Menu

1988 Fiesta Bowl

The Story Of The 1987 College Football Season

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 1987 college football season saw its structure shaped by four teams—Miami, Oklahoma, Florida State and Nebraska effectively went into two separate brackets and played a de facto playoff, replete with regular season semifinals, a bowl game consolation battle and ultimately an Orange Bowl battle for the national championship.

This download tells the story of the 1987 college football season as it unfolded week-by-week, all the way through the bowl games. You’ll remember all the biggest games and look back on the key players that defined the year for top programs across the country. You’ll read about the following…

*How Miami sought redemption for recent high-profile bowl failures and ran the gauntlet through a tough schedule. Jimmy Johnson was finally a champion.

*Florida State’s surge to prominence. They lost just one game, a regular season thriller with Miami and the Seminoles started a long string of major bowl appearances.

*The paths of Oklahoma and Nebraska, who opened the season in the 1-2 poll spots, stayed there all the way until their November rivalry game and finally onto the bowls…where both came up short against their opponents from the Sunshine State.

These four teams might have shaped the season, but there were others that made it one to remember…

*Syracuse exploded, seemingly from nowhere, to an undefeated regular season behind a splendid year from quarterback Don McPherson. Read how the Orange became the new Beast of the East and their controversial ending in the Sugar Bowl.

*Lou Holtz returned Notre Dame to prominence. In his second season, Holtz got the Irish back onto the New Year’s Day stage. He also kept his team on the periphery of the national championship race until they ran out of steam at the end.

*Michigan State wrestled the Big Ten title away from the Michigan-Ohio State-Iowa troika that controlled it through the decade. The Spartans did with a fantastic defense.

*On the Pac-10 side of the race for the Rose Bowl, UCLA seemed in control right to the end with a quarterback named Troy Aikman pulling the trigger. Then, at the end, up jumped USC in a memorable regular season finale. \

*The SEC was an interesting race all year, with as many as six teams moving in and out of contention for the Sugar Bowl spot. LSU was the focal point early in the season, but Auburn emerged by the end.

*And the old Southwest Conference, that used to have the Cotton Bowl as its biggest prize, saw two big November games among the trio of Texas A&M, Arkansas and Texas.

Read about how the major awards shook out, a close look at all five major bowl games and a few of the notable minor ones. For those of us that lived through it, it’s a great way to stir up the memories. For younger readers, it’s a perfect way to see how the 1987 college football season looked as it was unfolding.

DOWNLOAD THE 1987 COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON TODAY

1987 Sports: Knight, Gretzky & Magic Get Back On Top

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bob Knight, Wayne Gretzky and Magic Johnson had already made their mark on the respective histories of college basketball, the NHL and the NBA. All three were looking for redemption in varying degrees, and in the year of 1987 sports, all three got back on top.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 


None of the three won a championship in more dramatic fashion than Knight. After coaching the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in 1984, Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers had seen some hard times—missing the NCAA Tournament in 1985 and losing in the first round in 1986. Knight’s infamous, albeit vastly overplayed chair-throw incident took place in ’85.
It was appropriate that the year Knight returned to the top of the college basketball world took place in the same year the movie Hoosiers came out. Like the movie, the real-life version of the story ended up with a last-second shot winning the national championship, as Keith Smart’s jumper near the baseline gave Indiana a 74-73 win over Syracuse and their head coach his third national title.
The 1987 NCAA Tournament also provided a Cinderella, and one with lasting implications for college basketball. Providence made the Final Four. It was the first breakthrough for a young head coach named Rick Pitino. And his best player was Billy Donovan. We’re still hearing plenty from both Pitino and Donovan on the sidelines today.
Read more about 1987 Indiana basketball
Read more about Rick Pitino, Billy Donovan & 1987 Providence
Magic Johnson already had three championship rings and twice had been named MVP of the Finals. But the 1986 season ended badly for his Los Angeles Lakers, and there was talk that they might be supplanted by the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference.
Instead, Magic upped his game to become a top scorer, without losing his tremendous passing ability and he won his first league MVP award. The Lakers won the NBA title, and their battle with the Boston Celtics in the Finals was a historic benchmark—it was the last time Magic and Boston’s Larry Bird ever competed for a championship.
And on the hockey side, Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers had seen their dynasty interrupted in 1986, after winning consecutive Stanley Cups in 1984-85. Gretzky won another MVP award of his own—making him 8-for-8 in his career, and Edmonton erased the upset loss of 1986 by capturing a third Stanley Cup in four years.
Read more about the 1987 NBA Finals
Read more about the 1987 Edmonton Oilers
Baseball and college football each provided good regular seasons and interesting finishes. The baseball season was highlighted by a dramatic AL East race, with the Milwaukee Brewers providing any number of streaks, both individual and team, while the Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers ran a great race to the final day of the season.
And baseball’s postseason was marked by a team making full use of the rotation system MLB then used to set homefield advantage for both the League Championship Series and World Series. The Minnesota Twins won their division on the one year in four that they were set to have homefield throughout, and the Twins used it win a surprise World Series.
College football saw the first advent of the four-team playoff that begins in 2014, albeit entirely unintended. But Miami-Florida State and Nebraska-Oklahoma ended up as a de facto national semifinals, with the winners playing for the national title and the losers meeting in the Fiesta Bowl. Miami won the national championship and Florida State ended up #2.
Read more about the 1987 World Series
Read more about 1987 college football
Read more about the 1987 AL East race
The NFL toyed with fans with the second strike in six years. Four weeks of play were missed, but unlike the 1982 strike, the league used replacement players to cover for three of the weeks. The games counted in the standings and were retained even after the regular players returned.
What this strike year had in common with 1982, was that once again it was the Washington Redskins who held together and won the Super Bowl. The Strike-Year ‘Skins still had the magic and their 42-10 rout of the Denver Broncos sealed a title, with Doug Williams becoming the first African-American quarterback to start and win the Super Bowl.
Read more about the 1987 Washington Redskins