The Fighting Irish return from a bye week, and it’s been a busy few days as the university prepares to bring a Notre Dame football weekend to the Windy City for the Shamrock Series. First of all, my apologies for the delay on this week’s Tradition Tuesday. Tradition Wednesday doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. Nevertheless, I wanted to highlight Notre Dame’s history against this week’s opponent, the Miami Hurricanes.

Saturday will mark the 25th game in series history, with Notre Dame holding a 16-7-1 advantage. The teams first met in 1955, a game the Irish won, 14-0.

From 1967 to 1980, the blue & gold enjoyed a stretch of 11 consecutive victories over the Hurricanes, including a 44-0 crushing in the 1973 regular season finale at the Orange Bowl. Thirty days later, head coach Ara Parseghian‘s team defeated Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to secure the program’s ninth national title.

In 1979, the squads took American football to Tokyo, with Notre Dame winning the Mirage Bowl, 40-15. That game was recently highlighted on our website celebrating 125 Years of Notre Dame Football.

But it was during the 1980’s, that the Notre Dame-Miami rivalry really heated up. The Irish and the Hurricanes played nine times, with at least one team being ranked in each of those meetings. On six of those occasions, both were ranked.

During the 1985 season, Miami crushed Notre Dame, 58-7, and to those who watched, it certainly seemed as though the Jimmy Johnson ran up the score. Two years later, the #2 Hurricanes blanked the #10 Fighting Irish, 24-0.

And that brings us to October 15, 1988.

Fourth-ranked Notre Dame hosted #1 Miami on a perfect autumn day. The Hurricanes boasted a 36-game regular season winning-streak and had won four straight against the Fighting Irish. The table was set for a historic game, and the two college football heavyweights did not disappoint.

In fact, this game was so special, that it’s being featured in a series of four moments on the 125 website throughout the week. Here’s one of them:

In arguably the greatest game ever played in Notre Dame Stadium, the Irish prevailed, 31-30 – and went on to win the 1988 national championship.

In 2010, Notre Dame and Miami broke a 20-year series hiatus, when the teams were matched up in the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve in El Paso, Texas. Harrison Smith intercepted three passes and Michael Floyd had six receptions for 109 yards and two touchdowns, en route to a 33-17 victory.

This weekend the Fighting Irish (4-0) and Hurricanes (4-1) square off at Soldier Field in the first regular season meeting between the programs since 1990. The game will air in primetime on NBC (7:30 pm ET) and you can catch a special pre-game show, live from the field, exclusively on UND.com.