Bama & Texas, Like Old Times
By Bruce Marshall
The Gold Sheet
They meet again!
We're talking about Alabama and Texas, who will renew acquaintances in this season's BCS title game to be played in Pasadena. And all we can say is that if this upcoming clash is anything close to the memorable bowl battles waged between these two iconic gridiron programs since we began publishing TGS 52 years ago, we'll be in for quite a treat January 7.
For those of you who haven't been around for over a half century, however, a little Longhorns-Crimson Tide refresher course is in order. And the historical significance of one of their previous encounters must be acknowledged. Indeed, it can be said that the modern relationship between all major sports and television began when these two squared off in the Orange Bowl on New Year's Night, 1965.
Hard as it is for modern-day football fans to imagine, bowl games used to almost always be daytime events into the mid '60s. New Year's Day was reserved for the Cotton, Sugar, Orange, and Rose Bowls, all taking place under the sun. Until January 1, 1965, that is, when NBC picked up the Orange Bowl from ABC and decided that it was a natural for a nighttime kickoff. Stacked on top of the Cotton, Sugar, and Rose, it created a full day and night of constant, nationally-televised football action on New Year's Day. More than a few thought it was overkill. Jack Gould, TV critic for The New York Times, summed up a popular perception of the day. "A (TV) set owner last night had visions of football...prospering to the point of extinction," said Gould the day after the '65 Orange Bowl. "The human mind does have a saturation point. NBC, in conspiratorial liason with the Orange Bowl and city fathers of Miami, made the longest New Year's in the history of football."
But Jack Gould and other critics missed the bigger picture, because that 1965 Orange Bowl would forever change the relationship between not only television and football, but other sports as well. That first prime time Orange Bowl telecast on NBC attracted a staggering 40 million viewers, and the sports world took notice. Before long, the NFL would be playing Monday Night Football, the World Series would move its games to nighttime, and sports would become featured fare on the major networks. And it can be said that the '65 Longhorns-Crimson Tide Orange Bowl was the spark that lit the fuse.
Of course, the action on the field that night in Miami only added to the allure of nighttime TV football. Bear Bryant's Alabama, with white-shoed and sore-kneed QB Joe Namath playing his final college game, was looking to secure a national title in both major polls (it had already won the AP version, decided before the bowls). Darrell Royal's Texas, however, would provide stiff opposition; the Horns had lost just once that season, a 14-13 mid-October setback to an Arkansas side that would go on to its own unbeaten season. Namath's sore knees kept him on the bench at the outset, but when the Horns raced to an early 14-0 lead courtesy of a 79-yard TD run by RB Ernie Koy and a 69-yard pass from Jim Hudson to George Sauer, Jr. (both ironically to become Namath's teammates with the Jets), Namath relieved starter Steve Sloan and began to stir the Tide back to life. By the fourth quarter, Bama had chipped away and cut the lead to 21-17, and LB Jim Fuller's interception late in the game set up Namath at the Texas 34 for a final, dramatic, game-deciding drive. "Pre-Broadway" Joe steered the Tide on a pulsating march to the Texas 1-yard line, where on a fourth down sneak he was stopped just short by LB Tommy Nobis, although Namath still believes he crossed the goal. "I'll go to my grave knowing I scored a TD on that play," Joe would later say, but in the days long before video reviews, the controversy ended in favor of Texas, which held on for a 21-17 win.
A couple of subsequent battles between the schools in the Cotton Bowl were almost as exciting. The Bear's 1972 Bama team was unbeaten and ranked 2nd in the polls when it opted to face Texas and perhaps gain revenge on Royal (who had never lost to a Bryant-coached team) instead of facing more challenging assignments in the Sugar (vs. Oklahoma) or Orange (vs. Nebraska). But the Tide subsequently lost its regular-season finale in the infamous "blocked punt" game vs. Auburn and was frustrated again by Royal in Dallas, as Texas rallied from a 13-3 deficit to pull out a 17-13 win on the strength of QB Alan Lowry's late 34-yard TD run. Royal had retired by the time Bryant took one last shot at Texas (coached by Fred Akers) in the '82 Cotton Bowl, but another late Longhorn rally, this one led by QB Robert Brewer, again foiled the Tide by a 14-12 count. The schools have managed to avoid one another in the 28 years since, but Bama will indeed finally get its chance in Pasadena to avenge that trio of bitter defeats vs. Texas.
And if the upcoming Horns-Tide BCS championship battle is anything like the last three bowl meetings, hang on for the ride!