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Our 1973 schedule looked like fun

cane1963 said:
I was at the game against Texas. They had a massive running back named Roosevelt Leaks. The Canes pretty much nullified his rishing game and took the contest. It was a GREAT game.
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I was too. I still remember the shell shocked looks on the Texas cheerleaders at the after party at the Pike house. They were the pre-season #1 ranked team going into the game.
 
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TUSKtimes said:
Not sure what happened but college football lost their way and courage along their 12 game schedule journey. Back when 11 regular-season games were the norm it was pretty much all power 5 and a few mid-tier teams mixed in for competition. Looking back at almost any power 5 team's schedule in the 70s is rather startling compared to the patsies we consume these days.
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Look, man, I want to be respectful and all, I'm not against you because you're a Bama guy.

But cooooome on, now. Yes, at certain times (like when the SEC only played 6 conference games out of 11 regular season games), there were opportunities for good OOC schedules. But to say "it was pretty much all power 5 and a few mid-tier teams mixed in for competition" really streeeetches the imagination. I mean, for one thing, there was no "Power 5", but hey, I'll just chalk that up to "a guy in 2022 trying to analyze the 1970s without context".

So let's step into a time machine, to see how amaaaaaazing some of these years were. To make things simple, I'm going to analyze Alabama's six national championship seasons under Bear Bryant.

1961 - setting aside the fact that patsies like Tulane and GaTech were in the SEC, let's look at that brutal OOC schedule:
---NC State (ACC) 4-6 record, no bowl
---Houston (IND) 5-4-1 record, no bowl
---Richmond (I-AA) 5-5 record

1964 - the SEC still had Tulane, but GaTech went independent by this time. OOC schedule:
---NC State (ACC) 5-5 record, no bowl
---GaTech (IND) 7-3 record, no bowl

1965 - again, not so good:
---Florida State (IND) 4-5-1 record, no bowl
---South Carolina (ACC) 5-5, no bowl

1973 - some FUTURE familiar names. OOC schedule:
---Cal (Pac 8) 4-7 record, no bowl
---VaTech (IND) 2-9 record, no bowl
---University of Miami (IND) 5-6 record, no bowl

1978 - now this year, I'll give you some credit, Alabama played some good teams, including USC (and we all know what happened there):
---Nebraska (Big 8) 9-3 record
---Mizzou (Big 8) 8-4 record
---USC (Pac 10) 12-1 record, co-national champions with Alabama
---Washington (Pac 10) 7-4 record, no bowl
---VaTech (IND) 4-7 record, no bowl

1979 - again, some FUTURE familiar names:
---GaTech (ACC) 4-6-1 record, no bowl
---Baylor (SWC) 8-4 record
---Wichita State (I-AA) 1-10 record
---VaTech (IND) 5-6 record, no bowl
---University of Miami (IND) 5-6 record, no bowl

That means, in 5 of Alabama's 6 national championship seasons under Bear (not counting 1978, which was admirable), the Crimson Tide played exactly ONE team in I-A that made a bowl game (Baylor in 1979).

So please stop regaling us with mythical tales of the days of yore when Alabama used to play a fearsome OOC schedule and conquer all of its foes en route to another national championship. I'll give you 1978. The rest is just a dream.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
Look, man, I want to be respectful and all, I'm not against you because you're a Bama guy.

But cooooome on, now. Yes, at certain times (like when the SEC only played 6 conference games out of 11 regular season games), there were opportunities for good OOC schedules. But to say "it was pretty much all power 5 and a few mid-tier teams mixed in for competition" really streeeetches the imagination. I mean, for one thing, there was no "Power 5", but hey, I'll just chalk that up to "a guy in 2022 trying to analyze the 1970s without context".

So let's step into a time machine, to see how amaaaaaazing some of these years were. To make things simple, I'm going to analyze Alabama's six national championship seasons under Bear Bryant.

1961 - setting aside the fact that patsies like Tulane and GaTech were in the SEC, let's look at that brutal OOC schedule:
---NC State (ACC) 4-6 record, no bowl
---Houston (IND) 5-4-1 record, no bowl
---Richmond (I-AA) 5-5 record

1964 - the SEC still had Tulane, but GaTech went independent by this time. OOC schedule:
---NC State (ACC) 5-5 record, no bowl
---GaTech (IND) 7-3 record, no bowl

1965 - again, not so good:
---Florida State (IND) 4-5-1 record, no bowl
---South Carolina (ACC) 5-5, no bowl

1973 - some FUTURE familiar names. OOC schedule:
---Cal (Pac 8) 4-7 record, no bowl
---VaTech (IND) 2-9 record, no bowl
---University of Miami (IND) 5-6 record, no bowl

