Sept. 9, 2004
by John Heisler
It had been a rather humdrum first half on a decidedly dreary, intermittently rainy, 63-degree, mid-September Saturday in Michigan Stadium.
Top-rated Notre Dame, defending its 1988 national championship, had thrown only one pass in the first two periods combined. Second-ranked Michigan, coming off a Rose Bowl victory after the ’88 campaign and headed to an eventual 10-win season and another Rose Bowl appearance following ’89, amassed all of 99 total yards in the opening half.
The Irish led 7-6 at the break thanks to a Michigan point-after attempt that hit an upright. But the 105,912 fans on hand and a national television audience via ABC Sports had to appreciate defense and a close score to enjoy the opening 30 minutes.
Then a young Notre Dame sophomore named Raghib Ismail changed all that – and his life was never the same.
Ismail returned the second-half kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown. The Irish added a field goal late in the third period, then the Wolverines drove 61 yards for a touchdown two minutes into the final period to cut the Irish margin to 17-12.
Then, Ismail did it again, this time taking the kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown that enabled the Irish to hold on for a 24-19 triumph.
On a day in which Notre Dame attempted only two passes all day and in which Ismail’s only other statistics involved four rushing attempts for 14 yards, the two kickoff returns proved enough to cement a spot in history for the second-year Irish flanker.
Sports Illustrated put him on the cover of its next issue behind the bold, gold headline “Rocket Man.”
Said Ismail of the second return, “Truthfully, we were kind of surprised they would kick it to me again.”
No one had returned a kickoff for a touchdown against a Michigan team in 32 years. Ismail did it twice within a little more than a quarter of a football game. He remains one of only nine players in Division I-A college football history to return two kickoffs for touchdowns in the same game. He’s the only one to do it twice in a career (also against Rice in ’88).
Such are legends made in the Notre Dame-Michigan series. Though Ismail often tried to be just one of the guys on the Irish roster, that task became certifiably impossible after that one afternoon in Ann Arbor.
The Wolverines hardly qualify as the most ancient rivals in Irish football annals – with the 31 previous meetings between the two programs ranking, in longevity, behind Notre Dame relationships with USC, Purdue, Navy, Michigan State, Army, Northwestern and Georgia Tech.
But few of those have produced the magic moments that have flowed from Notre Dame-Michigan encounters.
Consider some of the other high points in this series — and we’re actually skipping the fact that the first nine games came before 1910 (and Notre Dame’s very first football game came against Michigan in 1887):
1978 – First meeting between the schools in 35 years, a quarterback matchup between Joe Montana and Rick Leach, a Michigan win that propels the Wolverines to another Rose Bowl appearance.
1979 – Yet another Sports Illustrated cover-producing running effort, this one by Notre Dame’s Vagas Ferguson of 118 yards on 35 carries as Chuck Male’s four field goals are enough for a 12-10 Irish win.
1980 – The wind supposedly stops just long enough for Harry Oliver to kick a 51-yard field goal as time expires and the Irish win 29-27.
1981 – Anthony Carter catches two TD passes and Michigan wins going away.
1982 – The first night game ever played at Notre Dame Stadium under the Musco portable lights. Dave Duerson comes up with a late interception and Notre Dame holds on 23-17.
1986 – In Lou Holtz’s first game as Irish head coach, the Irish do everything but win as a late field goal from 45 yards misses. Still, the unranked Irish are impressive enough that they are rated 20th at 0-1 the next week, the only time in Associated Press history a team moves into the poll by losing a football game.
1987 – Tim Brown launches his Heisman Trophy bid with a picture-perfect early 10-yard TD reception and the Irish win easily.
1988 – Reggie Ho jumpstarts Notre Dame’s national title campaign with a late game-winning field goal.
1989 – Rocket Ismail. Enough said.
And all that’s just in a 12-game period, much less a Sports Illustrated cover for Desmond Howard in ’91 at the start o0f his Heisman season, not to mention six other games between 1992 and 2002 that were decided by a touchdown or less. It’s a safe guess that someone will have a chance to make a name for himself this afternoon.
He might even end up on the cover of the next edition of Natural Enemies, John Kryk’s book on the Notre Dame-Michigan rivalry. Legendary status just may await.