The Story of the Orange Bowl

The Story of the Orange Bowl — page 3 — That would sound pretty good to northerners considering a winter vacation Miami was once a quiet fishing village on the Atlantic coast of Florida Today it is a fast-moving glamorous metropolis Like the city itself the Orange Bowl grew from a modest beginning It owes much of its success to a tireless promoter named Earnie Seiler The Palm Festival was the original name of this game Seiler once stood on the street encouraging people to come in for free to fill the bleachers After that two-year warm-up the first Orange Bowl was played on January 1 1935 when Bucknell beat the University of Miami The Bison were so concerned about the tropical heat they brought 280 gallons 1,060 L of their own water from Pennsylvania to stay hydrated The water may have helped because Bucknell won 26 0 The 1939 game truly made the Orange Bowl a big time event thanks to Seiler’s persuasion He wanted the mighty Oklahoma Sooners to play in that year’s game So he traveled to Oklahoma to make his case plastering posters and sidewalk-chalk messages around campus The Sooners were impressed They took less money than other bowls were offering and agreed to come to Miami to play against the Tennessee Volunteers 6

The Story of the Orange Bowl — page 4 — Billy Jefferson of Mississippi State plunges through a crowd of Georgetown defenders to score a touchdown in the 1941 Orange Bowl By the mid-1950s the game was broadcast on national television The pregame parade was shown on TV too The floats got brighter The hype grew louder The party got bigger Seiler even brought in fans to spread the scent of orange blossom perfume from the top of the stadium The fancier the better he believed The Orange Bowl eventually signed a contract with the Big 8 Conference to give its champion often Nebraska or Oklahoma an automatic invitation to Miami That Nebraska Oklahoma rivalry grew into one of the most intense in the country It was so intriguing that 7

The Story of the Orange Bowl — page 5 — Aerial view of the Orange Bowl before the 1938 game between Auburn and Michigan State the Orange Bowl even staged a rematch one year The Huskers beat the Sooners in the 1978 regular season but they lost to Missouri and ended the season tied with Oklahoma for first place in the conference When the two teams met again in Miami the Sooners won 31 24 By this point the Orange Bowl was a prime destination Nebraska fans even started a tradition of tossing oranges onto the field at games late in the season looking forward to another journey to Miami 8

The Story of the Orange Bowl — page 6 — Oklahoma and Nebraska have played in the Orange Bowl the most of any teams by far Through 2014 the Sooners had made 18 appearances the Huskers 17 Many times the national championship was determined at the Orange Bowl stadium just west of downtown Miami Some of those trips were devastating for Nebraska and its dedicated fans The 1983 team was ranked number one all season The Huskers dominated almost every team they played They even scored 84 points in a September win at Minnesota But their opponent in the fiftieth Orange Bowl was Miami and the Hurricanes were on their home field Miami built a 17 0 lead behind two touchdown passes from freshman quarterback Bernie Kosar a future NFL standout for the Cleveland Browns The Huskers rallied from a 31 17 deficit in the fourth quarter however and scored a touchdown with 48 seconds left That put them down by only one point Huskers coach Tom Osborne called for a two-point conversion The pass by Turner Gill was incomplete That handed the Hurricanes their first national title The teams met in the Orange Bowl three more times in the next 11 years Traditions do not always last The Big 8 expanded to become the Big 12 Conference in 1996 After that 9

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