Penn State-Miami Put Fiesta In Prime Time
Jan 3, 2003
By BOB BAUM
AP Sports Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) – Sixteen years ago, the Fiesta Bowl muscled its way intoprime time with its first national championship game.
For one night, Jimmy Johnson and the Miami Hurricanes pushed aside DonJohnson and “Miami Vice.”
No. 2 Penn State’s 14-10 victory over No. 1 Miami on Jan. 2, 1987, remainsone of college football’s most memorable bowl games, a thriller that launchedthe upstart Fiesta onto the hallowed ground of the venerable Orange, Sugar andRose bowls.
“It was a huge breakthrough for the bowl,” Fiesta Bowl executive directorJohn Junker said.
Miami was No. 1 again and back at Sun Devil Stadium Friday night to face No.2 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl’s fifth national title game.
In the others, Notre Dame beat West Virginia 34-21 in 1989, Nebraska routedFlorida 62-24 in 1996 and Tennessee beat Florida State 23-16 in 1999.
None of them could match the intrigue and drama of that 1987 game.
There was no Bowl Championship Series then.
“That was the old system where teams waited until the end, and it was kindof a wild scramble,” Junker said. “We called it the wild, wild west.”
As the season went on, Miami and Penn State kept winning. Neither had aconference affiliation, and the Rose, Orange and Sugar all were contracted withat least one conference.
The Fiesta, which had moved its game to New Year’s Day only five yearsearlier, had no conference tie-ups and saw a chance for a dream matchup. So didthe Gator and Citrus bowls. The bidding war was on.
“It was a high-stakes poker game,” Junker said. “It wasn’t just aboutmoney, but the pressure and the politics and everything that went with it.”
That’s when Don Meyers, one of the Fiesta Bowl’s founders and its generalcounsel for 25 years, pulled out the hole card. Meyers negotiated with NBC tomove its No. 1-rated program “Miami Vice” and its star, Don Johnson, for onenight to show the Fiesta Bowl.
That would put the game in prime time on Friday Jan. 2, one day after therest of the big bowls.
“That really struck a chord with the Miami people,” Junker said. “(Coach)Jimmy Johnson, and Sam Jankovich, who was the athletic director then, with thewhole team. That we could have prime time, all of America would be watching, itwould be the biggest media event ever.
“That was the salvo that really made it happen.”
Each team got $2.4 million from a bowl that never had paid more than$886,000.
When Johnson and the Hurricanes landed in Phoenix, many players were wearingmilitary fatigues as they got off the plane, enhancing their mean, nasty image.Miami, led by Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde, was favored against coachJoe Paterno’s Nittany Lions.
Statistically, the Hurricanes dominated – 22 first downs to Penn State’seight and 445 total yards to the Nittany Lions’ 162.
But turnovers doomed Miami. Testaverde was intercepted five times, still aFiesta Bowl record.
The game was tied at 7 at halftime. Miami edged ahead 10-7 on Mark Seelig’s38-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter. But Shane Conlan’s interceptionset up D.J. Dozier’s six-yard touchdown run to give Penn State a 14-10 lead.
The Hurricanes got the ball on their 23 with 3:09 left, and on fourth down,Testaverde threw to Brian Blades for 31 yards. The Heisman winner completed hisnext five passes and Miami moved to the Penn State 6.
But on third down, Pete Giftopoulus picked off Testaverde’s 50th pass of thegame with nine seconds remaining, and the Nittany Lions were nationalchampions.
“This is the greatest game in Penn State history,” Penn State’s Trey Bauersaid.
Dozier, who rushed for 99 yards in 20 carries, was named the outstandingoffensive player. Conlan, who had two interceptions, eight tackles and a sack,was the defensive MVP.
Two years later, the Fiesta benefited from another independent matchup withNo. 1 Notre Dame beating No. 3 West Virginia. But the number of big-timeindependents was dwindling.
Miami joined the Big East, Penn State the Big 10, West Virginia the SEC andFlorida State the ACC.
The bowls joined forces in a system that is still critical, but probablybetter than no system at all.
When the Rose Bowl joined the fold and the BCS was formed, the Fiesta cameout on top again. The Arizona bowl was the first to host a BCS championship in1999.