1978 - now this year, I'll give you some credit, Alabama played some good teams, including USC (and we all know what happened there):
---Nebraska (Big 8) 9-3 record
---Mizzou (Big 8) 8-4 record
---USC (Pac 10) 12-1 record, co-national champions with Alabama
---Washington (Pac 10) 7-4 record, no bowl
---VaTech (IND) 4-7 record, no bowl

1979 - again, some FUTURE familiar names:
---GaTech (ACC) 4-6-1 record, no bowl
---Baylor (SWC) 8-4 record
---Wichita State (I-AA) 1-10 record
---VaTech (IND) 5-6 record, no bowl
---University of Miami (IND) 5-6 record, no bowl

That means, in 5 of Alabama's 6 national championship seasons under Bear (not counting 1978, which was admirable), the Crimson Tide played exactly ONE team in I-A that made a bowl game (Baylor in 1979).

So please stop regaling us with mythical tales of the days of yore when Alabama used to play a fearsome OOC schedule and conquer all of its foes en route to another national championship. I'll give you 1978. The rest is just a dream.
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Are you sure the BAMA icon isn't causing some consternation? Just a little? Power-5 is a term I'm choosing to use to simply make some distinction. The poll voters of yesteryear certainly understood such distinction. The reason BAMA was voted out of the 1966 NC race in the final vote was that we had the audacity to have scheduled Louisiana Tech, obviously a "non-major" in the football vernacular of the time.

But the rest of the 1966 schedule read like this:
Ole Miss
Clemson
Tennessee
Vandy
Miss State
LSU
South Carolina
Southern Miss
Auburn
Nebraska

No one said the schedule of old were made up with nothing but NC winners. But the voters were paying attention and then some. Me too.
 
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SWFLHurricane said:
If I'm not mistaken....the 3 best were Tony Cristiani (who passed away last week)...Rubin Carter, and QB Cary Baker....I became a UM fan 2yrs later.
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Don't forget Mike Archer, a DB who went on to (assistant) coach at Miami, and then left for LSU when JJ came aboard. Archer was the head coach at LSU during the immortal 1988 game when JJ absolutely DESTROYED Archer's LSU squad in Baton Rouge, and the great TheOriginalCane spent the night in a Baton Rouge jail from sometime in the second half until the next morning.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
Don't forget Mike Archer, a DB who went on to (assistant) coach at Miami, and then left for LSU when JJ came aboard. Archer was the head coach at LSU during the immortal 1988 game when JJ absolutely DESTROYED Archer's LSU squad in Baton Rouge, and the great TheOriginalCane spent the night in a Baton Rouge jail from sometime in the second half until the next morning.
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I was at that game.....Never till this day saw so many FINE Women at a CFB game....
 
SWFLHurricane said:
I was at that game.....Never till this day saw so many FINE Women at a CFB game....
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Truth. The LSU women were fire.

My UM fraternity was supposed to be having a big party with our LSU chapter in their house in Baton Rouge. We got to the house, and when they saw that we had Black and Hispanic brothers, they cancelled the party and made up some BS excuse.

Not a joke. Really happened.
 
That year was near the beginning of the steep decline of the program to the point that, by decade's end, there was serious talk of cancelling it altogether.

Being an Independent, schedules like this one were not uncommon and done with an eye to drawing loads of tourists from Miami Beach to the OB. Why there were many Friday night games (in fact, all home games were at night; no day time games). In those days, Miami Bch was a top national "family vacation" destination, up there with Vegas and above Disney World. I think Jackie Gleason was paid to hype the "experience."

Miami was a VERY different city back then, and even moreso in the 60s.
 
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hotshot said:
That year was near the beginning of the steep decline of the program to the point that, by decade's end, there was serious talk of cancelling it altogether.

Being an Independent, schedules like this one were not uncommon and done with an eye to drawing loads of tourists from Miami Beach to the OB. Why there were many Friday night games (in fact, all home games were at night; no day time games). In those days, Miami Bch was a top national "family vacation" destination, up there with Vegas and above Disney World. I think Jackie Gleason was paid to hype the "experience."

Miami was a VERY different city back then, and even moreso in the 60s.
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Thank God for OJ Anderson....and Triple Thank God for his Game Winning TD against the Gator in 78, where he ran through & over 5 of those scumbags....
 
hotshot said:
That year was near the beginning of the steep decline of the program to the point that, by decade's end, there was serious talk of cancelling it altogether.

