Orange Bowl blues
Published: 8/22/2007 7:37 AM
Last Modified: 8/22/2007 7:37 AM
I remember my sports editor at the Norman Transcript, Justin Harper, coming home from the 2001 Orange Bowl and telling a few stories about Bobby Bowden in press conferences and Tiger Woods on the sidelines and other backstories to Oklahoma's stunning national championship.
Then he told me about Media Day, when the Sooners and Seminoles put on their jerseys and met with reporters a day or two before the game. They had to move it from Joe Robbie Stadium, as it was called then, to the Orange Bowl.
Justin climbed into the old, cracked stands to interview players and soaked up all that history -- Namath's guarantee make-good, the Dolphins' undefeateds, Swann's catch, Flutie's Hail Mary, the Huskers' heartbreak, Tony Nathan finishing that playoff hook-and-lateral, Jackie Smith dropping Staubach's pass, Kellen Winslow being dragged off the field, The Boz hitting a Hurricane with such force his helmet came tumbling down from his head...
I remember thinking, "What I'd give to cover one game there before they fire up the bulldozers." Justin told me how rundown the place looked, and that was nearly seven years ago.
Somehow, the Miami Hurricanes made it another seven years as the Bowl's sole tenant. As of yesterday, however, there won't be an eighth.
The Canes, like the Dolphins and those Super Bowls, are vacating the premises after the upcoming season. They'll play at Joe Robbie/Pro Player/Dolphin Stadium next year, and very likely in 2009 when the Sooners pay a visit to return this year's OU-Miami game at Owen Field.
Talk about depressing. Never mind the fact that Joe Robbie/Pro Player/Dolphin is easily one of the two or three worst football venues I've ever experienced -- blah stadium with stands so far removed from the field it's a terribly blah atmosphere.
It's that I'm missing out on history. I don't care that the Orange Bowl rises from a Scarface neighborhood, or that it's so decrepit and stale that it makes the Cotton Bowl look futuristic.
I wanted so badly to sit in those stands myself, look up at those old light stanchions, see the facade with the famous message "The City of Miami Welcomes You to the Orange Bowl," and play back all those glorious moments before the Sooners and Hurricanes added to the highlight reel.
Instead, as of yesterday, a dark time for any true football fan, memories are all anybody has left.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
