The 1982 Orange Bowl was the 48th edition of the college football

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 Subdivi ...

, 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 ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

, on Friday, January 1. Part of the 1981–82 bowl game season, it matched the top-ranked and undefeated

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) ...

of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the #4

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divisi ...

of 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 Associat ...

. Underdog Clemson won, 22–15, and gained their first

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

Teams

Clemson

Led by head coach

Danny Ford Danny Lee Ford (born April 2, 1948) is a former American football player and coach. He played college football at the University of Alabama from 1967 to 1969. He served as the head football coach at Clemson University from 1978 to 1989 and at t ...

, the Tigers began the season unranked, won all eleven games in the regular season, and moved up to first in the rankings in late November. Their notable wins were over

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

and

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia a ...

. Clemson was attempting to win its first

. The Tigers were making their third

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in the Orange Bowl, but the first in a quarter century.

Nebraska

The Huskers had two early losses, at

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

and to

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High ...

, then won eight consecutive games to improve to fourth in the polls. Nebraska was making its eighth

in the Orange Bowl, the first in three years.

Game summary

Earlier in the day, third-ranked

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

lost the Cotton Bowl to #6

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 ...

. In the Sugar Bowl, now played at the same time as the Orange, second-ranked

was defeated by #8

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, which opened the door for the Orange Bowl victor to claim the national title; Nebraska was favored by 3½ to 4½ points. Clemson scored first on a 41-yard field goal by Donald Igwebuike to take a 3–0 lead. Nebraska then succeeded with a trick play, as running back Mike Rozier threw a 25-yard halfback pass to Anthony Steels for a touchdown and a Igwebuike kicked a 37-yard field goal to pull Clemson Following a Nebraska fumble, Cliff Austin scored on a two-yard touchdown run and Clemson led at halftime. In the third quarter, Clemson quarterback Homer Jordan threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to

Perry Tuttle Perry Tuttle (born August 2, 1959) is a former American football wide receiver. He was a Clemson football standout in the early 1980s. His career continued into the National Football League (NFL) (Buffalo Bills, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Atlanta ...

and Igwebuike added another field goal, this time a 36-yarder, and the Tigers extended their lead to fifteen points In the fourth quarter, halfback Roger Craig scored for the Huskers on a 26-yard run. Following a Nebraska penalty on the first

two-point conversion In gridiron football, a two-point conversion or two-point convert is a play a team attempts instead of kicking a one-point conversion immediately after it scores a touchdown. In a two-point conversion attempt, the team that just scored must run ...

attempt, Craig then ran it in from the eight, which closed the margin with over nine minutes remaining. The Huskers got the ball back, but penalties ultimately killed the drive and forced them to punt the ball back to Clemson; the Tigers maintained possession for the bulk of the last six minutes and secured their first national championship in

Scoring

;First quarter: *Clemson – Donald Igwebuike 41-yard field goal, 11:39 *Nebraska – Anthony Steels 25-yard pass from Mike Rozier (Kevin Seibel kick), 6:43 *Clemson – Igwebuike 37-yard field goal, 1:03 ;Second quarter: *Clemson – Cliff Austin 2-yard run (pass failed), 3:56 ;Third quarter: *Clemson –

13-yard pass from Homer Jordan (Bob Paulling kick), 6:12 *Clemson – Igwebuike 36-yard field goal, 2:36 ;Fourth quarter: *Nebraska – Roger Craig 26-yard run (Craig run), 9:15 :

Statistics

: :

Aftermath

Clemson remained atop both final polls, while Nebraska dropped to eleventh (AP) and Nebraska played in the Orange Bowl in the

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two seasons; Clemson returned

thirty years later ''Thirty Years Later'', is a 1928 American black and white silent drama film directed and produced by Oscar Micheaux for Micheaux Films. ''Thirty Years Later'' film was based on Henry Francis Downing Henry Francis Downing (1846 – February 19 ...

References

External links

Clemson vs Nebraska Stats
{{Nebraska Cornhuskers bowl game navbox

Orange Bowl Clemson Tigers football bowl games Nebraska Cornhuskers football bowl games January 1982 sports events in the United States

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower * Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum ...