The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 41

i rr rnmr rr ym Sp orts on the Air re Tele i fMCIff BASKTftALL IT pm Long Beat Sae af Lovca Moed ch 45 Radio BASKETBALL OS pjrt Chcago at WasTingtoo WiOD CLARIFIED 13D yiUMEtmt THE MIAMI HERALD SPECIAL SOUVENIR ISSUE JANUARY 2 1979 Oklahoma Gets Its Meven 9 rT Holds Off Nebraska 9 Sims Loll Standouts In OB Game By GARY LONG Herald Sports Writer Quarterback Thomas Lott and Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims scored two touchdowns apiece Monday night as the Oklahoma Sooners staked a belated claim to No 1 with a 31-24 Orange Bowl victory over Big Eight rival and co-champion Nebraska Pollsters probablv will recognize either Alabama or Southern California as the national champion when the wire services release their polls Wednesday No 2 Alabama beat No 1 Penn State 14-7 in the Sugar Bowl and No 3 Southern Cal whipped Michigan 17-10 in the Rose Bowl only loss was to USC But Oklahoma which averaged 40 points per game in a 10-1 regular season did avenge the only blemish on its record by overwhelming the Cornhuskers before 66365 fans Barry Sooners bowed 17-14 Nov 11 but they fumbled nine times and lost six that infamous afternoon In the 45th Orange Bowl Classic they were far more surehanded They lost one fumble but that until 807 remained The Cornhuskers never gave up They trailed 31-10 entering the final quarter and scored two TDs the last on quarterback Tom two-yard pass to tight end Junior Miller on the final play of the game SIMS whose fumble at Nebraska's three-yard line sealed the earlier loss shredded the Cornhusker defense He carried 25 times most from the Wishbone set but occasionally as the tailback in the I-formation and netted 134 yards His TDs came on runs of two yards in the first quarter and 11 yards in the third His longest gam 28 yards triggered fourth scoring drive Lott had short TD sweeps of three yards and twm yards as he concluded an extraordinary career in which he quarterbacked the Sooners to 30 victories in 36 games He contributed 74 of Oklahoma's 292 rushing yards on 14 carries one a 38-yard escape But Sorley who completed 18 of 31 passes for 220 yards moved the Cornhuskers 78 yards in 15 plays to cut advantage to 31-17 six minutes into the fourth quarter I-back Rick Berns who netted 99 yards in 19 carries got the TD from the one After the lone Sooner fumble bv Lott gave the Cornhuskers possession at 42 moments later the Cornhuskers again threatened They drove to a first down at the Sooner 16 and three plays later faced a fourth-down-and-one at the seven I-back Craig Johnson however was hit for no gam and the Sooners took over That proved significant when Sorley completed a 58-yard scoring drive with the two-yard pass to Turn to Page 6D Col 1 JOE ELBERT Muroi Herald Staff STYLISH IIEISMAiN: Billy Sims Steams Along En Route to 131 Yards Sims Loll Dance All Night sports editor game A few thousand more heard it on local radio Monday crowd of 66365 was disappointing But some 70 million both listened to and heard the Classic on television and radio That is roughly one out of every three Americans And that is sort of staggering So were Sims and Lott Sims Heisman Trophywinning wonder boy as a mere junior came to run and run he did 25 times for 134 yards Fie scored touchdowns of two and 11 yards His footwork had Studio 54 eating its heart out He also ran over enough of Nebraska to pave a road back in Lincoln If that the equal of Johnny Rodgers running for four touchdowns and passing for another in 10-6 bombing of Notre Dame in 1973 it was plenty for this night Sims may have had the best blocking of any Orange Bowler ever from Greg Roberts a six-foot three-inch 238-pound right guard you'll be hearing from in the next pro draft Surely Sims had the best quarterback-Turn to Page 6D Col 1 Between Billy Sims' running and Thomas Lott's quarterbacking and a bunch of other folks disco-dancing and lighting up the sky the 45th annual Orange Bowl Classic gave America a lot to look at Oklahoma's storming Sooners finally found the groove and bowled through it and Nebraska 31-21 on New Tear's Night The game wasn't that close It was more a matter of what Coach Barry Switzer called his Sooners getting their legs together for a 31-10 runaway at the start of the fourth quarter and then the Cornhuskers fighting back to stay close Until Oklahoma greased its ground lightning for 292 yards to 217 disco had to carry the evening Surely Oklahoma's passing never did The Sooners simply disdained the air with only 47 yards passing You can do that when your rushing is strong enough to create the nation's No 2 total offense while averaging on'y 61 yards a game passing But the Sooners funning down there on the grass were no better than a dead heat with the disco delight bringing memories 1 Penn State (11-1) lost to Alabama 14-7 in Sugar 2 Alabama (11-1) beat Penn St 14-7 in Sugar 3 Southern Cal (12-1) beat Michigan 17-10 in Rose 4 Oklahoma (11-1) beat Nebraska 31-24 in Orange 5 Michigan (10-2) lost to USC 