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1970 – 1975
The Cotton Bowl: On January 1, 1971, Notre Dame beat No. 1 Texas 24–11 in the Cotton Bowl, ending Texas's thirty-game winning streak on the strength of six forced turnovers. The 1970 team finished No. 2 in the final polls.
1973: Eleven games, eleven wins. On December 31, 1973, in the Sugar Bowl, Notre Dame beat No. 1 Alabama 24–23 — a missed Alabama extra point in the fourth quarter was the margin — and took the AP championship. The UPI, which voted before the bowls, had named Alabama; the split is part of the season's record and stands in the apparatus.
The whole: Parseghian finished 95–17–4 in eleven seasons, never with a losing record, with nine top-ten finishes.
The resignation: It was announced on Sunday night, December 15, 1974. His own stated words were that he was "physically exhausted and emotionally drained" after twenty-five years of coaching. He had decided privately at midseason, for the sake of his health, in a year that had brought the deaths of three close friends and a daughter's multiple sclerosis. The news leaked — through his named successor, Dan Devine, to the columnist Sid Hartman — before the planned announcement after the bowl. His last game was the Orange Bowl of January 1, 1975: Notre Dame 13, Alabama 11. He never coached again; broadcasting for ABC and CBS followed. He entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980 and died on August 2, 2017, at Granger, Indiana, aged 94.
Sources:
- The 1970–71 Cotton Bowl record — the score, the ended streak, the six turnovers, the No. 2 finish.
- The 1973 Sugar Bowl record — the score, the missed extra point, the AP title and the UPI's pre-bowl vote.
- Parseghian biographical record — the 95–17–4 mark, the December 15, 1974 announcement and its stated words, the midseason decision and its circumstances, the leak, the last game, the Hall of Fame, the death.