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 […]
1982 Pitt football was a team of great expectation. It was the senior year for quarterback Dan Marino. After three straight 11-1 seasons, including a dramatic Sugar Bowl win over Georgia following the 1981 season, this was to be the year that Pitt won it all and Marino won the Heisman Trophy. It didn’t work […]
SMU football was a program on the rise, although they were also running afoul of the NCAA in the process. Ron Meyer coached the Mustangs to a 10-1 record in 1981 and the championship of the old Southwest Conference. But probation denied SMU the Cotton Bowl bid that came with the league title. Meyer departed […]
1982 UCLA football came into the season hungry for a Rose Bowl. The program’s last Rose Bowl appearance had come following the 1975 season with Dick Vermeil as head coach. Vermeil then left to coach the Philadelphia Eagles and was succeeded by Terry Donahue. The winning continued—a 44-21-3 record between 1976-81—but the Pac-10’s Rose Bowl […]
The Nebraska Cornhuskers were as consistent a winner as there was in college football. Unfortunately, there was also as consistent a loser as there was in certain targeted games. They overcame one hurdle in 1981 when they finally beat Oklahoma and won the old Big Eight outright. 1982 Nebraska football overcame another when they won […]
The Georgia Bulldogs were the showcase of college football during the three years of the Herschel Walker Era. They displaced Bear Bryant’s Alabama atop the SEC. The Dawgs won the national championship in 1980. They reached the Sugar Bowl in 1981. The 1982 Georgia football team went back to New Orleans for another Sugar Bowl […]
1981 Alabama football wasn’t the same loaded team that won back-to-back national titles in 1978-79. They had slipped a bit in 1980, though they still went to the Cotton Bowl and crushed Baylor. The offense lacked explosiveness. Starting quarterback Walter Lewis only threw 66 passes and the Tide relied on a rushing attack where five […]