Lou Holtz is one of USC football’s greatest sports villains.
We wrote a few years ago that “Holtz went 9-1-1 in 11 seasons against USC. He made life hell for the Trojans in general. In 1988, Notre Dame played USC in a 1-versus-2 game in late November. The winner was going to be the heavy favorite to win the national title. The Irish rolled into Los Angeles and thumped the Trojans in the Coliseum, 27-10. If USC had won that game and then captured the 1988 national championship, Larry Smith’s tenure in L.A. could have unfolded very differently in the early 1990s. Alas, that’s not how it happened. Lou Holtz wrecked USC, and that simply can’t be denied.”
The 1988 1-versus-2 battle was one of the most hyped Notre Dame-USC games of all time. That’s saying something, given the number of hugely important and memorable games in this series.
The late 1980s featured a number of showcase games in a series which lost momentum in the early 1980s and then fizzled again in the early 1990s. This wasn’t the height of the USC-Notre Dame rivalry, but the pictures from our historical archives are still beautiful and fun to look at.
See for yourselves below: