The 1981 Tangerine Bowl was an American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

played on December 19, 1981, at

Orlando Stadium Orlando Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Soweto, a suburb of Johannesburg, in Gauteng province in South Africa. It is the home venue for Orlando Pirates Football Club, a professional soccer team that plays in the Premier Soccer League. O ...

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. The game featured the

Southern Miss Golden Eagles The Southern Miss Golden Eagles and Lady Eagles (also known as Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles and Lady Eagles) are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), located in Hattiesburg, Missi ...

and the

Missouri Tigers The Missouri Tigers intercollegiate athletics programs represent the University of Missouri, located in Columbia. The name comes from a band of armed Union Home Guards called the Fighting Tigers of Columbia who, in 1864, protected Columbia fro ...

Background

Southern Miss had finished with 9 wins in the regular season, their most since 1962 in their second straight bowl appearance, their first consecutive bowl seasons since 1957-58. Missouri had finished 5th in the

Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

, qualifying for their 4th straight bowl appearance. This was the first Tangerine Bowl for Southern Miss since 1958. This was Missouri's first ever Tangerine Bowl.

Game summary

Bobby Meyer gave the Tigers a 7-0 lead on his three yard touchdown run in the first quarter. The Golden Eagles narrowed the lead to 7-3 on a Steve Clark field goal. Missouri increased their lead with two Bob Lucchesi field goals in the span of 5 minutes to make it 13-3 at halftime. Sammy Winder made it 13-10 on his 4 yard touchdown run in the middle of the third quarter. Lucchesi made it 16-10 on his 30 yard field goal in the third quarter. He added another one from 28 yards out to make it 19-10. Southern Miss narrowed it to 19-17 with 1:03 remaining on a David Sellers touchdown pass to Louis Lipps.

Aftermath

Head Coach Bobby Collins left for SMU after the game, and the Eagles did not return to a bowl game until

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

. Southern Miss has not played in the Tangerine (now Citrus) bowl since. Missouri did not return until

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Statistics

References

{{Southern Miss Golden Eagles bowl game navbox Tangerine Bowl Citrus Bowl (game) Missouri Tigers football bowl games Southern Miss Golden Eagles football bowl games Tangerine Bowl Tangerine Bowl