The 62nd Orange Bowl was a post-season 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 ...

between the Florida State Seminoles and the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

on January 1, 1996, at The Orange Bowl in

Miami, Florida 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 ...

. Florida State defeated Notre Dame, 31-26. The game was part of the 1995-1996

Bowl Alliance The Bowl Alliance was an agreement among college football bowl games (specifically the Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls) for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a national championship game and to provide quality bowl game match ...

of the

1995 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1995 NCAA Division I-A football season was the first year of the Bowl Alliance. Tom Osborne led Nebraska to its second straight national title with a victory over Florida in the Fiesta Bowl. This matchup was only possible because of the new ...

and represented the concluding game of the season for both teams. 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 ...

was first played in 1935, and the 1996 game represented the 62nd edition of the Orange Bowl. The contest was televised in the United States on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. This would be the last Orange Bowl played in the Orange Bowl Stadium until 1999, as the next three were played in

Pro Player Stadium Hard Rock Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Miami Gardens, Florida. The stadium is the home field for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL) and the Miami Hurricanes, the University of Miami's NCAA Division I colleg ...

, before moving the game there permanently after the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

season. Florida State capped off this Orange Bowl with their 14th straight bowl game without a loss (December 1982 through January 1996). Referee Jimmy Harper 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 o ...

retired after calling his fourth Orange Bowl in 13 seasons, including the legendary 1984 game which saw the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

win the first of their five national championship by upending then-No. 1

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

31-30.

References

External links

New York Times article

Orange Bowl Florida State Seminoles football bowl games Notre Dame Fighting Irish football bowl games Bowl Alliance 1996 in sports in Florida 1990s in Miami January 1996 sports events in the United States {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub