Saw my first game there as a punk kid in 1965. 
Took my son to his first game as a 7 year old kid when U of Maryland made that dramatic 2nd half comeback from 31-0 halftime score in 1983. Didn't dampen his spirits. He was in awe.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/college/hurricanes/sfl-flspob09nbnov09,0,7543976.story
Took my son to his first game as a 7 year old kid when U of Maryland made that dramatic 2nd half comeback from 31-0 halftime score in 1983. Didn't dampen his spirits. He was in awe.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/college/hurricanes/sfl-flspob09nbnov09,0,7543976.story
By Staff Writer Randall Mell
November 9, 2007
Sun Sentinel.com
MIAMI - The most gifted architect in the world can't create a great stadium.
That's because it is made of so much more than brick and mortar.
The greatest stadiums are built of magical moments.
That's why when Joe and Ginny Shaw enter the Orange Bowl Saturday night to see the University of Miami play Virginia in the Hurricanes' final game in the stadium, the couple's hearts will swell. They're both 85 and have probably seen more UM games in the Orange Bowl than anyone else on the planet.
They fell in love as UM students on a first date watching the Hurricanes play Clemson in the Orange Bowl Classic on Jan. 1, 1951. They married later that year and have sat side-by-side at every UM home game except one since buying season tickets in 1952. They watched the creation of the Orange Bowl mystique laid as if brick by brick, one magical moment upon another.
They were there together when George Mira earned the nickname "The Matador" as quarterback from 1961 to '63, when Florida made their blood boil with the Gator Flop in '71 and when UM claimed its first national title, shocking mighty Nebraska at the end of the '83 season. They saw Doug Flutie's Hail Mary pass to beat the 'Canes in '84, and they saw every one of UM's victories in that NCAA-record 58-game home winning streak between 1985 and '94.
They even saw Joe Auer return the opening kickoff for a touchdown at the beginning of the Dolphins' inaugural season at the Orange Bowl in 1966 and every home victory in the Dolphins' perfect '72 season.
The Shaws have relished having 50-yard line seats as witnesses to history's passing through the Orange Bowl. They will be there as they always are Saturday in Section S, Row 20, but they know this won't be like any of the 352 other UM games they've watched as season-ticket holders. It's the end of a remarkable era.
"We've had a special bond with this place," Joe said. "It was always special, coming over I-95 and seeing that massive bowl in the distance. The Orange Bowl's a landmark that's played such a terribly important part in not only the history of UM, but also the Dolphins and South Florida. It's meant so much to so many of us who live here."
Make yourself uncomfortable
And it has meant so much to the UM players and coaches who have paraded past the Shaws and all those Hurricane fans since the team began playing in the Orange Bowl in 1937. Back then, it was called Roddy Burdine Municipal Stadium. UM whipped Georgia Southern 40-0 in its first game there and hopes to go out with a victory against Virginia on Saturday.
In 71 seasons, the Hurricanes have racked up a 324-145-7 record in the Orange Bowl (including Orange Bowl Classic games). They have won three of their five national titles in bowl games there, have built a 24-0 record with a No. 1 ranking in the stadium and have gone 8-2 against No. 1 teams there.
UM's announcement in August that it was leaving its longtime home to move north to Dolphins Stadium next year as part of a 25-year agreement has stoked strong emotions in former players and fans. The largest crowd of the year is expected for Saturday's farewell game. The sideline will be crowded with former UM stars from multiple eras as special guests.
They're coming to celebrate eight decades of memories.
"I understand the need to move," said Bill Hawkins, a former All-American defensive end (1985-88). "The Orange Bowl is a relic. You have to shut your eyes not to know it needs work, but I have mixed feelings.
"It's my home. From a strictly emotional standpoint, it breaks my heart."
Home is the emotionally loaded word former Hurricanes all get stuck on.
The Orange Bowl is where they grew up, where they passed from boys to men.
"Hearing about the move, it kind of felt like your parents sold your house on you," said Kevin Patrick, an All-American defensive end who never lost a game at UM from 1990-93. "Your reaction is, 'Wait a minute, mom and dad, what are you doing?'"
Tolbert Bain, a former cornerback, had his hands in more than a few magical Orange Bowl moments, winning two national championship rings (1983 and '87).
Just a freshman at the end of the '83 season, Bain was in pads but knew he wasn't going to play as a redshirt when the Hurricanes stormed the field as heavy underdogs to meet No. 1 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl Classic. He couldn't believe how the night air crackled with an electric aura he had never felt before. It was the first time he experienced the spellbinding atmosphere this place is famous for in big-game showdowns.
Bain remembers standing in a trance on the sideline during pregame warm-ups, his eyes lost in the stands.
"It was amazing the way the crowd was that night," Bain said. "The whole stadium was packed and going crazy long before kickoff. I'm feeling all this electricity going through me, but when I turn around, everyone's gone. Our whole team had gone back into the locker room, and I was standing there by myself."
The stadium's magic was most felt in the awe players and fans experience in big games like that.
"The first time I saw the Orange Bowl in its full glory was when I was a freshman in '85 when we opened with the Gators," said Steve Walsh, the quarterback on the '87 national champs. "It was my first time there. We lost that game, but the Hurricanes wouldn't lose again over the next 58 games."
Walsh is an analyst on UM's post-game radio broadcasts. He has come back to see a number of games over the years but never actually sat in the stands until joining former UM Senior Vice President of Finance and Business David Lieberman two years ago.
"I knew then why some fans hated it," Walsh said. "I go to put my soda down, and there's no cup-holder. My knees are jammed into those metal seats. There were stains from what had been spilled there over 70 years.
