The pressure was on for head coach Gerry Faust in his fourth year. His first three years in South Bend had failed to produce a major bowl bid. 1982 and 1983 were marked by November collapses. The 1984 Notre Dame football team had 17 starters coming back and expectations were that they could save the […]
Ohio State had missed the New Year’s stage for three straight years after their meeting with USC following Earle Bruce’s electric first season of 1979. The Buckeye program restored a little momentum in 1983 when they reached the Fiesta Bowl and won it. The 1984 Ohio State football edition got back to the Rose Bowl. […]
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 […]
The 1984 college football season provided thrills from September through November, but it led to an anticlimactic New Year’s Day
Boston College had a magical year in the 1984 college football season, one whose biggest moment lives on as perhaps the most famous sports play of the modern era. It would be a stretch to call Houston’s year magical, but the Cougars had a lot break right for them on the way to a Southwest […]
USC and Ohio State had both been away from Pasadena for what was, by their lofty standards, far too long. After playing each other following the 1979 season, neither program had been back. Here’s a look back at the paths the Trojans and Buckeyes traveled through the 1984 college football season to a January 1 […]
Nebraska arrived at the 1985 Sugar Bowl on a down note. LSU was thrilled to be there. Here’s a look back at the paths the Cornhuskers and Tigers took through the 1984 college football season to a New Year’s Day meeting that marked the second time in three years they played each other on January […]
Washington and Oklahoma each came to the 1985 Orange Bowl with hopes of getting a national championship if they won impressively and got some help. Even though that’s not how it turned out, the Huskies and Sooners gave the country a good game on New Year’s Night. Here’s a look back on the road they […]
In 1972, Lavell Edwards became head coach of a BYU football program that had never been to a bowl game. Over the next four years he averaged 6-plus wins per season. From 1976-78 it jumped to nine wins. In the five-year period of 1979-83, Edwards won 11 games four times. The 1984 BYU football team […]
This article offers a snapshot of 1984 sports, a year highlighted by two great basketball battles for the college & NBA championships, greatness in major league baseball & the NFL, an electric Heisman campaign and a long-awaited title for an emerging hockey legend.