November 16, 1957: The University of Oklahoma football team takes a 47-game winning streak into a home game with the University of Notre Dame, the last team to have beaten them.
Notre Dame had beaten Oklahoma on September 26, 1953, at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium (a.k.a. Owen Field, now Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium) in Norman, Oklahoma, en route to a National Championship. The following week, Oklahoma were held to a tie by the University of Pittsburgh. The week after that, they beat arch-rival Texas, and it was off to the races from there. Coach Charles "Bud" Wilkinson's Sooners ran the table, finishing 9-1-1.
They won all 10 games in 1954, but finished behind both Ohio State and UCLA in the last national poll. They won all 11 games in 1955, and this time, they were rewarded with the National Championship. They won all 10 games in 1956, and were again awarded the National Championship. Running back Tommy McDonald was the star of these teams, before going on to a Hall of Fame career as a flanker with the Philadelphia Eagles. In 1956, McDonald finished 2nd to Paul Hornung of the Notre Dame for the Heisman Trophy, and, in a rare height for an offensive lineman, Oklahoma center Jerry Tubbs finished 3rd.
The Sooners kept going in 1957, winning away to Number 8 Pitt, then beating Iowa State at home, Texas in the Cotton Bowl, Kansas and Colorado at home, then Kansas State and Number 19 Missouri on the road. That made them 7-0, with a 47-game winning streak, and a 48-game unbeaten streak, both all-time records in college football.
Notre Dame began the 1957 season by winning their 1st 4 games, over Purdue, Indiana, then-Number 10 Army and Pittsburgh. But they lost their next 2, home to Number 16 Navy and away to Number 2 Michigan State. They entered the game unranked, but perhaps harshly so.
Still, Oklahoma were a 19-point favorite and the Number 2-ranked team in the nation going in, so anyone predicting that Notre Dame would beat Oklahoma was just guessing. Sports Illustrated, founded 3 years earlier, was not guessing: They put the Sooners on the cover, with the headline, "WHY OKLAHOMA IS UNBEATABLE."
Notre Dame didn't get the memo. Their defense proved every bit as tough as Oklahoma's. Midway through the 4th quarter, the game was still scoreless. The Fighting Irish launched an 80-yard drive, and, on the drive's 20th play, on 4th and goal from the 3-yard-line, quarterback Bob Williams pitched the ball to running back Dick Lynch, later an All-Pro for the New York Giants, and put Notre Dame on top, 7-0.
Oklahoma had one last chance, but, with less than 1 minute left, Williams intercepted a pass, and the 7-0 score held to the final gun, and most people in the crowd of 63,170 were stunned.
Oklahoma shook the loss off, beating Nebraska and Oklahoma State, winning the Big Seven Conference title, and they beat Duke in the Orange Bowl. They finished the season ranked Number 4. Notre Dame weren't as lucky: The win over Oklahoma raised them to Number 9, but they lost their next game, home to Iowa. They beat USC at home, and then beat SMU in the Cotton Bowl (the stadium, not the game), and finished Number 9.
In a weird twist of events, the longest winning streak in the history of men's college basketball is 88 games, set by UCLA from 1971 to 1974. The last team to beat them before the streak began, and the team that beat them to end it? In each case, it was Notre Dame. Unlike Oklahoma football, however, both UCLA losses to Notre Dame were on the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Indiana.
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November 16, 1957 was a Saturday. Among the other college football games played that day were these:
* Oklahoma may have had the most shocking defeat of the day, or even of the decade, but they weren't even the highest-ranked team to lose that day. Texas A&M went in ranked Number 1, but were upset by Number 20 Rice, 7-6 at Rice Stadium in Houston. Rice went on to win the Southwest Conference title.
* Number 3 Auburn beat Georgia, 6-0 at Memorial Stadium in Columbus, Georgia.
* Number 4 Michigan State beat Minnesota, 42-13 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan.
* Number 5 Iowa were slightly upset by Number 6 Ohio State, 17-13 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Ohio State won the Big Ten Conference title.
* Number 7 Tennessee were slightly upset by Number 8 Mississippi, 14-7 at Crump Stadium in Memphis. "Ole Miss" went on to win the Southeastern Conference title, and beat Texas in the Sugar Bowl.
* Number 9 Navy beat George Washington University, 52-0 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Navy beat Rice in the Cotton Bowl, in large part due to running back Pete Dawkins, who won the Heisman Trophy the next season.
* Number 10 Army beat Tulane, 20-14 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.
* Number 11 Duke beat Number 14 Clemson, 7-6 at Duke Stadium (now Wallace Wade Stadium) in Durham, North Carolina.
* Number 15 Illinois were upset by Wisconsin, 24-13 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.
* Number 16 Oregon beat Southern California (USC), 16-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Oregon won the Pacific Coast Conference title. But the Ohio State beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl, and were awarded the National Championship by UPI.
* In New York City, Columbia lost to the University of Pennsylvania, 28-6 at Baker Field in Manhattan.
* And in New Jersey, Rutgers lost to William & Mary, 38-7 at Cary Field in Williamsburg, Virginia; and Princeton lost to Yale, 20-13 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.
There were 3 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Detroit Pistons, 109-105 at the old Madison Square Garden.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 111-89 at the Boston Garden. Bill Russell scored 28 points and set a new NBA record with 49 rebounds. Three years later, with the Warriors, Wilt Chamberlain said a record which has never seriously been approached, against Russell and the Celtics, with 55 rebounds. But the Celtics won the game.
* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Syracuse Nationals, 118-101 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.
And the NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:
* The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the Montreal Forum.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 1-0 at the Chicago Stadium.
And in English soccer, Arsenal beat Hampshire team Portsmouth, 3-2 at Highbury in North London.
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