Looking Back Again At The ’78 Orange Bowl

Last week we revisited the huge 31-6 Razorback win over Oklahoma in the 1978 Orange Bowl.

There was so much to tell that one column wasn’t enough.

At the end of the 1977 season, Arkansas, under Coach Lou Holtz, was entering the Orange Bowl game as huge underdogs. Hardly anyone gave them a chance to win.

But the Hogs had a serious heart-to-heart meeting four days before the Jan. 2 Orange Bowl in Miami. The players talked about all of the reasons why they should win the game.

And perhaps that talk ended up making all of the difference.

Instead of taking a sound thrashing as expected, the Razorbacks took advantage of Oklahoma’s mistakes and played excellent defense on their way to the upset win.

On the next day at school, still feeling elated about the big game, I checked out what ended up being a unique edition of the Jan. 3 Arkansas Gazette.

Because I lived in Corning, a town in Northeast Arkansas only six miles from the Missouri state line, we did not always get the latest edition of the Gazette.

And the day after the Orange Bowl was one of those instances. The Gazette sports page was a part of an early edition with a banner headline announcing that Arkansas led Oklahoma 14-0 at halftime in the Orange Bowl.

Evidently, after the sports journalists filed their halftime stories, printing started and the Gazette was shipped to the hinterlands of Arkansas, to places like Corning.

The later editions would be able to tell the whole story, with headlines like “Razorbacks Claim they Deserve to be No. 1.” Another headline included a post-game comment from Oklahoma’s Barry Switzer that read: “Switzer says Hogs may be Nation’s Best.”

As I watched the entire game the night before, it looked very good halfway through the fourth quarter as Arkansas led 24-6. At that point announcers Jim Simpson and Merlin Olsen began preparing the viewers for what looked to be an upcoming Arkansas victory.

“In all honesty now,” Simpson said, “for Oklahoma fans, it looks bleak with six minutes to go and 18 points down. For Arkansas fans, don’t go ‘Sooie Pig’ yet, but get ‘em ready. It looks like a big one.”

Not long after that, with Arkansas in possession of the ball and in control of the game, NBC, with its microphone on the Razorback sideline, captured a conversation in which Holtz was informed that running back Roland Sales was close to setting an Orange Bowl rushing record.

Holtz then sent in backup quarterback Houston Nutt, with instructions to give the ball to Sales.

Holtz said, “Sales needs 20 yards to break the all-time Orange Bowl rushing record. Tell him to suck it up but hang on to that ball!”

A few carries later Sales had hit 205 yards rushing for the night.

The record was his, and the win would go to Arkansas.

Holtz then called for all of the second team offense to go in.

In his book Winning Every Day, Holtz described the team’s effort in that game.

“We won the game the moment our group of young men focused on what we had instead of what we lacked,” Holtz said. “That’s the only perspective you can take in hard times. Remember that adversity presents us with numerous possibilities for success if we are just willing to see them.”

Holtz was being interviewed on his weekly televised football show days after the game, and the state of Arkansas was still on an Orange Bowl high.

At the end of the telecast, however, Holtz said it was time for fans to root for the Razorback men’s basketball team, which had gotten off to an excellent 9-0 start by early January under fourthyear coach Eddie Sutton.

Holtz said, “Now it’s time to get behind the Arkansas basketball team as they go for that national championship.”

The Hogs would indeed be in the running for a national championship in basketball, playing through the season’s end just 12 weeks later.

With a 31-3 record they faced Kentucky in the Final Four on March 25 but came up just short in a 64-59 decision.

Still stinging from the loss to Kentucky, Arkansas then defeated Notre Dame in the third place consolation game to finish third in the country.

Forty years ago, with a third place ranking in both football and basketball, it was an extremely enjoyable time to be a Razorback fan.