Being an Independent, schedules like this one were not uncommon and done with an eye to drawing loads of tourists from Miami Beach to the OB. Why there were many Friday night games (in fact, all home games were at night; no day time games). In those days, Miami Bch was a top national "family vacation" destination, up there with Vegas and above Disney World. I think Jackie Gleason was paid to hype the "experience."

Miami was a VERY different city back then, and even moreso in the 60s.
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People forget, at one time "Miami" was a more well-known geographic name across the United States than "Florida" was. It's like today, everyone knows "Las Vegas", but people sometimes have to stop and think about "Nevada".

University of Florida tried to sue UM to stop us from using the name "the University of Miami". Not only did they work to prevent any other school from using a derivation of "University of" and "Florida", they also tried to ****-block us from using "Miami". UF also blocked UM from becoming a state school, because they knew that "the University of Florida-Miami" would quickly grow to eclipse "The University of Florida-Gainesville".
 
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We ALL know how important Kenny Calhoun's tipped 2pt conversion Pass was in the 84 OB.....But I truly believe Larry Brodsky's 80yd TD against #1 Penn St in 81 was just as important...if not more. If Nebraska kicks the extra point for the tie...They STILL Win the NC...What made the Brodsky TD even more special...he ran past the entire Penn St sidelines too boot....
 
TheOriginalCane said:
People forget, at one time "Miami" was a more well-known geographic name across the United States than "Florida" was. It's like today, everyone knows "Las Vegas", but people sometimes have to stop and think about "Nevada".

University of Florida tried to sue UM to stop us from using the name "the University of Miami". Not only did they work to prevent any other school from using a derivation of "University of" and "Florida", they also tried to ****-block us from using "Miami". UF also blocked UM from becoming a state school, because they knew that "the University of Florida-Miami" would quickly grow to eclipse "The University of Florida-Gainesville".
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When you have The lowest of Lifeforms such as this Scavootch....nothing really surprises me....
img_3_1644963640045.jpg
 
TheOriginalCane said:
People forget, at one time "Miami" was a more well-known geographic name across the United States than "Florida" was. It's like today, everyone knows "Las Vegas", but people sometimes have to stop and think about "Nevada".

University of Florida tried to sue UM to stop us from using the name "the University of Miami". Not only did they work to prevent any other school from using a derivation of "University of" and "Florida",
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Talk about balls.
TheOriginalCane said:
they also tried to ****-block us from using "Miami". UF also blocked UM from becoming a state school, because they knew that "the University of Florida-Miami" would quickly grow to eclipse "The University of Florida-Gainesville".
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Never heard this one. When did that happen?
 
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hotshot said:
That year was near the beginning of the steep decline of the program to the point that, by decade's end, there was serious talk of cancelling it altogether.

Being an Independent, schedules like this one were not uncommon and done with an eye to drawing loads of tourists from Miami Beach to the OB. Why there were many Friday night games (in fact, all home games were at night; no day time games). In those days, Miami Bch was a top national "family vacation" destination, up there with Vegas and above Disney World. I think Jackie Gleason was paid to hype the "experience."

Miami was a VERY different city back then, and even moreso in the 60s.
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Good info.

Like hearing about those bygone days of our state.

A guy I knew used to tell me about those powerhouse teams at Miami High and Edison in the late 50's-early 60's...

He said they'd get something like 30,000 at the Orange Bowl to see the rivalry games.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
People forget, at one time "Miami" was a more well-known geographic name across the United States than "Florida" was. It's like today, everyone knows "Las Vegas", but people sometimes have to stop and think about "Nevada".

University of Florida tried to sue UM to stop us from using the name "the University of Miami". Not only did they work to prevent any other school from using a derivation of "University of" and "Florida", they also tried to ****-block us from using "Miami". UF also blocked UM from becoming a state school, because they knew that "the University of Florida-Miami" would quickly grow to eclipse "The University of Florida-Gainesville".
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Good stuff. Didn't know a lot of that history. I'd guess Disney World really hurt business at Miami Beach hotels. Badly! The Parrot Jungle could not compete with Disney attractions. In the 60s, I daresay Miami (including Mia Beach of course) was the undisputed #1 tourist destination in the USA.
 
Hold My Beer said:
Good info.

Like hearing about those bygone days of our state.

A guy I knew used to tell me about those powerhouse teams at Miami High and Edison in the late 50's-early 60's...

He said they'd get something like 30,000 at the Orange Bowl to see the rivalry games.
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I went to a 1965 Gables-Miami High game on a weekday night in the OB that drew upwards of 45,000. Both undefeated, late in the season. Gables' Larry Rentz (later a UF QB) was the star attraction. Stings won the game though.
 
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