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What was the first Miami game you remember?

I honestly don't remember. Allow me to explain. I grew up in Baltimore in the 70's and of course was familiar with Howard Schnellenberger. When he was fired by the Colts and subsequently went to Miami, it was pretty much a given I would follow the course of his career there (and I did). But in Baltimore in the 70's and 80's, Miami games simply weren't televised on the three networks or UHF. Since the old man never sprung for cable, that was pretty much that. But I do remember catching the highlights of the Penn State win in 79 on the local sports recap.
 
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Mid 70s. One of my best friend's father used to play for the Hurricanes and used to have cable TV watching the Hurricanes every game he could get. Remember Jim Kelly beating #1 Penn St.
 
gopcane said:
First game I watched was ‘84 Orange Bowl versus Nebraska. First game in person was the first game of the ‘87 season against the Ga-turds.

Ironic backstory that still provides me comic relief (DON’T READ BELOW THIS LINE if you don’t like long write-ups):
I attended Wichita State University my first year of college (grew up in Wichita), and our football team was so bad, they ended the program; didn’t move to Div 2 or 3, they killed the whole program. My two buddies convinced me to transfer to Miami after our first year.

I transferred in and my first game in person was a 31-4 ****-bombing of Florida in the OB and it was so dominating, the only 4 points they scored was because our center twice snapped the ball over our punter’s head for safeties – I was stunned thinking, “I could get used to this.” Needless to say, I went from a dead football program to winning national championships 2 of my 3 years at Miami, and as everyone has correctly noted, the atrocious call at Notre Dame cost us three in a row.

A side bar on that ‘88 team to show the dominance of the team Jimmy created. That 2001 team will always be considered the greatest, but few teams have an accomplishments list matching that ‘88 team. If you designed a true football playoff matching the champions of every conference into a playoff, you would appreciate what that team did. That year they beat:
  • Preseason #1 FSU (it was an absolute ****-pounding 31-0; FSU didn’t lose another game and destroyed almost all of their other opponents)
  • Went into the big house and beat Michigan (eventual Big 10 champion)
  • Destroyed LSU in their home stadium (SEC co-champion)
  • Beat Arkansas (Southwest Conference Champion, which at that time included Texas, Texas A&M, and TCU)
  • Pummeled Nebraska (Big 8 Champion, which included Oklahoma and was the precursor to the Big 12)
  • And of course went into South Bend and beat Satan’s Spawn, aka the eventual fake National Champion (Jimmy and those players who worked so hard, deserved so much better)

Favorite moments in which I was present:
  • ‘89 - 3rd and 43 against #1 Notre Dame - I’ve been to some of our nation’s loudest venues and nothing has ever come close to the volume level on this iconic play.
  • ‘02 - watching Dorsey postgame at the Rose Bowl, where even the ushers were wearing the colors of the opposition, but it only made the victory in the end that much sweeter.
  • ‘88 - Jimmy’s well deserved National Championship.

As you can tell, I can talk about the Canes for hours, so I’ll stop boring everyone, as I have quite a long historical perspective on the team. My only wish is that all of you “young’uns” get to experience the same Canes teams I’ve had the fortune of personally witnessing.
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That 88 year is very interesting we beat so many good teams that year
 
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While it wasn't the first game I attended, the first one I remember is West Virginia @ Miami in 1983, my freshman year. Jeff Hostetler was getting major love from the national media. We shut them down, and he definitely needed a post game ice bath. Most memorable is that my fraternity, Sig Ep, got in trouble for making tee shirts that said "Mount the Mountaineers" and showing Sebastian giving Hostetler some prison love.

It was worth it.
 
Pretty sure it was 1979 at FSU. I had an OJ Anderson jersey on and we got smoked. I went to other games but that’s the first one I remember. Was like 8 years old. My hatred for them has never gone away. But I went to a lot more gaytor games and I hate them way more.
 
BradTheBearKiller said:
1980 vs Mississippi State, Daddy'O worked at the Herald and he had a stack of tickets from the days when Booger King would give out UM game tickets when you ordered a whopper. He took all us kids from our pop warner team. Granted they lost a close one, it was an awesome day .
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I was at that game. I think that was the only time I ever saw the Canes lose in the OB growing up. Pretty sure that was also the first time I ever saw a Statue of Liberty play when Miss State ran one that game.
 
