It took 15 minutes to go back 21 years.
I knew evidence of my first game at the Orange Bowl was around the house somewhere. Before the Internet and Google and zip files and such, newspaper clips were folded up neatly and stashed in an envelope. That was how we referenced old stories. The clip I was looking for is weathered now, the staple holding it together rusted.
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| Nobody can see the rusted posts holding up the building on TV. (Getty Images) |
What I wrote on Jan. 1, 1986 for the Kansas City Times before the Oklahoma-Penn State Orange Bowl:
The crusty backdrop for the national championship awaits. Its exposed steel beams are rusted. The paint on the long rows of benches is chipped. Beneath the stands, the dirty, dimly lit walkways look like a forgotten basement.
Except for the national championship reference, not much has changed. I've been back many times since. When the old barn is full for a big game, there is no place better. The OB is still that charming dowager, but past its prime.
Way past time for those stuffed in its press box, wading through mud in its parking lots.
Make that way past its prime.
The stadium that was the stage for everything from JFK speeches to Springsteen concerts to the Hurricanes' dynasty is being phased out, scheduled to be demolished. After Saturday's Virginia-Miami game, the 70-year-old Orange Bowl will no longer be the home for the 'Canes.
Miami will move to Dolphin Stadium next season, gaining cleanliness, a jumbotron and suites but losing the intimidation factor and mojo that came from a place where the 'Canes won three national championships.
The school announced in August it was moving, ending a decades-long battle with the city to get upgrades. In the end, what I wrote in 1986 wasn't much different from today.
The game is usually a classic, the building a lovable bum.
The moments have outshone the stadium. The Orange Bowl is where Ken Calhoun's deflected pass in the '84 Orange Bowl started the Miami dynasty. It has seen a Wide Right (2000) and a Wide Left (2002).
Florida State came in No. 1 with Deion to open the 1988 season and lost 31-0.
Notre Dame came in No. 1 on Nov. 25, 1989, before Miami ended the Irish's 23-game winning streak. Craig Erickson's 44-yard pass to Randal Hill on third-and-44 saved the series, the game and, eventually, a national championship season.
"The crowd was so focused and so fired up," Orange Bowl media relations head Larry Wahl recalled. "The west end zone general admission was filled up two hours before the game. Dennis Erickson came out and started firing them up before pregame warmups."
Former Miami mayor Jack Orr once called the stadium "antiquated." That was in 1973.
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| You'd need many hands to count 'Canes like Ray Lewis who made an NFL impact. (Getty Images) |
It's where the Chargers beat the Dolphins in the 1982 playoffs in what is still the greatest NFL game ever played. It's where a real live dolphin once frolicked behind one end zone.
This is where the human Dolphins put together the only undefeated season in NFL history.
"I was thinking the other day that it'd be cool to go back someday and watch a game in the stands," current 'Canes quarterback Kyle Wright told the Associated Press. "And then it hit me: It's going to be shut down."
Not quite yet. Florida International is playing in the Orange Bowl this season while its own on-campus stadium is being built. Actually, FIU will play the final game on Dec. 1 against North Texas.
The stadium, though, will be remembered for those Hurricanes exploits. When the creaking old building got cranked up at night it was like a living, breathing entity.
The television cameras will be selective in how they show the 74,000-seat stadium to the nation. The fans watching from home won't see the limited parking or support posts in the sight lines of fans.
Six days before I wrote those words, Joe Robbie poured the first pillar for the new Joe Robbie Stadium, which eventually became Dolphin Stadium and which will be Miami's new home next season.
The seats will have backs, the toilets will work and there will be plenty of parking.
It only took Miami 21 years from my first visit to get to that point.
Scouting the Nation
• There are 23 teams in the country with three losses. Six of them are ranked in the AP. Five of those are from the SEC.
Outraged? When other conferences beat each other up, they're no good. When it happens in the SEC, it's the most competitive conference in the country.
The SEC has gotten into the voters' heads. This is the only sport where seven decades of history count more than 10 weeks of reality.
