Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

The Snow Bowl 1992: #22 Penn State vs. #8 Notre Dame

On Nov. 14, 1992, the Fighting Irish met the Penn State Nittany Lions on a snowy Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium. Trailing 16-9 with 25 seconds remaining, Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer (‘93) threw a touchdown pass to Jerome Bettis to pull the Irish within one point. In the days before overtime, head coach Lou Holtz elected to go for the win. He drew up a two-point conversion play on the sidelines, and as they say, the rest is history. Mirer found Reggie Brooks (’93) in the back of the end zone, lifting Notre Dame to a 17-16 victory.


Did you miss the game? We’ve got you covered! Hit play to relive the 1992 Snow Bowl.

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Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

What happened?

Notre Dame and Penn State last met in November of 1992. Both teams were already bowl-bound at the time of the meeting, but knowing that this was the final game of the series – both teams gave everything they had in the contest. In addition, it was the final home game of the year for Notre Dame and, just to add more drama to the scene, the movie “Rudy” was being filmed on campus that weekend as well.

It seemed everything was set up for a classic game – and Mother Nature decided to play her part as well. By the time the clock showed under a minute remaining and an inch of snow covered the Stadium grass, Jerome Bettis caught a pass from Rick Mirer to cut Penn State’s lead to 16-15. These were the days before overtime in college football – when many, many big games were decided on a coach’s decision to go for the two point conversion.

Lou Holtz did not hesitate – he drew up a play on the sidelines with Mirer and the rest is college football history. Und.com took Reggie Brooks back on the Notre Dame Stadium field to the exact point where he caught the two point coversion pass to push the Irish to a 17-15 victory…

The Snow Bowl

Reggie Brooks and Rick Mirer sit down to watch and reflect on the end of the 1992 thriller between Notre Dame and Penn State in the snow on Senior Day at Notre Dame Stadium.

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