The 1984 Fiesta Bowl was the thirteenth

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of the

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 ...

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, played at

Sun Devil Stadium Sun Devil Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium in the southwestern United States, on the campus of Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Arizona. It is home to the ASU Sun Devils football team of the Pac-12 Conference. The s ...

Tempe, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...

on Monday, January 2. Part of the 1983–84 bowl game season, it matched the fourteenth-ranked

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree ...

of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

, and the #15

Pittsburgh Panthers The Pittsburgh Panthers, commonly also referred to as the Pitt Panthers, are the athletic teams representing the University of Pittsburgh, although the term is colloquially used to refer to other aspects of the university such as alumni, facu ...

, an

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. Slightly favored, Ohio State rallied late in the fourth quarter to win 28–23.

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was on Sunday in 1984, and the college bowl games were played the following day.

Teams

Ohio State

The Buckeyes were ranked third until a loss at

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the 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: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

in late September; they later lost on the road to

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and

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. This was their second Fiesta Bowl

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Pittsburgh

The Panthers opened with two wins, but lost two road games at

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and

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. They won six straight, then tied rival

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

. This was Pittsburgh's third Fiesta Bowl

Game summary

The first game of a tripleheader (

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) on

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, the Fiesta kicked off shortly after 11:30 a.m.

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, as did the Cotton Bowl on

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. Ohio State scored first when quarterback

Mike Tomczak Michael John Tomczak (born October 23, 1962) is a former American football player. Tomczak played quarterback for several NFL teams from 1985 through 1999, including the Chicago Bears, the Green Bay Packers, the Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsb ...

scored on a three-yard

quarterback keeper A quarterback keeper or keeper in American football is a designed play in which the quarterback does not pass or hand off the ball to another player and instead rushes forward with it in an effort to gain yardage. The play typically is run in ins ...

. Pittsburgh tied the score at seven on a 6-yard pass from John Congemi to wide receiver Clint Wilson. Running back

Keith Byars Keith Alan Byars (born October 14, 1963) is an American sports broadcaster and former American football fullback in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots and New York Jets. Early life ...

scored on an 11-yard run before halftime, to give Ohio State a 14–7 halftime lead. After a scoreless third quarter, the action increased in the fourth. Pitt wide receiver Clint Wilson recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown to tie the game at 14. Byars took the kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, and Ohio State reclaimed the lead at 21–14. Congemi then found

Dwight Collins Dwight Dean Collins (born August 23, 1961) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the sixth round of the 1984 NFL Draft, and played one season for them in 1984. Co ...

for a touchdown, but the two-point conversion attempt failed, and Ohio State held on to a one-point lead. A 37-yard field goal from Tom Everett with 2:39 left, gave Pittsburgh a 23–21 lead. Tomczak threw a 39-yard touchdown strike to Thad Jemison for the game-winning touchdown, with 39 seconds left, and Ohio State escaped with a 28–23 win.

Scoring

First quarter * Ohio State –

3-yard run (Rich Spangler kick) Second quarter * Pittsburgh – Clint Wilson 6-yard pass from John Congemi (Snuffy Everett kick) * Ohio State –

11-yard run (Spangler kick) Third quarter :''No scoring'' Fourth quarter * Pittsburgh – Wilson fumble recovery in end zone (Everett kick) * Ohio State – Byars 99-yard kickoff return (Spangler kick) * Pittsburgh –

11-yard pass from Congemi (pass failed) * Pittsburgh – Everett 37-yard field goal * Ohio State – Thad Jemison 39-yard pass from Tomczak (Spangler kick) :

Statistics

: :

Aftermath

Ohio State climbed to ninth in the final AP poll, and Pittsburgh fell to eighteenth.

References

External links

Fiesta Bowl
– January 2, 1984 {{Pittsburgh Panthers bowl game navbox

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been playe ...

Fiesta Bowl Ohio State Buckeyes football bowl games Pittsburgh Panthers football bowl games January 1984 sports events in the United States 1984 in sports in Arizona