Me neither - Republican presidential candidates are always behind in the polls - my entire life. I was only about 15 when Reagan won for the second time in a huge landslide, but it seems that for months during the summer he was behind in the polls to Mondale.
your memory is correct.
84 was my first POTUS election...I was 21.
the entire summer of 84, in my native Michigan, the news cycles were full of how the Tigers were winning bigly, and the Gipper was losing bigly.
turns out, they were half right....... :)