The 1983 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game was a postseason

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game between the

Southern Illinois Salukis The Southern Illinois Salukis are the varsity athletic teams representing Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The nickname comes from the Saluki, the Royal Dog of Egypt and the Persian greyhound, which ties into the fact that southern Ill ...

and the

Western Carolina Catamounts The Western Carolina Catamounts are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent Western Carolina University. The Catamounts compete in the NCAA Division I as members of the Southern Conference. Western Carolina fields 16 varsity sports t ...

. The game was played on December 17, 1983, at

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Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

. The culminating game of the

1983 NCAA Division I-AA football season The 1983 NCAA Division I-AA football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-AA level, began in August 1983, and concluded with the 1983 NCAA Division I-AA ...

, it was won by Southern Illinois, 43–7.

Teams

The participants of the Championship Game were the finalists of the 1983 I-AA Playoffs, which began with a 12-team

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Southern Illinois Salukis

Southern Illinois finished their regular season with a 10–1 record (5–1 in conference); their only loss was to

Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 ...

in their final regular season game. Ranked first in the final NCAA I-AA in-house poll and seeded first in the tournament, the Salukis received a first-round bye then defeated

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and

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to reach the final. This was the first appearance for Southern Illinois in a Division I-AA championship game.

Western Carolina Catamounts

Western Carolina finished their regular season with an 8–2–1 record (5–0–1 in conference); their two losses were to

Division I-A The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

programs, Clemson and Wake Forest; the tie came against conference rival Furman. Ranked ninth in the final NCAA I-AA in-house poll and unseeded in the tournament, the Catamounts defeated Colgate, second-seed

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, and third-seed Furman to reach the final. This was also the first appearance for Western Carolina in a Division I-AA championship game.

Game summary

After a scoreless first quarter, Southern Illinois took a 10–0 lead into halftime, then broke the game open with 23 unanswered points in the third quarter. The Salukis' defense intercepted seven passes, with four of the interceptions made by

safety Safety is the state of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings The word 'safety' entered the English language in the 1 ...

Greg Shipp.

Scoring summary

Game statistics