Notre Dame Football: Remembering the Chicken Soup Game

Notre Dame Football: Remembering the Chicken Soup Game

The First Half

It’s hard to say if it was Houston or the cold that Notre Dame wasn’t ready for, but the Cougars jumped out to a 20-12 first-half lead in terrible conditions. Dallas was experiencing its worst ice storm in decades, and the wind chill factored to make it -6°F for the game.

The Cotton Bowl was a turf field, and this was a time when turf fields were basically a thin carpet over concrete, to begin with, but this was also outdated turf that needed to be replaced.

It may have well have been a sheet of ice.

Oh, and starting quarterback Joe Montana had the flu.

Montana clearly wasn’t right in the first half, though. He threw two interceptions in the first half that directly led to Houston points. Those weren’t the only points Houston was scoring, though. After Notre Dame scored the first two touchdowns of the game, the Cougars went on a 34-0 scoring run.