1987 Miami vs. Notre Dame. First Canes game I saw in person. ND came in with eventually Heisman winner Tim Brown, Tony Brooks, and Rickey Watters. This was going to be the year where ND was hoping to come in and get revenge for the 58-7 drubbing Miami had put on them the previous time they had played in 1985. Instead, just total domination by Miami again in a 24-0 shutout.
 
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First game I remember was in 91 during the national championship year. I was 9 years old and remember watching Gino Toretta light it up and throw it all over the field. I dont remember who Miami was playing, but my fandom of the team was born that day.
 
ddann said:
I was at that game. I think that was the only time I ever saw the Canes lose in the OB growing up. Pretty sure that was also the first time I ever saw a Statue of Liberty play when Miss State ran one that game.
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Ask Tony Fitzpatrick about the Horrible calls/no calls in that game...they made the Terry Porter call look mundane.
 
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Hurricane23 said:
That 88 year is very interesting we beat so many good teams that year
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It's why the Notre Dame robbery was even more criminal. Other teams have had similar tough schedules, but no one, to my knowledge, had the success of not only beating so many top conference champions, but pummeling some of them in their own backyards.

That '88 Michigan game was interesting, because IIRC we were getting beaten soundly by Michigan through almost three quarters and most people would have thought that was a guaranteed Miami defeat, and then it was like Jimmy and the players said, "okay, we've toyed with them enough, let's light this firecracker!" I think Jimmy even called for what turned out to be a successful onside kick in the 3rd or early in the 4th quarter to really show we were able to do what we wanted, when we wanted to do it. During that time, you never felt like you were out of ANY game or were ever going to lose ('87 comeback in Tallahassee, for which I was present, was another example where Walsh and Irvin just said, "okay, enough with these chumps," and snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat).

What's remarkable about our past success, we had those titles with four different coaches!!! Go back and check most dynasties and most are a result of one coach being there so long, they establish themselves with long tenured success and create their own legends that kids want to play for them. Today it's Saban, but at most other schools, you can tie most of the school's success to one coach (e.g., Osborne, Bowden, Paterno, etc). I could easily argue if any one of Schnelly, Jimmy, or Butch had stayed at Miami, the Canes are such a sustained juggernaut that all of the Florida players that left the state to make other schools great, would have been at Miami and added to the championship rings. I'll never argue Saban isn't an excellent coach, as he had success at MSU, LSU, and Alabama, but it's fair to question whether he has those titles without the immense amount of Florida talent in those early years who were difference makers on those teams. It's all speculation on my part, but it's definitely feasible. If we can get the train rolling again, I believe we'll return to those years. Unfortunately, that tall task has obviously proved to be the challenge over the last 15+ years.
 
First game I went to was in 83 vs ND... Too young to remmeber what happened. First score I rememeber paying attention to was 58-7 vs ND in 85...unfortunately first game I ever watched all the thru and knew what was going on was the Fiesta bowl game vs Penn st. Didnt watch another canes game til next yr vs Oklahoma in the chip.
 
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I grew up in Oklahoma. Hated the Sooners. Jimmy Johnson was at OSU and I enjoyed watching him coach against OU. I watched the Canes play Nebraska in the 84 bowl game? Jimmy came over and I followed. The rest is history for me. I’ve seen the ultimate Canes and struggled through the absolute worse. Go Canes.
 
skillydoo said:
I grew up in Oklahoma. Hated the Sooners. Jimmy Johnson was at OSU and I enjoyed watching him coach against OU. I watched the Canes play Nebraska in the 84 bowl game? Jimmy came over and I followed. The rest is history for me. I’ve seen the ultimate Canes and struggled through the absolute worse. Go Canes.
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Side note. After growing up in OK I decided to move my girlfriend and cat to Miami because I needed to be closer to my Canes. Yeah I was that guy. In the bar. On the table with my pants down showing my Canes boxers when we played ND on 87.
 
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