As you know by now, former USC football coach John Robinson and former Notre Dame football coach Gerry Faust both died on Monday. Both men died at the age of 89. You might instantly wonder if Robinson and Faust coached against each other, being of the same age and working in the same era of college football history. The short answer: Yes. They faced off only twice, but they did become part of the larger story of the USC-Notre Dame football rivalry.
Their first meeting was in 1981, Faust’s first season at Notre Dame. USC went into South Bend and defeated the Fighting Irish, 14-7. The second and last meeting was in 1982, just before Robinson went to the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. College football writer and editor Stewart Mandel collected this excerpt from a writer for the Notre Dame athletics website, providing the Irish’s view of what happened in that 1982 USC-Notre Dame game in the Los Angeles Coliseum:
The scene was bizarre enough because USC coach John Robinson had announced his resignation earlier in the week. He called the cause “Win one for the fat man.” And I’ll never forget picking up the Sunday Los Angeles Times and looking at the picture of USC running back Michael Harper flying over the goal line without the football (Kevin Griffith recovered it at the two after Harper fumbled before he scored). Believe me, Gerry Faust hasn’t forgotten that image, either. But there was no replay back then and the officials ruled a touchdown with 48 seconds to go and that was enough for a USC win. No one from Notre Dame believes Harper actually scored that day, and no one from USC wants to hear any of that.
This was not Robinson’s last game as USC coach against Notre Dame. Robinson returned in the 1990s to coach against the Irish several more times. He beat Notre Dame in 1996 in what was the last game for Fighting Irish coach Lou Holtz. He beat Notre Dame in 1997 in his last USC-Notre Dame game as the Trojans’ head coach. Robinson was fired at the end of the 1997 season.
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