Long gone but never forgotten. Miami and FIU to meet on ‘sacred ground’ of Orange Bowl
Former Miami Hurricanes center Don Bailey Jr., who snapped the ball to quarterback great Jim Kelly 40 years ago when they played home games in the Orange Bowl, is still stirred by the memory, years later, of driving toward the iconic stadium for the final game of the 1989 regular season against top-ranked Notre Dame.
“When I got off the expressway I felt it,’’ Bailey, now 58 and a longtime member of UM football’s radio broadcast team, once told the Miami Herald. “There was an electricity, a spark, a fire, a tension— all those things that make something great and intense. By the time I walked into the stadium, I still remember thinking, ‘If I just took a match out of my pocket, it would light up by itself.’’’
UM won that game 27-10, highlighted by the magnificent 44-yard completion from quarterback Craig Erickson to Randal “Thrill” Hill on third-and-43, which catapulted the Canes toward their third of five national championships.
At 7 p.m. Saturday, the Hurricanes, not one of whom was alive for that classic, will come as close to the hallowed Orange Bowl as they ever will when they face Miami-Dade’s FIU Panthers at Marlins Park — a baseball stadium on the same grounds of the former football stadium that housed the Hurricanes for 71 seasons through 2007.
The historic stadium was torn down in 2008 and replaced by Marlins Park.
Bailey said he still gets that warm, wistful feeling when he’s near there, as if he’s looking “in a family photo album.’’ Same for first-year Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz, who grew up in Miami and had snuck into the student section of that Canes-Irish game when he was 15.
“That was one of those moments where the Orange Bowl was just going crazy,’’ Diaz said this week. “The stadium’s not there anymore, obviously. The neighborhood is. I think that’s actually the cooler part. It’s just the trip in, being in the area, being in Little Havana.
“I think there will be a nostalgia for anybody who was there and understands it at the time. It will be great to be back.”
Diaz likely doesn’t want his Hurricanes to get too caught up in the defend-the-Orange-Bowl hype leading into the game. The last UM game played in the grand old stadium was marketed to the hilt, complete with fireworks planned for afterward. Everything beforehand was ideal. Then the Virginia Cavaliers demolished UM 48-0 on Nov. 10, 2007.
This game will obviously feel quite different, as the pro baseball field has been converted to a football field that brings fans close to the game but gives little space to navigate beyond the end zones.
“No. 1 is player safety,’’ Diaz said “We shouldn’t do anything that puts our player safety in jeopardy. But I’m confident. They’ve played games in there before. They have the appropriate measures to make sure that it’s a safe environment for players to play.’’
FIU coach Butch Davis, the man who led UM’s resurgence as head coach from 1995 to 2000, told the Herald he has “a lot of memories’’ from his days in the Orange Bowl, adding, “Once you walk into Marlins Park, it doesn’t look anything like the old Orange Bowl, where I think they only had 12 bathrooms for 80,000 people, and we would run out of ice almost every halftime.”
Miami (6-4, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) needs to win both of its remaining regular-season games, including Duke at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 30 in Durham, North Carolina, to get in the best bowl possible, including a still-attainable Capital One Orange Bowl bid.
FIU (5-5, 3-4 Conference USA) needs to win one of its final two regular-season games — the finale is Nov. 30 at Marshall —to even qualify for a bowl.
The Hurricanes, 20-point favorites, are aware that the Canes won five national titles on the grounds in which they’ll compete Saturday. They’ve played FIU three times since 2006, winning all three games, including twice in the Orange Bowl.
“I definitely think it’s going to be a special moment, not just for us but the players of the past,’’ said UM cornerback Al Blades Jr., whose late father, Al Sr., and uncles Bennie and Brian, all starred for the Hurricanes in the Orange Bowl. “This is where the OB was, so that is a big moment. We have to go in there and protect it like it is our home, because it is our home. It was always our home, so we have to go out there and play like it.’’
Said Canes quarterback Jarren Williams: “That’s sacred ground, so it means a lot to us, all of us just growing up and watching, envisioning us playing on that field. Some big-time players stepped foot on that field.’’
Diaz said his players “have done a terrific job’’ this season in handling themselves with integrity during emotional games against in-state competition. The first time UM and FIU played in ‘06, the game was marred by a massive brawl that resulted in 31 players from both teams suspended.
“Our guys to their credit have been businesslike; They’ve been professionals,’’ Diaz said. “Any situation we’ve been in they’ve handled themselves very well.”
Diaz acknowledged that some Canes fans still upset about the Orange Bowl being torn down do not equate Marlins Park in any way a feel-good imitation to what was once there.
“You can’t tell someone how to feel,’’ Diaz said. People are going to feel the way they feel. I don’t know if anybody can feel stronger about it than I do, but time moves on. The Yankees play in a new stadium. The old Boston Garden isn’t there anymore. That’s how it goes. I think we have as fine of a stadium as anybody in college football right now. What we found is when the Canes are rolling and the city does what it does on a Saturday night, we can play on Southwest Eighth Street in the intersection and it’s going to be a home-field advantage.
“My job is to make sure the team warrants the big-type atmosphere, whether that was back in the OB or Hard Rock Stadium — it can happen in this town.”
