Farewell to the Orange Bowl
As many of you know I am a die-hard South Florida sports fan. I love all of our teams and have in one form or another been to many, many of the games of our teams. There is one venue that sticks out from the rest: Miami's Orange Bowl. I have been to countless games at this football shrine. I have seen all of the University of Miami greats play there; been robbed there; gotten into scuffles there and once met Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson there. I saw Edgerrin James run up 299 yards on a top ranked UCLA team; Warren Sapp single handed stuff Nebraska's option; I have brought friends, family and most importantly, my wife to it's bare-backed seats. Here are some great quotes from some of South Florida's newspapers today:
From the Miami Herald: If the Orange Bowl could talk, what a tale it could tell: Satchel Paige pitched there; Vince Lombardi coached there; ''Broadway'' Joe Namath led the Super Bowl III upset; Doug Flutie completed his ''Hail Mary'' pass; UM cemented its mystique with a 58-game winning streak. Five Super Bowls and 14 national college championship games were played inside. The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Prince performed. And it was the site of the Dolphins' 1972 ``Perfect Season.''
From the Palm Beach Post: "Former (University of Miami) defensive tackle Russell Maryland has heard all the criticism as the stadium has deteriorated through the years. But amenities mean little to him. "I could say that about the house I grew up in back home,'' said Maryland, who's from Chicago. "Yeah, it was a dump, but it's not about the looks of it. It's about what happened in that place. "You can say what you want about the age and how outdated the Orange Bowl is, but there's a lot of great memories, a lot of good things happened here. It may be old and ugly, but it's our kind of ugly.''
From the Sun-Sentinel: "In 71 seasons, the Hurricanes have racked up a 324-145-7 record in the Orange Bowl (including Orange Bowl Classic games). They have won three of their five national titles in bowl games there, have built a 24-0 record with a No. 1 ranking in the stadium and have gone 8-2 against No. 1 teams there."
Do you have any Orange Bowl memories? Please share.
Labels: Orange Bowl
posted by Chris Goeppner @ 9:54 AM
4 Comments:
My fondest memory at the Orange Bowl was the Miami-Louisville game in 2005. Miami overcame a huge deficit in the second half for the win. They took the lead after a 20 point run capped by a Devin Hester 70+ yard punt retun. Louisville captured the lead again before Brock Berlin and Frank Gore hooked up in the final minute for the win 41-38. We will miss the OB...hopefully a change of venue will get our canes back on track. Respect The U!
TJ
Thanks for your note on my blog.
It is great to support one another in ministry and life
on opposite coasts.
Your memories of the Orange Bowl are classic.
The "edge" domination was a particularly painful memory for me to re-live, as I remember watching my UCLA Bruins forget how to tackle. I believe they have never been the same, since that game!
I think this may be the weekend, your Dolphins post a victory.
we went to a 1996 summer olympic soccer game there....saudi arabia vs. australia (free tickets, what can I say?)....nothing was more surreal than sitting in a stadium hearing a bunch of middle easterners chanting "saaaud-arabia, saaaud-arabia"--I still can hear the tune in my head!
interestingly enough, the last game at the orange bowl this weekend was my first game at the orange bowl.
we had a blast. we haven't been to a college game in seven years. we will definitely be going to their games next year at dolphin stadium.
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