LAW SCHOOL GRADUATION & THE SUGAR BOWL (#69): Graduation from the University of Florida College of Law was a big day, but not quite the celebration we had planned. Hugh Culverhouse, Jr. bought a keg of beer and we put it in Frank Upchurch’s blue Volvo station wagon, parked in the Law School parking lot, and were handing out Gator cups of beer prior to the graduation ceremonies.
The Dean of the Law School heard about this and walked over. Frank, of course, offered him a draft. To his credit, the Dean chuckled before telling all of us, “Come on men. You know we can’t serve alcohol here. Shut it down and save it for a party tonight.” Guess it was almost time to grow up, the Dean of the Law School was calling us men! There was one last party at our apartment in the Student Ghetto that night and we polished off our last keg of beer in Gainesville.
Turns out, I wasn’t the only one a little reluctant to leave college days behind. On New Year’s Eve of 1974, the University of Florida, ranked # 18, was playing the University of Nebraska, ranked #8, in the Sugar Bowl. The 1974 Sugar bowl was the last college football game played in Tulane Stadium, which was obsolete once the Superdome was completed.
One of our law school classmates had booked a block of rooms in a small hotel off Bourbon Street in New Orleans. We got tickets and 20 of us, including wives and dates, were going to new Orleans. The parents of my girlfriend from St. Petersburg were from New Orleans and Nancy and I had gone back with them on visits several times. It would be fun to have an extra few days in one of my favorite cities.
There was an added bonus to the game, the Gators were playing Nebraska. All of my Neville cousins were from Nebraska, and I had been hearing about how tough the Cornhuskers were for years. Until recent years, the University of Nebraska was a football powerhouse, and 1974 was no exception. The Cornhuskers were coming off of 5 straight Bowl wins, four under Bob Devaney, and one under Tom Osborn, in his first year.
We didn’t really expect to win the game. We all just wanted to party together one last time and this was a great excuse. Our expectations began to change when the Gators took a 10-0 lead into half time. We thought we had the game in the bag when the Gators scored another touchdown with 7 minutes left in the third quarter.
On third-and-four from the Nebraska 18, tailback Tony Green took a pitchout from Don Gaffney and headed for the end zone. Knocked off balance, Green went the final five yards sideways while trying to stay inbounds. He scored, but the officials ruled he stepped out at the 5. Bull shit! Films later showed Green hadn’t stepped out of bounds, but had scored what would have been the winning touch. If only there had been Instant Replay, but we would have to wait until 2006 for it to be adopted by the NCAA.
Still, the Gators had the ball on the 5 yard line. Surely we would score. After 3 plays, we were still one yard from the goal line. Instead of kicking a field goal, Doug Dickey decided to go for it. Gaffney pitched the ball to James Richards. Richards slipped, and then was dropped by a defensive back. Seldom has a game turned so completely on one play.
Nebraska, on a 9 minute drive, took the ball all the way down field to score a touchdown. Nebraska then kicked two field goals to score 13 points in the fourth quarter. The last field goal was a 39 yarder with 2 minutes remaining. It was only good by inches. How cruel of the Football Gods to let us think we would win, then break our hearts.
But that wasn’t the last nasty surprise for Nancy and me in New Orleans.
