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| 1982 Aloha Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 1st Aloha Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | December 25, 1982 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1982 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Aloha Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Honolulu, Hawaii | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Jack Gatto (PCAA) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 30,055 | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ESPN/Metrosports | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Harry Kalas (play-by-play) Joe Kapp (Color commentator) Les Keiter (sideline) | ||||||||||||||||||
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The1982 Aloha Bowl was an Americancollege footballbowl game played on December 25, 1982 atAloha Stadium inHonolulu, Hawaii. The inaugural Aloha Bowl game pitted theWashington Huskies and theMaryland Terrapins. This was the first bowl game played in Hawaii since thePineapple Bowl in 1952, making this the first-ever bowl game in the State of Hawaii.
After aRose Bowl championship the year prior, the Huskies began the season ranked #2 in the nation. They responded by winning their first seven games of the season while rising to #1 in the polls after the first week, though they slipped to #2 before a matchup with Stanford. A 43-31 loss to the Cardinal (who finished 5-6 that year) dropped them to #10, but they responded with wins over #9 UCLA and #3 Arizona State to get back to #5 heading into the final game of the year against Washington State in theApple Cup, with a chance to win the conference title. However, they fell 24-20 to the Cougars (who finished 3-7-1), which dropped them to second in thePacific-10 Conference behind UCLA (who had a 5-1-1 conference record). Despite this, the Huskies were invited to the Aloha Bowl, their fourth straight bowl game and fifth bowl game in six seasons. Maryland, in its first season withBobby Ross as coach, rebounded from a 4-6-1 record the previous year to win eight games. Maryland began the season with two losses to ranked opponents (#7 Penn State and #17 West Virginia) by a combined total of nine points. They did not lose another game for two months, winning seven straight games (including a 31-24 win over #10 North Carolina), while rising to #19 in the polls. They lost to #11 Clemson two weeks later, though they did rebound with a win over Virginia in the regular season finale to rise to #16 in the polls while finishing 2nd in theAtlantic Coast Conference. This was their eighth bowl game in 10 seasons.
Washington had 20 first downs (as opposed to 17 for Maryland) while having 63 rushing yards and 369 passing yards, with four fumbles recovered for turnovers. Maryland had 68 rushing yards and 251 passing yards while having two turnovers. Boomer Esiason went 19-of-32 for 251 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception (along with a 10 completed passes for 120 yards and 1 touchdown third quarter). With 3:39 left in the game, Jess Atkinson attempted a 32-yard field goal to try to put the Terrapins up by nine. However, the kick fell short. A touchdown with six seconds left in the game by Allen won the game for Washington, who won the arm of Tim Cowan, who threw 33-of-55 for 369 yards and three touchdowns.[1]
The Huskies returned to the Aloha Bowl twice more, including the following year in1983. They reached five more bowl games in the decade following their Aloha Bowl appearances. As for Maryland, they went to three more bowl games in the decade while never returning to the Aloha Bowl.