The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 73

NOTKF DAME KICKER ENDS 29-27 CLASSIC Oliver's Field Goal Beats Michigan Section The Indianapolis Star SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 21, 1980 Financial Notre Dame Win An 'Oliver Twist' fi P5', cj COUTH BEND, IND. Notre Dame and Michigan played quite a football season here Saturday. It was a present to the fan who only thought he had everything. It had thunder and blunders; spec tacular plays and elementary mistakes. was contested in a was contested in the final minute $5 Spurts Over Lightly fantasy land somewhere between Disney LBob Sports Editor By JOHN BANSCH Assistant Sports Editor South Bend, Ind.

Step aside, Knute Rockne, George Gipp and all of the other Notre Dame football legends. There's a deserving young man awaiting admission to your select society. His name is Harry Oliver. You may not recognize him at first because he doesn't quite resemble most of your members. He's slight of build at 165 pounds; his muscles are few; and when he speaks his voice tends to crack.

That makes no difference to the 59.075 who crammed their way into Notre Dame Stadium Saturday. They witnessed Harry Oliver kicking a 51-yard field goal on the final play of what was a classic college football game to lift the Irish to a dramatic 29-27 triumph over Michigan. The memory of that kick will never be forgotten. He accomplished the feat kicking into a strong wind. He etched his name in the history book with as much pressure riding on his shoulders as there has ever been on a kicker.

NONE OF THAT SEEMED to daunt Oliver, who does everything in life right-handed except kick footballs and deal cards. In the future there will be millions of people who will claim to have seen Oliver leave his mark on Notre Dame history. One person who can't make that claim is Harry Oliver. "I never saw the ball go over the crossbar." he said of his climactic effort. "I was already being mobbed." It makes no difference that the junior from Cincinnati did not view the ball barely clearing the crossbar.

All that matters is that his kick offset a brilliant passing effort by Michigan quarterback John Wangler an effort which 41 seconds earlier had lifted the underdog Wolverines to a 27-26 lead and apparent victory. The final Michigan touchdown was the result of Wangler's third scoring pass on the 80-degree, sunny afternoon. The airborne football came to rest in the arms of tight end Craig Dunaway after it had been tipped by freshman Irish corner-back Chris Brown and Michigan's Butch Woolfolk. LITTLE HOPE REMAINED for the Irish when they regained possession of the football at their 21. Freshman Blair Kiel from Columbus, entered the game at quarterback for his first series of offensive plays as a Notre Darner and the Irish went to the shotgun formation.

The reason Kiel was sent into the battle to replace starter Mike Courey by Coach Dan Devine is he is the only Notre Dame quarterback who practiced behind the shotgun. On first down, Kiel lofted what he termed "a dying quail" down the left sideline to wide receiver Tony Hunter. The Irish pass catcher went up high for the ball. So did a Michigan defender. The officials ruled there was pass interference, giving N.D.

a first down at the Wolverine 48. Kiel's next two passes failed. On third down he connected over the middle to running back Phil Carter and suddenly it was fourth and 1 at the Michigan 39 with 9 seconds remaining. This time Kiel lined up under center "Time was critical and I had to get rid of the ball in a hurry," he explained "Thus, I lined up under center, stood up and See IRISH, Page 10 Irish Hero Notre Dame's Harry Oliver (center) is congrat- a come-from-behind effort at South Bend Satur- ulated by happy teammates after his 51 -yard field day. 1980 Joe Raymond, South Bend Tribune) goal in the final seconds beat Michigan, 29-27 in World and cardiac arrest.

What more could you want' A beautiful fall day. a full house of 59.075 in this cathedral of football and two teams with proud, never quit traditions slugging it out for 60 minutes. And it took every tick of the clock for Notre Dame to slide home with a 29-27 victory. IT HAS BEEN SAID over and over that football, reduced to its simplest definition, is a game of inches. Notre Dame and Michigan nearly took a step beyond and rode it down to centimeters.

Michigan went ahead, 27-26, with 41 seconds to play. The Wolverines had the ball third down on the Notre Dame 1 when John Wangler rolled out and hurled a pass at Butch Woolfolk. The ball sailed and Woolfolk tipped it. It blooped toward the back of the end zone. Just an incomplete pass, it seemed.

But Craig Dunaway reached up and snared the ball just before he and a Notre Dame player tumbled out of the playing area. Dcnaway was about as close as he could get to the end of the line without smearing chalk on his shoes. That looked like the old ball game set and match. NOTRE DAME GOT the ball on its 20 and freshman Blair Kiel, from Columbus, took over at quarterback for Mike Courey. At this point, Notre Dame had managed to play a hundred minutes and nineteen seconds of football without needing Kiel for a single offensive play.

It is the sort of situation you stick a freshman in only if you wish to punish him. if you have heard rumors that the defensive middle guard is hiding a grenade in- his pads or if you have the kind of blind faith that moves mountains Kiel slipped into his climbing boots and went to work from a shotgun formation. He flipped his first pass in the general direction of Tony Hunter. The brilliant sophomore end went up between two Michigan defenders at the Wolverines' 48 The ball was knocked away, but Marion Body was censured for felonious separation of the receiver from the ball. TWO MORE PASSES were incomplete, then Kiel hit Phil Carter at the Michigan 39.

That made it fourth-and-1. nine seconds to play. Kiel went to Hunter on the sidelines. Tony started to run to daylight, then had an attack of common sense and stepped out of bounds on the 34 The clock showed (V) when Harry Oliver arrived to try a field goal from 51 yards away an improbable achievement in any football game, college, pro or backyard, even with a rubber band attached to the ball and the goal posts. The left-footed boot never appeared to get much higher than the cross bar.

But, seemingly defying the laws of gravity and time, it stayed in the air forever before falling over. It was, you might say I hate myself when I do things like Lhisi, a real "Oliver twist." OLIVER, WHOSE missed extra point try got Notre Dame in trouble earlier, received the game ball. A chunk of the Golden Dome and adoption by Dan De-vine will come later. In the day's least surprising comment, Oliver said. "This is by far the greatest moment of my life.

Gettint; a scholarship to Notre Dame was a close second." Kiel, who surely earned bronze next to Oliver's gold, summed it up this way: "I didn't know if he i Devine i was going to bring me in or not At the very last minute when they i Michigan i were getting ready to score, that is when they told me I was going in "Mike Courey was fantastic He's the one who led them all the way in the first place. He was encouraging me. When you've got the whole team backing you, you just can't go wrong." DEVINE DENIED that he found the orders to use Kiel on stone tablets behind a burning bush The coach summed it up thus: "I made a lot of quick decisions out there today, not all of them right But I felt that was the only way to win the football game We worked on that formation all week with Blair." And defensive tackle Pat Kramer voiced what had to be rambling around in many minds Saturday afternoon with. "This could only happen here Tie An 1. 17.

Victory 'Round A Pine Tree 23-1 4 M.OSS SWAPS ROSS- IDE STREAK Stadium crowd of 57,869 and, boy, did it ever get a workout. Indiana led first, 3-0, then fell behind 14-3, then stormed ahead, 30-14. then was tied, 30-30. I winning score came with 16 seconds to play. Get the idea? It was a day for big plays, of startling occurrences.

And Hoosiers, in pulling their record to 1-1, were the last holders of the magic wand. WITH THE CLOCK inside the final two minutes and the score tied at 30, Kentucky attempting to drive for the winning points turned the gun on itself Not once, but twice. The first shot grazed the Wildcats, and the second was deadly. A screen pass that would have moved Kentucky to I 41 was nullified by a clipping penalty and, instead, the 'Cats had possession way back on their own 26. Two plays later, Kentucky quarterback Randy Jenkins who had an outstanding day otherwise threw a pass intended for wide receiver Kenny Baird.

But the Hoosiers' Steve Mitchell stepped in front of the Wildcat player and leaped high to intercept. This gave I.U. a first down on the Kentucky 48, with 1:01 remaining. By BILL BENNER Star Sportswriter Lexington. Ky.

The coach who called the play labeled it "the touchdown special." The coach's son. who caught the ball, referred to it as "the old pine tree slant." The quarterback who threw the ball may have put it best, however, when he said simply, Unbelievable." And even that may be an understatement What happened Saturday was that Indiana defeated Kentucky, 36-30. It was, without doubt, the most exciting battle ever staged in this football war between the states. tT ALSO WAS one of the strangest. The symbolic prize in this collegiate rivalry is the Bourbon Barrel and, at times, it appeared as if the contestants had sampled some of the contents beforehand.

There were fumbles, interceptions and ill-timed penalties. At one point, neither team knew which end of the field it was defending. But the scoreboard was the main focus of the sellout Commonwealth Bruins Bruise Boilers Crimson quarterback Tim Clifford benched by Coach Lee Corso late in the first half took over from there. FACED WITH A thirdand-6 at the 44, Clifford left the pocket when he could not locate a receiver and scrambled down the left sideline for 17 yards and a first down at the U.K. 27 with 26 seconds left.

Then came the touchdown special, the pine-tree slant. Sieve Corso, son of the Hoosier coach and a senior wide receiver, had been running his pass routes down and across the middle of the Kentucky secondary all day. But this time, he followed his cut to the middle with another back to the outside, toward the corner of the end zone. Wildcat defensive back Greg Motley was completely turned around by Corso's move and fell helplessly to the turf as the I.U. senior gathered in the ball, clutched it to his chest with both hands and then, as the referee signaled touchdown, went slightly berserk along with the Hoosier bench and the 5,000 fans who had followed their team across the Ohio River.

"WE CALLED IT the old pine tree slant because it was a play I used to work on in my early days of high school," said Steve, the very image of his father in manner and, except for blonde hair, looks. "We had a pine tree in the back yard and we use to fake to the apple tree, then throw to the pine tree. I figured I'd beat Purdue with it someday, but this is just as good. "As the ball came to me, I was scared. My knees were buckling.

