Tom Osborne had been the Nebraska head coach since 1973, and he came into 1987 having done most everything you could do in college football—except win a national championship. The 1987 Nebraska Cornhuskers had the look of a team that could fill in the last line of Osborne’s resume. But an all-too-familiar nemesis—Oklahoma and a […]
Barry Switzer took over the Oklahoma Sooners in 1973 and his coaching reign was an unqualified success. There were three national championships, most recently in 1985. There was a consistent domination of the Big Eight and archrival Nebraska. The 1987 Oklahoma Sooners came into the season on a three-game winning streak over the Cornhuskers, each […]
Bobby Bowden’s Florida State program made their first national splash in the seasons of 1979 and 1980. They went to the Orange Bowl both years and finished in the final Top 10 each time. The five years since then had seen FSU drift off the national radar. They were going to bowls and winning them—a […]
Iowa had their breakthrough season in 1981 under Hayden Fry, when they cracked the Michigan-Ohio State monopoly on the Big Ten’s Rose Bowl bid and came to Pasadena. In the ensuing three years, Fry’s teams went 25-11-1, establishing they were no one-year wonder. 1985 Iowa football was a team of a great expectation, with a […]
1985 Michigan football came into the season looking for redemption from the most disappointing season of Bo Schembechler’s tenure in Ann Arbor. They went 6-5 in 1984 and then missed a chance at redemption when they lost the Holiday Bowl to undefeated BYU, the eventual national champion. After having gone to a major bowl in […]
Nebraska had gone to nine major bowls since Tom Osborne became head coach in 1973. The last two years were marked by heartbreak at the goal-line—a legendary failed two-point conversion in the Orange Bowl that cost them a national title in 1983–and a failed fourth down at the goal line against Oklahoma that cost them […]
Tennessee had not reached the Sugar Bowl, the SEC’s contract bowl game, since 1970. But they were winning consistently. The Vols had reached nine straight bowls, including four in succession under Johnny Majors, who came to Knoxville after winning a national championship at Pitt in 1976. The 1985 Tennessee football team would break the Sugar […]
Miami had exploded onto the national stage in 1983 when they won a stunning national title over Nebraska. The mastermind behind it, Howard Schnellenberger, immediately left to the United States Football League, a fledgling organization that had a brief splash in challenging the NFL. READ GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS Jimmy Johnson took over and 1984 […]
1985 Penn State football was in need of a bounceback year. After winning the national title in 1982, the Nittany Lions had slipped off the radar for two years. They went 8-4-1 in 1983 and then a 6-5 season in 1984 resulted in no bowl appearance. Joe Paterno’s program revitalized with defense. Shane Conlan, a […]
The 1984 Boston College football season was a magical ride, one whose biggest moment lives on as perhaps the most famous sports play of the modern era. It was also the best team the program has produced since their undefeated season under Frank Leahy in 1940. READ GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS Doug Flutie was coming […]
After being one of the nation’s top three programs in the 1970s (along with USC and Alabama), the Oklahoma Sooners had slid backward the past three years. They lost four games each year from 1981-83. 1984 Oklahoma football wasn’t seen as likely to reverse the trend, ranking #16 in the preseason polls and behind conference […]
Don James had turned the Washington program into one of significance, earning three Rose Bowl bids (1977, 1980, 1981) in a Pac-10 long dominated by USC and UCLA. The last couple years had seen Washington come up short of New Year’s Day, settling for Aloha Bowl trips both times. The 1984 Washington Huskies opened the […]