The year was 1988. George H.W. Bush won the presidential election. PanAm flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland.
And Notre Dame was the king of college football.
In the last 25 years we have had another Bush in the Oval Office, another aircraft — TWA Flight 800 — tragically exploded over Long Island and Notre Dame is still clinging to that last title.
There are some who believe the Irish can end that 25-year drought this season. A program rejuvenated by Brian Kelly got to the BCS National Championship Game last season, only to be pulverized by mighty Alabama.
Twenty-five years ago, a Notre Dame team led by a quarterback from South Carolina, Tony Rice, shocked the nation. They were led by a leprechaun of a coach in Lou Holtz, who preached “Trust, Love and Commitment.”
“Coach Holtz would always say, ‘It’s a beautiful day to work. It’s a beautiful day to work,’ ’’ Rice said. “It would be freezing cold and snowing in South Bend and he would say, ‘It’s a beautiful day to work.’
“I saw on my son’s Facebook page the other day, ‘It’s a beautiful day to work.’ He got that from his dad, who got it from coach Holtz. That’s what makes Notre Dame special. You keep it in the family.’’
That Notre Dame family is brought to life beautifully by New Jersey author Jerry Barca, a 1999 graduate of Notre Dame, in his just-released book, “Unbeatable.”
That 1988 season was one for the ages, but it was not without pain.
Rice — now 45, a father of five and a risk manager for an insurance brokerage firm who recently moved to Chicago from South Bend — recalls going to Sun Devil House after the Irish claimed the national championship by smacking West Virginia 34-21 in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl. Rice, who was of legal age, had one drink, vomited, and went back to the team hotel.
Less than three weeks after that championship game, cornerback Bobby Satterfield suffered seizures caused by an enlarged heart. He collapsed and died in a Niles, Ind., nightclub.
From champions to mourners in less than a month.
The Irish were not expected to be a national championship factor in 1988. Three years earlier, the season ended with Allen Pinkett draping his arm around coach Gerry Faust in the finals seconds of a 58-7 loss to Miami in the Orange Bowl.
Enter Holtz, the Larry Brown of college football.
He hitched his star to Rice, a mobile quarterback who was the gem of Holtz’s first recruiting class in 1986.
Rice would become the first African-American quarterback to start an entire season at Notre Dame. He also was the school’s first Proposition 48 player, making him somewhat of a pariah before he set foot on campus.
Some professors were outspoken in their displeasure Notre Dame had admitted a player that had not met the same freshman eligibility standards as the rest of the student body. Prop 48 was like a scarlet letter.
Prop 48s were not allowed to practice, eat or train with the team. Rice lifted by himself. He tossed the football with other students in the quad.
And in his words, he killed them with kindness.
“I remember going to a pep rally and I said hello to a little boy,’’ Rice said. “His father said, ‘Don’t talk to him, he’s not smart.’ Inside I said, ‘I’ll show you.’ ’’
But it wasn’t nearly that easy. His Southern drawl made him almost indecipherable to Midwesterners. He called his grandmother, saying he wanted to come home. She said the family didn’t have the money to fly him back.
Rice stuck it out. Even when he thought Holtz didn’t like him — the coach rode him in practice, often quizzing Rice on what every player’s responsibility was on a given play — Rice kept working.
It paid off that night in the desert. Can this be another unbeatable season?
The emerging star quarterback, Everett Golson, also of South Carolina, has been suspended for poor academic judgment. The schedule is once again daunting. And the Irish will not surprise anyone this season.
Rice said when the Irish won it, a lot of alums told him it would take 20 years before the significance of winning a national title at Notre Dame would sink in. They were correct.
“It didn’t hit me until last year when they got back to the championship game,’’ he said.
“I think Notre Dame went through a period when they were afraid to take a chance on a player like me. On your diploma, it doesn’t say what your GPA was. It says you graduated.
“And then you have something special, a degree from Notre Dame. You’re part of a family forever. If this team wins it, they will be remembered forever. They don’t know it now, but they will.’’