A fortuitous quirk in scheduling brought these two teams together late in the season . They were not even supposed to meet when the 1966 schedules were first drawn up . Michigan State had only nine games scheduled ( even though they were allowed to have ten ; the Big Ten did not allow teams to schedule ten regular season games until 1964 ) while Notre Dame was originally scheduled to play Iowa that week , as had been the custom since 1945 . However , in 1960 , the Hawkeyes suddenly dropped the Irish from their schedule , from 1964 onward ( the 1963 Notre Dame-Iowa game was cancelled following the Assassination of John F. Kennedy ) . Michigan State was available and agreed to return to Notre Dame 's schedule in 1965 – 66 . The game was not shown live on national TV . Each team was allotted one national television appearance and two regional television appearances each season . Notre Dame had used their national TV slot in the season opening game against Purdue . ABC executives did not even want to show the game anywhere but the regional area , but pressure from the West Coast and the South ( to the tune of 50,000 letters ) made ABC air the game on tape delay . ABC relented and blacked out the Michigan State-Notre Dame game in two states ( reportedly North Dakota and South Dakota ) , so it could technically be called a regional broadcast . It would also be the first time a college football game was broadcast to Hawaii and to U.S. troops in Vietnam . The official attendance was announced at 80,011 ( 111 % capacity ) and was the most attended game in Michigan State football history at the time ( the current record is 80,401 on Sept. 22 , 1990 vs. Notre Dame )
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State football game