Davie recalls fond memories of Pitt Stadium
By TIM CASEY
Sports Writer
More than 20 years ago, in 1976, before most of the current Irish players were born, Bob Davie was just another college graduate looking for a job.
Despite graduating from Youngstown State with a degree in education, Davie knew he wanted to be a coach.
So the determined Davie went to Pittsburgh in search for a position as a graduate assistant coach. Eager to get into a winning program, the aggressive Davie was willing to do anything. Even work for free.
"I graduated in December and went there [Pittsburgh] in January," Davie recalled at Tuesday's press conference. "I said I wanted to be a graduate assistant [but was denied]. So I came back again and said I am just going to volunteer my time.
"I started in January and I just volunteered my time," Davie said. "I went until about May and then finally he [head coach Jackie Sherrill] hired me as a graduate assistant in May. To get that graduate assistant job at Pitt coming out of Youngstown State was significant."
Thus began Davie's coaching career.
A few months later Davie was helping prepare for the Panthers first opponent of the season. That team was Notre Dame.
Davie fondly remembers his first game as a coach.
"For some reason, I ended up in the locker room right before that game," Davie said. "It was Jackie Sherrill who was coaching his first game as head coach and myself. That was when GA's [graduate assistants] didn't even dress in the same locker room as the other coaches.
"But for some reason I probably was going to get him a Diet Coke or something; that is why I was probably in there," Davie said. "He and I were in that locker room together and I remember thinking this is a big deal. This is a major deal. Here I am a graduate assistant, just graduated from Youngstown State, I am a GA at Pitt and we are playing Notre Dame."
The Irish, en route to the national championship, cruised to a 19-9 opening season victory over the Panthers.
Now 22 years later, Davie returns as head coach at Notre Dame in the last game ever played at Pitt Stadium on Saturday.
"To go in there and now be the head coach here and go in there and play the last game in that stadium is significant to me," Davie said. "There will be a lot of emotion in this football game."
Established in 1925, Pitt Stadium is one of the oldest stadiums in college football. Next season, the Panthers will play their home games at Three Rivers Stadium before moving into a new stadium in downtown Pittsburgh in 2001.
One game in particular that Davie remembers from his coaching days at Pitt occurred in 1982 when a 4-1-1 Irish team upset undefeated and top-ranked Pitt 31-16. Led by senior quarterback Dan Marino, the Panthers were 10-point favorites against a Notre Dame team that seven days earlier tied winless Oregon.
But freshman running back Allen Pinkett's 76-yard touchdown run highlighted one of the biggest upsets in the Gerry Faust era.
"I can remember that play today," Davie said of Pinkett's run. "It looked like it was in slow motion. We must have missed eight tackles on that play. And he goes in and scores and they beat us."
"I think the whole time I was at Pitt we lost four games at home," Davie continued. "But two of those games were to Notre Dame
Besides football-related memories, Davie still remembers another tradition at Pitt Stadium.
"I ran a lot of laps around the top of that stadium," Davie said. "There you jogged in the stadium because you weren't going to go out in Oakland [the area surrounding the stadium] and jog around that city. So we'd go around the top of that stadium."
At halftime of Saturday's game, Pittsburgh will honor more than 300 former football players, 150 cheerleaders and 275 band alumni. The show, entitled "A Tribute to Pitt Football," will also commemorate the individual decades of Pitt Stadium, from the 1920s to the present.
Among the former Pitt players that are expected to attend Saturday's game is 1976 Heisman trophy winner Tony Dorsett. One of the best running backs in NCAA history, Dorsett's presence on the sidelines still scares Davie.
"Fortunately, I am not aware of any NCAA regulation that allows them to play," Davie said. "But you've got to be nervous of Tony Dorsett lined up there at tailback. He probably has at least one good game left in him."
Though Dorsett will not be lining up in the Pitt backfield, Davie still is concerned with the Panthers, particularly since the Irish haven't won a game away from Notre Dame Stadium since last season. The last road victory for the Irish came on November 14 a year ago when they blanked Navy 30-0 at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in Raljon, Md.
In fact, that game was at a neutral site, where most of the crowd was rooting for Notre Dame. So actually the last time Notre Dame team won when the crowd was not in their favor occurred a week earlier when they beat Boston College 31-26.
Throughout the 4-5 season, there has been a sense of miscommunication on the Notre Dame team. From the infamous fake check against Purdue to last week's miscommunication in the fourth quarter, the Irish have faced criticism for their failure to communicate.
With the crowd noise and environment of an away stadium, Davie believes his team cannot afford to continue its ways if they want to win on Saturday.
"When you play on the road you have to be smart about just how much you do at the line of scrimmage," Davie said. "You've got to make sure the communication and the checks and things are as simple as you can make it."
Though his top priority this week is a victory, Davie couldn't help but reflect on how his career has come full circle.
"You look back in your life at all the different paths you go down, all the things that could have happened," Davie said. "To go from a GA at Pitt then to coach the last game at that stadium is something else."
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, November 10, 1999
