The 1968 Orange Bowl was the 34th

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of the

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, played at the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

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, on Monday, January 1. The third-ranked

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Run ...

of the

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defeated the

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of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC), 26–24.

Teams

Oklahoma

Oklahoma won all seven games in

play for their first title since

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

and first Orange Bowl since

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. The only blemish was a two-point loss to

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Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

at the Cotton Bowl in

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on October 14. Entering his second season as head coach, 37-year-old Jim Mackenzie suffered a fatal

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at his

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home in late April. Assistant coach

Chuck Fairbanks Charles Leo Fairbanks (June 10, 1933 – April 2, 2013) was a football coach who was a head coach at the high school, college and professional levels. He served as the head coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1967 to 1972 and at the Universi ...

, age 33, was promoted several days later.

Tennessee

After a four-point loss at

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in the season opener, Tennessee won nine consecutive games. They were perfect in

play and were champions for the first time since

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. It was Tennessee's first Orange Bowl since

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. Tennessee did not get to play top-ranked

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in the Rose Bowl; the Trojans met #4

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, the Big Ten co-champion, due to the Pac-8 – Big Ten contract. The Volunteers' soccer-style placekicker

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was a

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refugee from

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Game summary

This was the fourth straight year for a night kickoff at the Orange Bowl, following the Rose Bowl. Both teams wore their home jerseys, Oklahoma in crimson and Tennessee in orange. The temperature was . Quarterback Bob Warmack gave the Sooners a 7–0 lead on his ten-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. He added a twenty-yard touchdown pass to

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in the second quarter, and running back Steve Owens scored from a yard out to make it 19–0 at halftime. Held scoreless until midway into the third quarter, Tennessee's Jimmy Glover returned an interception 36 yards for a touchdown. Two minutes later, another interception by Jim Weatherford set up a five-yard touchdown run by Charley Fulton (19–14). A

field goal from 26 yards closed the gap to 19–17 early in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma went up 26–17 on Bob Stephenson's 25-yard interception return for a touchdown. Tennessee then answered with quarterback

Dewey Warren Dewey Warren (born May 7, 1945) is a former American football quarterback for the University of Tennessee football team and the American Football League's Cincinnati Bengals. Warren was nicknamed "The Swamp Rat" due to his early years growin ...

's touchdown plunge to pull back to two points at 26–24. Oklahoma was at their own 43-yard line with just under two minutes remaining. First-year head coach Fairbanks opted to go for the first down, despite only leading by two points. Owens was given the ball, but was stopped by linebacker Jack Reynolds, and the ball went back to the Volunteers. With seven seconds to go, Tennessee sent Kremser in to attempt a 43-yard field goal, but his kick sailed wide right, and Oklahoma won.

Scoring

;First quarter: *Oklahoma – Bob Warmack 7-yard run (Mike Vachon kick) ;Second quarter: *Oklahoma –

20-yard pass from Warmack (kick failed) *Oklahoma – Steve Owens 1-yard run (run failed) ;Third quarter: *Tennessee – Jimmy Glover 36-yard interception return (

kick) *Tennessee – Charley Fulton 5-yard run (Kremser kick) ;Fourth quarter: *Oklahoma – Bob Stephenson 23-yard interception return (Vachon kick) *Tennessee – Kremser 26-yard FG *Tennessee –

1-yard run (Kremser kick) :

Statistics

: :

Aftermath

The two teams received a then-record payout of about $285,000 each. Oklahoma next played in the Orange Bowl in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

; Tennessee waited three decades, returning in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

References

{{Tennessee Volunteers bowl game navbox

Orange Bowl Oklahoma Sooners football bowl games Tennessee Volunteers football bowl games January 1968 sports events in the United States