Michigan football coach Bo Schembecler had reached the Rose Bowl five times in his first eleven years at the helm of the Wolverine program and gone home with a loss on occasion. Bo’s 1980 team got him back for another chance at a win in Pasadena. And on New Year’s Day, in the 1981 Rose Bowl, Schembecler got his victory, beating the Washington Huskies. Here’s a look back on how both Michigan and Washington made it to Pasadena.
The 1981 Orange Bowl offered a rematch, as Oklahoma met Florida State in Miami for the second straight season. And this time the sequel was much better than the original—after OU won decisively the prior year, this time the Sooners had to go down to the bitter end to win a classic game. Let’s look back on how OU and FSU came to arrive in South Beach on New Year’s Day of 1981.
The 1981 Cotton Bowl brought together one traditional power for whom the bid was a disappointment, and one up-and-comer for whom just being there was reason to celebrate. Alabama, the two-time defending national champion, met Baylor in the game that followed the 1980 college football regular season.
The Sugar Bowl had hosted the #1 team in each of the previous two years and the annul game following the 1980 college football season no different. The Georgia Bulldogs were undefeated and atop the polls. Notre Dame was playing the final game in the tenure of head coach Dan Devine. On New Year’s Day, the 1981 Sugar Bowl might have marked the end for Devine, but it was just the beginning for the great Georgia freshman, Herschel Walker.
The ultimate Mike Shanahan legacy remains in some doubt, presuming the former head coach of the Denver Broncos and Washington Redskins never returns to the sidelines. To some, he’s the two-time Super Bowl winner, a surefire Hall of Famer and was only derailed in D.C. by a meddling owner and a diva quarterback. To others, the question “What has he done without John Elway?” is the concise summation of the criticisms.
Bob Griese enjoyed a Hall of Fame career as the quarterback of the Miami Dolphins, leading them to three Super Bowls and winning two, including the undefeated season of 1972. Officially, he played through 1980. But the 1979 Miami Dolphins were his final year as the regular starter and his last trip into the playoffs.
It was 1976 when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came into existence and their first three years were less than stellar. The Bucs went 0-14 their first year, 2-12 in ’77 and then up to 5-11 in 1978 when the schedule expanded to sixteen games. Steady improvement, but no indicator of what the 1979 Tampa Bay Buccaneers were about to do, which is make a run to the first division title in franchise history.
The Houston Oilers reached the AFC Championship Game for the first time in the Super Bowl era in 1978. The Pittsburgh Steelers were all that stood in their way. The 1979 Houston Oilers saw the same ending, but they seemed to be an inching just a little bit closer to the ultimate goal.
Roger Staubach came to the Dallas Cowboys in 1969 after winning a Heisman Trophy at Navy and then serving five years of a military commitment. Staubach led the Cowboys to four Super Bowls and won two of them. The 1979 Dallas Cowboys were the last season in this storybook career.
The Los Angeles Rams had been a playoff team in the NFC every year since 1973, including making the conference championship game in 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1978. But none of those teams took the next step to the Super Bowl. Oddly enough, the 1979 Los Angeles Rams, a team much worse than their predecessors, were the ones who found a way to win in January.
The 1980 Sugar Bowl saw a national title settled in New Orleans for the second year in a row and once again the team doing the claiming was Alabama. After a winning a co-national championship the prior year, the Crimson Tide won it all again. The team standing in their way was Arkansas, coached by Lou Holtz. Let’s look back on the paths Alabama and Arkansas took through the 1979 college football season to reach New Year’s Day 1980 in the Bayou.
The 1980 Rose Bowl was one of the great battles in the modern era for the “Grandaddy” of all college bowl games. Following the 1979 regular season, Ohio State was undefeated and in position to play for a national title. USC had only one tie on their resume and came into the game with outside hopes of their own. The Trojans and Buckeyes then proceeded to give the country an outstanding football game. Here’s a look back on the path each team took to reach Pasadena.