The 1964 Orange Bowl was the thirtieth

edition Edition may refer to: * Edition (book), a bibliographical term for a substantially similar set of copies * Edition (printmaking), a publishing term for a set print run * Edition (textual criticism), a particular version of a text * Edition Recor ...

of the

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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 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 ...

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, and ...

, on Wednesday, January 1. Part of the 1963–64 bowl game season, it featured the sixth-ranked

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 Divis ...

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 Associati ...

and the #5

Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year coeducational university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associ ...

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 ...

(SEC). Nebraska scored early and won 13–7.

Teams

Nebraska Cornhuskers

Under second-year head coach

Bob Devaney Robert Simon Devaney (April 13, 1915 – May 9, 1997) was a college football coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Wyoming from 1957 to 1961 and at the University of Nebraska from 1962 to 1972, compiling a career record of . ...

, the Cornhuskers won their first Big Eight title since

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * Januar ...

. The only blemish was a home non-conference loss to

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. This was Nebraska's third

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in a major bowl game, and second in the Orange Bowl, the first was nine years earlier.

Auburn Tigers

The Tigers finished second in the

; they defeated

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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 ...

but lost to

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. This was Auburn's first

in a bowl game since

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

, and first Orange Bowl since

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the authoritarian regime. ** State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France ...

Game summary

In the opening possession, quarterback

Dennis Claridge Dennis Bert Claridge (August 18, 1941 – May 1, 2018) was an American football player, a quarterback in the National Football League for the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons. He played college football at the University of Nebraska under h ...

gave the Cornhuskers a 7–0 lead on his 68-yard run from a short-yardage formation. Dave Theisen added two field goals to give them a 13–0 lead at halftime; Auburn quarterback

Jimmy Sidle James Corbin Sidle (February 7, 1942 – November 14, 1999) was a Professional sports, professional American football running back in the National Football League for the Atlanta Falcons. He played college football at Auburn University and wa ...

ran in from thirteen yards out to make it 13–7 after three quarters. The fourth quarter was scoreless. In the closing minutes, Auburn was driving down the field for the potential win, at the Nebraska eleven. On fourth down, linebacker John Kirby batted a Tiger pass away, and the Cornhuskers gained their first victory in a major bowl game. Claridge ran for 108 yards on the day. This was the seventh matchup of the two conferences in the Orange Bowl, the SEC had swept the first six.

Scoring

;First quarter: *Nebraska –

68-yard run (Dave Theisen kick), 13:47 *Nebraska – Theisen 31-yard field goal, 5:26 ;Second quarter: *Nebraska – Theisen 36-yard field goal, 13:05 ;Third quarter: *Auburn –

13-yard run (Woody Woodall kick), 3:32 ;Fourth quarter: :''No scoring'' :

Statistics

: :

Aftermath

This was the last year without an MVP award honored to the best player. Nebraska returned to the Orange Bowl two years later; as of , Auburn has yet to return. This is the most recent Orange Bowl played during the day; the telecast on ABC was in direct competition with the Cotton Bowl (

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 ...

) and

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed only ...

(

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

); all three started at around 2 pm EST. Most of the audio from the telecast (featuring Curt Gowdy, Paul Christman, and Jim McKay's commentary) survives, though the video footage is lost. The broadcast rights transferred to NBC and the kickoff was moved to 8 pm in January

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in for a full term ...

, the final game of the network's tripleheader of major bowls (

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Rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

, Orange) on

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Whi ...

. Both final polls were released in early December, prior to the bowls.

References

{{Nebraska Cornhuskers bowl game navbox

Orange Bowl Auburn Tigers football bowl games Nebraska Cornhuskers football bowl games January 1964 sports events in the United States