I thought if I miss this one, they're gonna See I.U., Page 10 14 on Herrmann's 8-yard strike to Burrell at 9 58 of the third chapter. And the Riveters were knocking on the door again a few minutes later when Uclan comerback Jimmy Turner spoiled an otherwise beautiful day for a whole bunch of folks. Slipping in front of flanker Steve Bryant. Turner grabbed Herrmann's third-down flip over the middle and with that interception his second of the battle broke the Boilers' backs UCLA, taking command at its 7 yard line, didn't enjoy the greatest field position in the world But all that changed in a hurry as quarterback Tom Ramsey, a second fiddler to tailback Freeman McNeil in the normal scheme of things, fired the PAC-10 club to the clinching touchdown two minutes into the final period. GRANTED A REPRIEVE deep in his own territory when Purdue defender Marcus McKinnie was guilty of interference on a vital third down, Ramsey hit his targets four straight times for 75 yards His last pitch for 9 ended in the arms of split end Cormac Carney in the far right corner of the end zone for the 23-14 count.

If Purdue's season record of 1-2 was not established at that time, it became a fact five minutes later when running back Ben McCall, ambushed by three tacklers 2 yards from a retaliatory touchdown, fumbled into the end zone where safety Kenny Easley recovered for a touchback See PURDUE, Page 10 By MAX STULTZ, Star Sportswriter West Lafayette, Ind. UCLA ran out from under another load of Mark Herrmann bombs Saturday afternoon to thump Purdue, 23-14, and clip the Boilermakers' Ross-Ade Stadium winning streak at 12 games. A year ago at Los Angeles, the Bruins survived 191 yards worth of flack from the Carmel Ind. quarterback in cruising to a big early lead and ultimate 31-21 triumph. Saturday, with 69,333 fans attending the home opener, the Bruins dodged even more shrapnel just as successfully to remain unbeaten in the wake of last week's 56-14 mauling of Colorado.

Herrmann, continuing his drive towards the top of NCAA passing statistics, ripped into the Uclans for 25 completions for 282 yards and a pair of touchdowns to split end Bart Burrell. THAT PAIR OF SCORING tosses made Herrmann the all-time Big Ten leader with 50. But he also threw two interceptions and UCLA, springing to the attack with its own aerial assault, turned the second into a game-breaking drive. The Bruins, who never have lost to Purdue in five tries, bounced back like a rubber ball after the Boilers charged to within two points and mounted another serious threat in the third quarter. Battling to erase an early 10-0 deficit, Purdue pulled to 16- State, Big Ten Scores Adrian 42, Manchester 0.

Albion 22, Valparaiso 16. Ball State 27, Toledo 7. Brigham Young 28, Wisconsin 3. Dayton 29, Butler 0. DePauw 10, Hope 7.

Farlham 13, Bluffton 0. Ferris State 14, Indiana Central 14, tie. Franklin 21, Georgetown 14. Hanover 13, Taylor 0. Indiana 36, Kentucky 30.

Indiana State 14, Eastern Illinois 0. Missouri 52, Illinois 7. Nebraska 57, Iowa 0. Notre Dame 29, Michigan 27. Ohio State 47, Minnesota 0.

Oregon 35, Michigan State 7. Southeast Missouri 50, Evansville 17. St. Joseph's 14, Olivet 7. UCLA 23, Purdue 14.

Wabash 16, Rose-Hulman 7. Washington 45, Northwestern 7. ilbur TD-Bound Indiana's Tim Wilbur (8) slips post Juan Portela (16) and Jeff Dennis of Kentucky on his 78-yard TD run in the first half of Saturday's football contest at Lexington, Ky. Wilbur's gallop on a punt return closed the ha If time gap to 14-10 and the Hoosiers went on to win, 36-30. (UPI Photo) SPORTS INDEX V5 H-'J JT aeJW ---eh.

Weekend TV Sports TODAY COLLEGE FOOTBALL Highlights 0 SOirUv games. II a Channel JIM VOUNO SHOW Purdue CHCh talks football. II 30 a Channel 4. SOCCER BOWL 11 30 a m. Channel German aoccer.

2 pm. Channel 30. LEE CORSO SHOW I u. toach talks too'be noon, Channel 4. NFL FOOTBALL Minnesota ws Chicago, noon.

Channel 13. Pittsburgh vs Cincinnati, noon. Channel 13; Green Bay ws. Los Angeles. 3 p.m., Channel I.

BASEBALL Cincinnati vs. Los Angeles. 3 Channel A and Channel 4. Buekeyes Blast Minnesota Page 2 Spe'laeular Bid In -Walk' Page 3 Big Fish Contest 16 Checkers Chat 11 lines And Shots 16 Pinspotting 15 Prep Pourri 6 Scouting The Outdoors .16 SKootin The Stars 9 Speaking Of Speed 17 A Zig Ami aTii; UCLA Bruin tailback Freeman McNeil is chased by Purdue Boilermaker defenders the closest of whom is Brock Spock (58) during the second quarter of college football action Saturday at Ross-Ade Stadium. McNeil ron for 117 yards in 29 carries.

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