Day to remember
1978 Orange Bowl one for books
Editor’s note: Tuesday is the 40th anniversary of the Razorbacks’ Orange Bowl upset.
In the summer of 1979 I was 17 years old and attending a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp on the campus of the University of Arkansas.
On one afternoon at camp some friends and I were exploring Razorback Stadium. I’m sure we weren’t supposed to be in the facility that housed the football coaches’ offices (at that time on the north end of the stadium), but we were.
When I walked by a door with a name plate that read “Coach Lou Holtz,” I began to look around, thinking at any time someone might come up and tell us that we couldn’t be in there.
Down the hallway was a very impressive photo that reached from the floor to the ceiling. It featured the first play from scrimmage in the 1978 Orange Bowl, a game in which Arkansas upset the Oklahoma Sooners 31-6.
In the photo was Oklahoma’s Billy Sims, who would eventually win the Heisman Trophy, and he was buried under a pile of 10 Razorback tacklers. The caption simply read, “The job of being an Arkansas Razorback is not given to the timid or the weak.”
As an Arkansas teenager who had just completed his junior year of high school, it felt like being in a sacred Razorback shrine.
I remember watching the 1978 Orange Bowl on television as a 10th-grader just 19 months earlier, and I remember how excited I was to see the opening play that was featured in the photo, a play in which an Oklahoma runner disappeared under an avalanche of Hog defenders.
It set the tone for a game that turned out to be an overwhelming upset of an Oklahoma team that was ranked second in the country.
It’s hard to believe, but on Jan. 2 it will be 40 years since that game.
Holtz had suspended three of the team’s biggest stars before the 1978 Orange Bowl, prompting the odds-makers to make the Hogs 18.5-point underdogs, even though Arkansas had finished the regular schedule with a 10-1 record and was ranked sixth in the nation. Its only setback was a 13-9 loss to top-ranked Texas.
Nevertheless, in the days leading up to the Orange Bowl, the projected point spread grew even more, and in Las Vegas they took the game completely off the boards.
In his book Winning Every Day, Holtz described how Arkansas held a team meeting just four days before the game.
The Razorbacks had heard all the stories in the media about how they had no chance to win the game, and it was taking a toll.
Holtz said, “We’ve read all the reasons why we can’t win. I want to hear why we can.”
The team thought of the positives, pointing out that their defense was ranked first in the nation. The offensive line was also very good. Quarterback Ron Calcagni was a fierce competitor and team leader. Kicker and punter Steve Little was probably the best in the country.
Holtz wrote, “The more the players talked, the more positive they became. … I almost felt sorry for our opponents.”
After that, Arkansas hit the field on Jan. 2 with a resolve that would produce incredible results.
It began with Arkansas kicking off into the end zone, forcing Oklahoma to begin on its own 20-yard line. Then, on the first play from scrimmage, the Arkansas defense roared to life.
The Sooners handed the ball to fullback Kenny King. He was hit at the line and fumbled; Sims grabbed the ball, and was then crushed in a pile of white Razorback jerseys.
It made for a heck of a photo, the one I would see in Razorback Stadium during FCA camp more than a year and a half later.
Holtz reflected upon the game’s beginning many years afterwards. “We had 10 players in on the play,” he said. “I had never seen a group swarm like that.”
Arkansas’ enthusiasm led the Hogs to a convincing win. In fact, it was so convincing that after the contest, Arkansas was one of the few college football teams that had a legitimate claim to being ranked No. 1.
NBC game announcers Jim Simpson and Merlin Olsen discussed the issue as Arkansas established a 24-0 lead in the Orange Bowl’s third quarter.
With Little getting ready to kick off for the Razorbacks and the Arkansas crowd calling the Hogs in the background, Simpson said, “Alabama is sitting there thinking, ‘Maybe we’ll be the national champions.’ Penn State is hoping so. Texas, beaten today, hopes so. Notre Dame, who beat Texas, hopes so. But if this score holds up, Arkansas is going to hold up its hand and say, ‘Hey folks, what about us?’ They would be 11-1, and would’ve knocked off the No. 2 team.”
As it turned out, the Associated Press ranked Notre Dame No. 1, Alabama second, Arkansas third, Texas fourth, and Penn State fifth. It wasn’t a national championship for the Razorbacks, but 40 years ago, being ranked third in the country was still a great way to finish.
David Wilson, Ed.D., of Springdale, is a former school administrator and is the communications director of the University of Arkansas Transit and Parking Department. His book, Learning Every Day, includes several of his columns and is now available on Amazon. You may e-mail him at dwnotes@hotmail.com.