{"id":1598,"date":"2011-11-18T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T05:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archives.nd.edu\/about\/news\/?p=1598"},"modified":"2011-11-18T00:00:30","modified_gmt":"2011-11-18T05:00:30","slug":"nd-vs-syracuse-11181961","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/nd-vs-syracuse-11181961\/","title":{"rendered":"Notre Dame vs. Syracuse, 11\/18\/1961"},"content":{"rendered":" <\/a>
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Notre Dame football has sometimes been controversial, and the 1961 game against Syracuse was no exception.\u00a0 When the defense commits a penalty, the offense is usually compensated with a replay of downs and\/or gained yardage.\u00a0 However, before this game, the rules were murky regarding how to handle a defensive penalty when time had expired.\u00a0 In the case of the 1961 Syracuse game, this meant the difference between a win and a loss that wouldn’t be resolved for months afterward.<\/p>\n

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A page from the Joe Ceryak Scrapbook with newspaper clippings regarding the controversy of the replayed field goal attempt in the ND vs. Syracuse football game, 1961<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trailing 14-15 with only a few seconds left on the clock, Notre Dame sent in kicker Joe Perkowski to attempt a 56-yard field goal.\u00a0 He missed soundly as time expired, but there were flags on the field.\u00a0 Syracuse player Walt Sweeney was called for roughing the kicker, a penalty that carried a charge of fifteen yards.\u00a0 The gained yardage would put Perkowski in better position, although it would not be easy.\u00a0 Since time had expired on the previous play, it wasn’t obvious Perkowski would even get a second attempt.\u00a0 The Syracuse fans had already started to rush the field to celebrate their victory.<\/p>\n

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Football Game Scene – ND vs. Syracuse, 1961\/1118.\u00a0 Syracuse player Walt Sweeny (#89) was charged with roughing ND kicker Joe Perkowski (#38) and place holder George Sefcik (#22) as time expired in the game.\u00a0 Perkowski missed the 56-yard field goal, but was awarded a second chance because of the penalty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The officials had to make an on-the-spot decision about how to handle the foul, and they decided to enforce the standard penalty for roughing the kicker.\u00a0 Even though time had expired, Notre Dame kicker Joe Perkowski was given fifteen yards and a second attempt, and he kicked the game-winning, 41-yard field goal.<\/p>\n

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Football Game Scene – ND vs. Syracuse, 1961\/1118.\u00a0 Kicker Joe Perkowski (#38) kicking a second attempt field goal and George Sefcik (#22) holding the ball with no time left on the clock.\u00a0 Perkowski made the 41-yard field goal to win the game 17-15.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As can be imagined, not everyone was happy with this impromptu decision.\u00a0 The legality of the extra play was shortly afterwards contested by the Big 10 and Eastern College Athletic Conferences, who supplied the officials for the game, and the NCAA rules chairman General Bob Neyland.\u00a0 Review of the game film and the rules books led many to question the referees’ decisions.\u00a0 Did Walt Sweeney really rough the kicker and place holder?\u00a0 Since the initial kick was far from its target, which team actually had possession when the foul occur?\u00a0 In the end, neither the conferences nor the NCAA had the power to overturn the Irish win, leaving the game officials with the final say and the Irish with a win for the record books.\u00a0 The rules were changed in 1962 to prevent any future confusion should a similar circumstance arise.<\/p>\n

Sources:
\nScholastic Football Review<\/em>, 1961
\nJoe Ceryak Scrapbook, 1961
\n“Irish Reject Illegal Victory Ruling:\u00a0 Ask Again for Judgment by Full NCAA Committee,” Chicago Daily Tribune<\/em>, 1961\/1129
\n“Irish-Syracuse Debate May Cause Rule Change for 1962 Grid Season,”\u00a0 Chicago Daily Defender<\/em>, 1961\/1220
\n“NCAA Rejects Irish Proposal on Officiating,” The Washington Post, Times Herald<\/em>, 1962\/0114
\nGPHR 45\/8420<\/a><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/a>

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Notre Dame football has sometimes been controversial, and the 1961 game against Syracuse was no exception.\u00a0 When the defense commits a penalty, the offense is usually compensated with a replay of downs and\/or gained yardage.\u00a0 However, before this game, the rules were murky regarding how to handle a defensive penalty when time had expired.\u00a0 In … Continue reading “Notre Dame vs. Syracuse, 11\/18\/1961”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"author":4370,"featured_media":1619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[37,71],"class_list":["post-1598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nd-history","tag-football","tag-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 13:11:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}