Six weeks ago Alabama (6-3) looked God-awful in losing to a mediocre FSU. Auburn (7-3) has beaten one currently ranked team. Yeah, it was Florida. So? The Gators have lost three of their past five and are still somehow No. 17.
We say this knowing that the Big Ten is down, but League Arrogance has four three-loss teams -- Illinois, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin (all 7-3).
Not one of those is worth being ranked? SEC better than the Big Ten? That's how this season started. That's also a heck of a BCS title game hangover.
• There's this guy at Arkansas who deserves some Heisman mention. He's coming off a career game against South Carolina.
What's his name? Oh yeah, tailback Felix Jones, who is coming off a career-best 166 yards heading into the Tennessee game.
Jones and his partner became the second pair to rush for 1,000 yards in successive seasons.
His partner, Darren McFadden, is pretty good, too.
• Look out for Tennessee, which begins its three-week march toward the SEC East title. Or not.
• Speaking of anonymous tailbacks, Central Florida's Kevin Smith (at Alabama-Birmingham) is on track to become the most productive back in the state's history (I-A teams only).
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| Kevin Smith tears up yardage over at UCF. (US Presswire) |
For the rest of Central Florida's research see Dodds and Ends.
• Gardner-Webb? Appalachian State is shocked.
• Step aside, Tim Tebow. The SEC's newest offensive star is Georgia's Knowshon Moreno. The redshirt freshman has rushed for 541 yards in the past three games to surpass 1,000 yards heading into the Auburn game.
Moreno is being compared to Auburn's Cadillac Williams, who ran with Gumby-bodied toughness and rare speed. Moreno is Georgia's first 1,000-yard rusher in five years. Wow. Herschel, where have you gone?
• Nick Saban (Alabama is at Mississippi State) is rebounding from the first loss of his career (pro and college) when his team has scored at least 30 points.
• Submitted without the usual WWL skewer: Notre Dame (vs. Air Force) is pushing not one but two guys for All-America consideration: Senior defensive lineman Trevor Laws and defensive back Tom Zbikowski.
Zibby, a fifth-year senior, is a known quantity as the Irish's best punt returner and hard-hitting safety. Laws is quietly having a solid year with the second-most tackles (nine per game) in the country by a lineman.
"You show me a defensive lineman (who's better)," defensive coordinator Corwin Brown said. "I know (Virginia's) Chris Long and I know how Chris plays. You put both of these kids out there and there isn't much difference."
• Hawaii fell two spots in the BCS (to No. 16), but still has a chance to get to the magic No. 12 by winning out despite a schedule that is weaker than cut-rate toilet paper. The Warriors get back to action against Fresno.
• FYI: Short of losing, BCS No. 2 LSU (to Louisiana Tech), the Tigers probably won't be jumped by No. 3 Oregon, which is idle.
• Before the season Southern California-Cal looked like one of the season's best games. Now it features two teams trying to pick up the pieces.
Pete Carroll surprisingly blamed himself (multiple times) this week in a Q&A with the Los Angeles Times.
Carroll intimated that playing John David Booty with a broken finger in the Stanford game was the key to the season. Booty threw four picks in that game.
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| Petey-boy isn't afraid to blame himself for the Trojans' mishaps. (US Presswire) |
"They'd all tell you they're not coming out of the game, 'I'm playing!' In essence, we foster and breed that mentality so that they can overcome the setbacks and issues they have to deal with. With our wisdom, we have to be able to see through that. Sometimes we can't see. I missed one. I missed a big one.
"It cost us a game that really cost us the flavor of this season. We've been tainted ever since, for obvious reasons. We gave away a game to a team that's won two or three games. Amazing. But it's awesome for football, it's awesome for Stanford and all that. Great for those guys. [Not great for] us in that regard. We screwed it up."
• Frank Beamer has never beaten Florida State (0-6). Bobby Bowden has never lost to Virginia Tech (15-0). Tech needs this game to stay in the running in the Coastal Division. Bowden needs it to win his 300th career game at FSU.
• Michigan can lose at Wisconsin and still play for the Big Ten title next week at home against Ohio State. The Badgers are 6-0 at home this season.
