It’s hard to appreciate how low Notre Dame’s football fortunes had fallen before the arrival of Ara Parseghian as head coach in 1964. The Irish had not enjoyed a winning season since ’58 and had gone 2–8 in ’60 and 2–7 in ’63, the school’s two worst records in the 20th century.
And yet under Parseghian, with many of the same players from the previous year, Notre Dame went 9–1 in 1964 and finished No. 3 in the final polls. If not for a 20–17 loss to Southern California in the final game of the season, the Irish would have won the national championship.