Even though 1982 had ended on a dour note, with three straight losses ruining hopes for a major bowl bid, the 1983 Notre Dame football team entered the season with high hopes. It was the third year for head coach Gerry Faust, the team had shown significant improvement in his second season and pollsters were […]
1983 Illinois football was celebrating the 20th anniversary of their last trip to the Rose Bowl. Since that 1963 season they had been off the football map. When Mike White became the head coach in 1980, it had been six years since the good folks of Champaign had even seen a winning season. READ GREAT […]
1983 was the year of The Great Rebuild for Georgia athletics. The basketball team saw star forward Dominque Wilkins leave early for the pros. Dawg hoops responded by going to the Final Four. The 1983 Georgia football team was no less impressive—they lost Herschel Walker, one of college football’s all-time greatest running backs, early to […]
Pat Dye took over the Auburn program in 1981, when Alabama’s Bear Bryant ruled the state, the SEC and was larger than life in the nation itself, including a recent run of national championships in 1978-79. Dye went 5-6 his first year, but improved to 8-3-1 a year later and was establishing his program as […]
Fred Akers had taken over the Texas coaching job in 1977 and promptly went undefeated before losing the national title to Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl. That loss foreshadowed some difficulties, at least relative to Texas expectations over the next few years. READ GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS The Longhorns lost three of their next […]
The Miami football program had been in the doldrums when Howard Schnellenberger took over as head coach in 1979 and after a 5-6 opening year, promptly went 25-9 over the next three seasons. The 1983 Miami Hurricanes were clearly a team on the rise, but no one could have guessed they would win one of […]
In the annals of great teams that never won it all—in any sport—the 1983 Nebraska football team is as renowned—even as revered–as any. They spent a regular season crushing all comers. In the Orange Bowl they played for the win when a tie would have been sufficient. And they missed a national championship by the […]
The 1983 college football season was a seminal year in the history of the sport. Miami’s stunning upset of Nebraska in the Orange Bowl to win the national championship marked the start of a dynasty and dramatic shift in the balance of power to the state of Florida in general. 1983 was also a year […]
The 1984 Cotton Bowl was one of the most memorable in the long history of the Dallas-based bowl game. Second-ranked Texas was upset by Georgia in a game that took on even greater significance by the time the night had ended. Here’s a look back on the road the Longhorns and Bulldogs took through the […]
Auburn had a breakthrough year in the 1983 college football season, winning the SEC championship for third-year coach Pat Dye and getting the automatic berth to the Sugar Bowl. Michigan was making its first appearance in the New Orleans game. Here’s a look back at how both the Tigers and Wolverines got to January 2 […]
UCLA and Illinois came to the 1984 Rose Bowl with two very different heritages and two paths through the 1983 college football season that were quite different. The Bruins were the defending Rose Bowl champions, but had struggled to a 6-4-1 record in 1983. The Illini hadn’t been to Pasadena since 1963, but arrived this […]
Ohio State came into the 1984 Fiesta Bowl on a low note, having finished third in the Big Ten and losing to Michigan. Pitt came to the Fiesta Bowl with every reason to feel good about themselves, having gone 8-2-1 in their first year post-Dan Marino. Let’s take a look back on the road these […]