"UM fans knew it was a run-down house, but what they loved was that it was their run-down house. There were ugly pock marks and ugly stains, but they were their ugly pock marks and their ugly stains."
Patrick sat in the stands when UM defeated Florida State 28-27 in the "Wide Left" game of 2002.
"I remember hearing this Florida State fan complain the place stunk, that it smelled like trash," Patrick said. "And I'm thinking, `Yeah, but isn't it great?' You aren't supposed to be comfortable there. I loved it."
Bittersweet homecoming
Former Outland Trophy winner Russell Maryland was back to see the old stadium last Saturday with teammates from the '87 national championship team as part of a 20-year reunion. He'll be back again Saturday to honor the stadium in one last goodbye.
"It will be bittersweet," Maryland said. "It will be sweet being back, but it will be bitter knowing we won't see it again."
Maryland arrived in 1986 from Chicago as a 325-pound recruit who nobody else but Indiana State had offered a scholarship. He left five years later as the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft.
As a redshirt freshman, he dressed but didn't play when No. 1 Oklahoma arrived to play No. 2 Miami in '86. Sooners coach Barry Switzer and UM coach Jimmy Johnson were colorful rivals at the top of their games. OU linebacker Brian Bosworth was practically a cult figure. The Orange Bowl rocked from start to finish with the Hurricanes knocking off the Sooners 28-16 and UM quarterback Vinny Testaverde making a memorable scramble that would pave the way to his claiming the school's first Heisman Trophy.
"I remember standing on the bench and watching Vinny make that scramble," Maryland said. "I remember thinking I was part of something special."
Married ... with Hurricanes
Loyal longtime fans like the Shaws were part of what made the Orange Bowl special. They helped create a home-field advantage that sits in the NCAA record books as the best ever. After losing to Florida 35-23 on Sept. 7, 1985, the Hurricanes bounced back to rout Cincinnati 38-0 in their next home game on Oct. 12. They wouldn't lose again until Washington upset them 38-20 on Sept. 24, 1994.
"Nothing compared to running out through the smoke into the Orange Bowl for a big game," said quarterback Gino Torretta, who won UM's second Heisman Trophy in '92. "No game or experience I ever had compared to that. You got this rush of adrenaline and this energy from the crowd. You fed off their energy."
The Shaws were among the fanatic following grateful to help.
And they've been fanatic.
"I don't think there's anyone who loves the Hurricanes more than Joe," Ginny said.
Joe isn't so sure.
"Ginny thinks she's a coach," Joe said. "She screams things that make me cringe."
The Hurricanes lost to Clemson in the couple's first date on New Year's Day of 1951, but it didn't dim the spark that started their romance with each other and with UM football.
"We're 85 now, and we're still madly in love with each other," Ginny says. "But I tell people the only reason Joe married me is because I loved football. I think there's some truth in that."
Over the last 56 years, the only UM football home game they've missed was a 0-0 tie with Notre Dame on Nov. 27, 1965.
"We missed the game to go to a family member's wedding," Joe Shaw said. "I sneaked out the side door and listened to the game on the radio in the car. I don't think the family was too happy with me."
The couple almost missed one other game.
"We've been blessed with good health, but I remember going to the Alabama game in 1979, when we were both sick as dogs with the flu," Joe said. "We were still sick the next week when the team flew to Tokyo to play Notre Dame, but we weren't going to miss that. We took every medication we could muster from our physician and crawled on that plane to see the game. When we got to Tokyo, it was raining. I thought we were both going to get pneumonia and die."
UM's move north to Dolphins Stadium in 2008 almost feels as far away as Tokyo for the Shaws.
"We will keep our season tickets, but I'm not sure how many games we'll go see up there," Joe said. "We have Dolphins tickets, but it's not the same there. You lose something in that stadium, and I can't tell you exactly what it is."
Shaw is a businessman. He started Shaw's Nursery and Landscape in Miami as a student in 1949, cutting lawns and building it into a company with three locations and 60 employees. Still, he struggles to accept the business nature of sports.
His reaction was emotional when he heard UM officials announce the move.
"We called them traitors," Joe said. "Those were our exact words.
"We were unhappy, but I can't say I'm mad now, because you have to look at the bottom line in business, and unfortunately the UM sports program is a business."
Some lasting resentment, outrage
The emotions UM fans will carry into Saturday's farewell game will include some lingering resentment.
"I feel terrible that they're moving, but I can't fault the university," said U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez, a UM alum with family who have passed season tickets down since the 1940s. "The only people I can fault is the city commissioners. I think they sold the university down the river on purpose. I think the intent all along was to build a stadium for the Marlins. I'm angry, but not at the university. I think it's an outrage."
City Commissioners proposed $206 million in Orange Bowl upgrades this past summer, but the financing was contingent on too many unpredictable variables for UM officials to accept. The move to Dolphins Stadium will take the Hurricanes from one of the worst ACC venues to its best.
"The Orange Bowl never scored a touchdown,'' UM Athletic Director Paul Dee said when the move to Dolphins Stadium was announced. "The Orange Bowl never cheered. It was the people that were there. As long as we continue to attract to the University of Miami the finest college football players, the finest coaching personnel and staff, as long as we're able to attract our fans to come to our games and support those people, I think we transfer the history into a new building.'' Like so many other fans and former players, the Shaws will revel Saturday night seeing the Hurricanes make their farewell appearance.
"If they ever demolish the Orange Bowl, I don't want to see it," Joe Shaw said. "I'll want to remember it as it was, at its best."
Shaw hopes to remember Saturday night as one last magical moment for one of college football's great stadiums.
Randall Mell can be reached at [email protected]
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