, isn’t it.
Bruce Curme
La Crosse, Indiana
The fish pelting incident did take olace about 35 years ago. Hopefully, attitudes have changed since then, although Obama only got about 15% of the white male vote, if that, in the Old Confederacy states.
And the potato famine “skit” took place less than 35 years ago. Stanford’s band has not been back since then (did you ever notice that?).
Now, attitudes in Northern Ireland may have changed – I hope so – and maybe here too, with Saint JP II and Saint MT and Pope Francis, but I would never let my guard down – I’ve seen way too much anti-catholic bigotry in my lifetime.
Bruce GC
Personal politics aside, I disagree. The main reason so many have hated ND for so long has to do with two main factors, one athletic, one socio-cultural. The athletic one is obvious, ND football’s historical legacy of wins, great games, NCs, Heismans, legends, etc. This is the same reason so many dislike the NY Yankees. The socio-cultural factor is that as a Catholic school, ND was hated by WASPS and the WASP establishment. The reborn Indiana Klan tried to destroy the school sometime in the early 1900s. Fielding Yost at Michigan used anti-Catholic rhetoric to make sure ND couldn’t join a conference.
As for this game in particular, after being bullied and embarrassed by Miami for a few seasons in a row, this attitude and moxy were exactly what the Irish needed. They made a statement in the tunnel pregame that they weren’t afraid or going to get bullied! Perhaps the whole Catholics vs. Convicts thing was over the top. But at the time it showed how the whole ND family was united in the common cause to beat Miami. A great rivalry was born! (Before the 80s Miami wasn’t much of a rival; for most of the early to mid 80s ND wasn’t a match for Miami.)
As for the bad calls, there were enough to go around. I recall Chudzinsky fumbling toward the end of the first half but not being called. Miami would go on to score a TD. Bad calls are a part of every game, every week, and will continue to do so.
Go Irish!
“Catholics vs. convicts”
“If you want a better example of why a lot of people just despise Notre Dame, it would be hard to find one.
Graduation 2009 – Notre Dame awards an honorary degree to the most ardent abortion supporter imaginable, the President of the United States – Barack Hussein Obama.
Graduation 2016 – Notre Dame awards the Laetare Medal to President Obama’s Vice-President, Joseph Biden. A few months later the veep conducts a same-sex marriage ceremony on his own twitter account, which immediately goes viral.
In the elegant words of George Weigel, there was a time when Notre Dame was considered ‘The flagship of American Catholic Universities.”
That time has long since passed, and Notre Dame is now CINO – Catholic In Name Only.
FYI – I attended ND from 1961-1963, flunked out, went into the Navy, returned in 1967, flunked out again in 1968.
Jimmy Johnson was almost 100% responsible for the intense hatred generated in the ND-Miami rivalry. He led his band of athletically talented outlaws in the most arrogant, heedless and unsportsmanlike conduct imaginable, capped off by the completely gratuitous humiliation of Jerry Faust, 58-7, in 1985. Even the Miami fans were far more obnoxious and hateful than any other fans. To this day, my middle finger starts twitching whenever Porkface Satan appears on the TV screen. It all has nothing to do with the President, abortion or gay marriage.
I agree with Bruce. This time around it should be called Canes vs. Convicts. Rapes, scandals, drug arrests. My have the tables have turned!
Here’s my interpretation of clip: this will be a very blatantly biased POS. ND fans will be disappointed, if not infuriated.
Spoiler alert.
Here’s a spoiler alert gone wrong:
david
September 19, 2015 at 4:41 am
Georgia Tech is simply a better football team than ND is.
Sorry Mike,
My memory is a bit on the elderly side.
Let me rephrase the above comment:
Verrrry Intervesting – but not very funny.
Bruce GC
Velly intervesting.
Bruce GC
Bruce, You were probably a “Laugh In Fan”? I liked Arte Johnson in Miracle in the Rain!
30 years later and the refs still can’t get a fumble call correct. So no excuse. Happens every week.
Witty Bruce, a real knee slapper.
Should that shirt be reading “Canes vs. Convicts” this time around?
(Sorry – I couldn’t resist).
Bruce GC
I predict bj will drag out his… “save Jimmy Johnson’s ass for me” quote.
I predict, in the end, they will make a big deal about calls that went against the Canes and completely ignore the fact that Miami’s last score actually wasn’t a catch.