| 1966 Orange Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| 32nd Orange Bowl National championship game | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 1, 1966 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1965 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Orange Bowl | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Miami,Florida | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Steve Sloan (AlabamaQB) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Alabama by 3 points[1][2] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Morris Harrison (SEC; split crew: SEC,Big Eight) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 72,214 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Network | NBC | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Curt Gowdy,Paul Christman | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nielsen ratings | 19.1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The1966 Orange Bowl was the 32ndedition of thecollege footballbowl game, played at theOrange Bowl inMiami,Florida, on Saturday, January 1. The final game of the1965–66 bowl season, it matched thethird-ranked and undefeatedNebraska Cornhuskers of theBig Eight Conference and the #4Alabama Crimson Tide of theSoutheastern Conference (SEC).[1][3]
This was the second year that the Orange Bowl was played at night onNew Year's Day, after the other college football bowl games. Due to losses by both #1Michigan State in theRose Bowl and #2Arkansas in theCotton Bowl earlier in the day, the game had turned into a de factonational championship game, as the AP would be taking a final post-bowl vote for the first time ever. Slightly favored,[1][2] Alabama won, 39–28.[4][5]
Alabama scored first on a 32-yard touchdown pass fromSteve Sloan toRay Perkins. In the second quarter, Nebraska's Bob Churchich threw a 33-yard touchdown pass toTony Jeter to tie the game at seven. Alabama's Les Kelly scored on a four-yard touchdown run as the Crimson Tide regained the lead at 14–7. Sloan and Perkins connected again from eleven yards out, then Alabama recovered the ensuing onside kick; a 19-yard field goalDavid Ray in the final minute gave the Crimson Tide a commanding 24–7 lead at halftime.[4]
In the third quarter, Churchich threw a 49-yard touchdown pass to Ben Gregory as Nebraska narrowed the deficit to 24–13.Steve Bowman scored from a yard out, and a successfultwo-point conversion, increased the Tide's lead to 32–13.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Churchich ran in from a yard to make it 32–20. Alabama answered with a time-consuming drive, with Bowman scoring on a three-yard run, which put the lead back to nineteen points at 39–20 with just over eight minutes remaining. Churchich threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Jeter with less than three minutes to go for the last score as Alabamawon 39–28.[4][5] Quarterback Sloan was named thegame's outstanding player.
| Statistics | Alabama | Nebraska |
|---|---|---|
| First Downs | 29 | 17 |
| Rushes–yards | 57–222 | 24–145 |
| Passing yards | 296 | 232 |
| Passes (C–A–I) | 20–29–2 | 12–19–1 |
| Total Offense | 86–518 | 43–377 |
| Punts–average | 5–31.2 | 3–41.7 |
| Fumbles–lost | 0–0 | 4–4 |
| Turnovers | 2 | 5 |
| Penalties–yards | 8–62 | 8–86 |
In thefinal AP poll, Alabama climbed to first for the national championship, while Nebraska dropped to fifth.[8]
Both Nebraska and Alabama would play for the National Championship again in the1972 Orange Bowl, where the Cornhuskers exacted revenge over the Tide in a 38-6 blowout win to repeat as national champions.