Capital One Orange Bowl History
Played annually since the mid-1930s, the Orange Bowl is the second-oldest bowl game in the country behind the Rose Bowl. In fact, it was created as a sort of Florida counterpart to Pasadena's Rose Bowl Game and Rose Parade, a way of drumming up tourist dollars in Miami during the Great Depression. After years in its namesake stadium, in 1996 the Orange Bowl moved just north of the city to Hard Rock Stadium, a 65,000-capacity facility in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Today the Capital One Orange Bowl is included in the New Year's Six, the six bowl games that host the College Football Playoff semifinals on a rotating basis. The Orange Bowl has billed itself "The Home of the ACC Champion" since the 2006 season, and the arrangement with the conference will last at least until 2025. The SEC, Big Ten and Notre Dame are so-called secondary tie-ins.
The game has always been one of the crown jewels of the bowl season. The first bowl game ever televised live in prime time was the 1965 Orange Bowl, in which the Texas Longhorns snuck past the top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, 21-17. Other highlights include William "Refrigerator" Perry and his Clemson Tigers teammates stoning the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 1982, 22-15, winning a national championship in the process; the Miami Hurricanes claiming a title of their own in 1984 by the fingertips of Ken Calhoun, who deflected a pass that would've given Nebraska a two-point conversion and a victory; Notre Dame's Raghib "Rocket" Ismail in 1991 returning a punt 92 yards for an apparent winning touchdown over Colorado, only to have the return called back because of a clipping penalty. If history is your thing, the last meeting between coaching legends Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden was at the 2006 Orange Bowl, where Paterno's Penn State team edged Bowden's Florida State squad in three overtimes, 26-23. And if points are your thing, the bowl's 2012 edition saw West Virginia put up 70 of them against Clemson.