17-10 in Rose 6 Nebraska (9-3) lost to Oklahoma 31-24 in Orange 7 Clemson (1 1-1) beat Ohio St 17-15 in Gator 8 Arkansas (9-2-1) tied UCLA 10-10 in Fiesta 9 Houston (9-3) lost to Notre Dame 35-34 in Cotton 10 Notre Dame (9-3) beat Houston 35-34 in Cotton 11 Georgia (9-2-1) lost to Stanford 25-22 in Bluebonnet 12 Michigan State (8-3) on probation ineligible for bowl 13 Maryland (9-3) lost to Texas 42-0 in Sun 14 Texas (9-3) beat Maryland 42-0 in Sun 15 UCLA (8-3-1) tied Arkansas 10-10 in Fiesta 16 Pittsburgh (8-4) lost to NC State 30-17 in Tangerine 17 Purdue (9-2-1) defeated Georgia Tech 41-21 in Peach 18 Missouri (8-4) defeated LSU 20-15 in Liberty 19 Iowa State (8-4) lost to Texas 28-12 in Hall of Fame 20 Ohio State (7-4-1) lost to Clemson 17-15 in Gator of some of retired impresario Earme Seiler's greatest halftimes The dancingest dazzlingest combination of electronic and Terpsichorean cutups in college football history almost made the football game incidental at that My times do change In 1933 Miami's 7-0 turnback of Manhattan College was considered exciting for the first Palm Festival progenitor of the Orange Bowl Classic to begin two years later Suspense was added when workers accidentally covered the air-holes on transparent material packaging the festival queen for pregame delivery She was close enough to suffocating to become first purple queen Fifteen hundred people saw that '33 Tide Rides on Defense To Sugar Bowl Victory 3 Teams Lay Claim To No 1 Prom Herald Wire Services NEW ORLEANS A nearly flawless defensive effort capped by a magnificent goal-line stand in the fourth quarter combined with some questionable strategy on the part of Penn State gave Alabama a 14-7 Sugar Bowl victory before 76824 at the Superdome Monday and left no doubt in the mind of Bear Bryant who is No 1 in college football think we would have beaten any team in America today" the veteran Alabama coach said going to vote for us for No 1 1 know how good we were yesterday or how good be next week but today we're the best team in America Both teams finished their seasons with 11-1 records Going tnto the game Penn State was ranked No 1 Alabama No 2 only loss was to No 3 Southern Cal 24-14 in the third week of the season Final balloting in the national polls will be completed Wednesday defense supposedly its weakness held Penn State to only 19 yards rushing and turned in a goal-line stand in the fourth quarter hich preserved the victory never been associated with a team that played as well defensively as our team did Bryant said "It may be the best pass rush we ever had ALABAMA allow'ed the Nittanv Lions to cross midfield only six time' Yet Penn State victory over Penn State coupled with Southern and Oklahoma's triumphs makes picking a No 1 team complicated Southern Cal finished 12-1 (with a victory over Hawaii in an extra game) and the other contenders finished 11-1 Clemson also was 11-1 but is not regarded tobe in the same class with the top teams Southern claim to No 1 may be the strongest The opponents rolled up a 93-53-2 record and USC handed Alabama its only loss 24-14 early in the season Furthermore Southern Cal played five bowl teams in the regular season and beat four opponents were 82-54-2 The Tide faced four bowl teams beating three Oklahoma had the easiest schedule Its foes were 69-70 but it did play five bowl teams and beat all but Nebraska That loss was avenged Monday night The balloting for No 1 by Associated Press and United Press International will be announced trailing 14-7 had a chance to tie the score with just under seven minutes remaining when it marched to the Alabama one after defensive end Joe Lally had recovered a fumbled pitchout by Alabama quarterback Jeff Rutledge at the Crimson Tide 20-yard line Fullback Matt Suhey ran to the eight and halfback Mike Guman carried to the six Quarterback Chuck Fusina then hit wide receiver Scott Fitzkee on a flag pattern to the right but defensive back Don McNeal blasted Fitzkee out of bounds at the one: Penn State which was having no success running against the Tide tried two successive times to hurdle the middle of the line but the Alabama defense led by Barry Krauss the Pompano Beach product who was named the most valuable player dug in and stopped first Suhey and then Mike Guman to taLe possession "I hit him Guman his Krauss said as he held the MVP trophy in the Crimson Tide locker room know wha was going on I hit him as hard as I have ever hit someone KRAUSS said the only thing he remembered about the collision was the pain "I was scared to he said "My responsibility was to react to where the ball Turn to Page 2D Col 3 Associated Press Alabama Hoisls a Bear to e're Sports Extra to Appear Wednesday So that the Herald could devote expanded coverage to the Orange Bowl football game and other New Year's Day sports results this Sports Extra section will appear Wednesday All the regular Sports Extra features including in-depth high-school coverage will be in section i 4 it I I 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