| 1967 Orange Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| 33rd Orange Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||
 TheMiami Orange Bowl inMiami, Florida, hosted the Orange Bowl. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 2, 1967 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1966 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Orange Bowl | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Miami,Florida | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Larry Smith (Florida TB) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Georgia Tech (slight)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | R. Pete Williams (SEC) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 72,426 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Network | NBC | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Curt Gowdy,Paul Christman | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The1967 Orange Bowl was the 33rd edition ofcollege footballbowl game, played at theOrange Bowl inMiami,Florida, on Monday, January 2. The final game of the1966–67 bowl season, it matched theeighth-rankedindependentGeorgia Tech Yellow Jackets and theFlorida Gators of theSoutheastern Conference (SEC). A slight underdog,[1] Florida won 27–12.[2][3]
New Year's Day was on Sunday in 1967, so the game was played the following day.
The #8 Yellow Jackets opened with nine wins,[4][5][6] then lost atrivalGeorgia.[7][8] They were making their first Orange Bowlappearance infifteen years and were led byBobby Dodd, completing his 22nd season as head coach.
The Gators were led on offense by quarterbackSteve Spurrier,winner of theHeisman Trophy. They finished second toGeorgia andAlabama, who went to theCotton Bowl andSugar Bowl, respectively. This was Florida's first Orange Bowl and their fourthbowl appearance in six years under head coachRay Graves, a former assistant to Dodd at Georgia Tech.
This was the third year the game was played at night, following theRose Bowl.
Kim King threw a ten-yard touchdown pass to Craig Baynham to give Georgia Tech a 6–0 lead. In the second quarter, Graham McKeel scored on a touchdown plunge to put Florida up 7–6, which was the score at halftime.
Georgia Tech was deep in Florida territory in the third quarter when Bobby Downs intercepted a pass from King to give Florida the ball on their own six. On the next play, sophomore tailbackLarry Smith broke free and ran 94 yards for a touchdown to give Florida a 14–6 lead.
In the fourth quarter, McKeel ran for another touchdown to make it 21–6; Larry Good scored from 25 yards out for the Yellow Jackets to close the gap to 21–12. Florida's Jack Coons caught a five-yard pass fromHarmon Wages to end the scoring at 27–12, but that was the end of the scoring.[2][3] Smith ran for 187 yards and was named thegame's outstanding player.[9]
| Statistics | Ga. Tech | Florida |
|---|---|---|
| First downs | 17 | 22 |
| Rushes–yards | 46–197 | 48–284 |
| Passing yards | 122 | 165 |
| Passes (C–A–I) | 8–22–4 | 15–32–1 |
| Total offense | 68–319 | 80–449 |
| Punts–average | 6–42.3 | 7–36.1 |
| Fumbles–lost | 2–1 | 1–1 |
| Turnovers | 5 | 2 |
| Penalties–yards | 5–41 | 4–32 |
Dodd retired after the game, though he stayed as athletic director at Georgia Tech until 1976. The Yellow Jackets returned to the Orange Bowl in2010, and the Gators in1999. Florida's next major bowl game was eight years later in theSugar Bowl againstNebraska, while Georgia Tech did not play in another major bowl until the Orange in 2010.
In the previous thirteen Orange Bowls, aBig Eight Conference team was a participant twelve times. This was the last edition without the Big Eight for seven years, whenPenn State defeatedLSU in January1974.
Both final polls were released prior to the bowl games.