Remembering when Georgia football helped Miami win a national championship

MIAMI – By nightfall, Jan. 2, 1984, the football world had already gone into a tailspin with Georgia having upset No. 2 Texas in the Cotton Bowl in the afternoon, 10-9, which opened the door for Miami to claim the national championship.

All the Hurricanes had to do was defeat No. 1 Nebraska, a team considered by many to be the best of all time. The Cornhuskers had already been called “the team of the century” by some soothsayers.

Howard Schellenberger, the Miami coach, seethed at such commentary. He had evaluated every Cornhusker game film over and over, and told a close friend, John Underwood of Sports Illustrated, that while Nebraska was good, they were certainly beatable.

Underwood was head of the Orange Bowl public relations committee which authorized the publishing of a book on the bowl’s first 50 years. I was fortunate to land the commitment to write the book which gave me an inside relationship with Schellenberger and several members of the Hurricane coaching staff.

However, there was unfinished business in Dallas, with Georgia playing Texas in the Cotton Bowl. The underdog Bulldogs, as all good Dawgs know, defeated the Longhorns 10-9 which brought about pandemonium at the Miami team headquarters as the pre-game meal was being served to the Hurricanes.

“I don’t think many of them ate anything,” Schellenberger told me after the game. “Steaks were flying off the wall. There was complete bedlam, and I worried that we would not be able to settle them down.”

Meanwhile, back in Dallas, I needed to get to the airport for a flight to Miami for the Orange Bowl game. Gil Brandt, Vice President of Personnel, for the Dallas Cowboys was giving me a ride to Love Field for my flight. He was anxious to miss the traffic emptying the Cotton Bowl, but I kept lingering back until I saw Texas fumble the punt which…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/remembering-georgia-football-helped-miami-161453316.html

Author : Athens Banner-Herald

Publish date : 2023-12-27 16:14:53

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