On Saturday night, October 3rd, the Oklahoma Sooners invade Miami to play the Hurricanes in college football. Until 5 months ago, I was living in South Florida and planning on attending this game. Unfortunately, I will have to watch the game on ABC since I now live in Louisville, KY.
In anticipation of this game, I have been reflecting on one of the best games that I have attended. The date was September 27, 1986 in The Orange Bowl in Miami. The defending national champions, Oklahoma, entered the game as the #1 ranked team in the nation. Miami was ranked #2. This was the first of 2 times that I have attended a #1 vs. #2 game. At the end of last season, my son, Cameron and I attended the BCS National Championship game between Oklahoma and Florida in Miami.
The 1986 game was filled with heavyweights and All-Americans all over the field. Miami was led by Vinnie Testaverde. He would go on to win the Heisman Trophy that year. He was joined by guys like Michael Irvin, Alonzo Highsmith, Melvin Bratton, Jerome Browne, and the Blades brothers. Oklahoma had guys like Brian Bosworth, Jammin’ Jamelle Hollaway, Spencer Tillman and Keith Jackson.
Entering the game, Testaverde and Bosworth were 2 of the 3 leading candidates for the Heisman (Michigan State had a running back that was the 3rd).
Prior to this game, Oklahoma had not lost since the previous season when Miami defeated Oklahoma in Norman. That game is remembered because Troy Aikman was the quarterback for Oklahoma. He was injured during the game. Freshman, Hollaway subbed for him and led Oklahoma to the national title. Barry Switzer decided to stay with the wishbone attack and Aikman transferred to UCLA.
Oklahoma has not been a stranger to playing in Miami. They have participated in 16 Orange Bowl games winning 13 of them.
I was living in Little Rock, AR at the time. My cousin, Duane was living in Miami. I flew to Miami and as soon as I got off the plane, I knew this would be no ordinary game. Everyone was buzzing about the game. Within 5 minutes of being in the city, I heard for the first of many times a pretty good song written by some local artists. It detailed what the Hurricanes would do to the Sooners. I remember lines like, “Oklahoma?…Joke-lahoma.” There was also something about the Canes and Bennie and Brian Blades blowing Oklahoma into the Everglades.
I happened to be on crutches with a cast on my lower leg due to a broken bone in my foot. We arrived early at the stadium to tailgate. The rowdy Miami fans began giving those of us in our crimson OU attire much grief. I have never attended a game with such a threatening crowd. Flowing beer and bikini clad women were all over the stadium. I was verbally abused throughout the afternoon.
The game provided hard hits and tough football from beginning to end. Miami did prevail, 28-16, in front of 71,451 fans. Testaverde threw 4 touchdown passes including 2 to Michael Irvin.
Jimmy Johnson was Miami’s coach. Barry Switzer was the coach for Oklahoma. These were former teammates in college playing for the Arkansas Razorbacks. Both would go on to win Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys (Jerry Jones played with them in Arkansas). They are still the only 2 coaches to win both a college national championship and a Super Bowl.
Although the footage is not modern HD quality, watch the intro to the game in this video:
Let’s hope that tomorrow will be a great game even if it can’t live up to the hype and quality of that game 23 years ago. By the way, Randy Shannon (Miami’s current coach) was a linebacker for Miami in that game.
Subscribe to this blog on the right hand side of the page by entering your email address. This way you will get other posts about this game.
{ 2 trackbacks }