This Date in College Football Belt History (12/31)

Posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

down_entjsp December 31, 1973

Bear Bryant’s top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide came to the Sugar Bowl with an 11-0 record & the UPI National Championship in hand. Before 1974, the UPI Coaches’ poll was voted prior to the bowl games. The Crimson Tide’s defense featured All-SEC LB Woodrow Lowe & All-SEC DB Mike Washington while the offense had All-American OT Buddy Brown, QB Gary Rutledge, & QB Richard Todd. In the first meeting between these two storied programs, the 3rd ranked, 10-0 Notre Dame Fighting Irish of coach Ara Parseghian were happy to defend The Belt to decide the true champion. The game featured six lead changes with a missed extra point by Alabama’s PK Bill Davis the difference in a 24-23 Notre Dame win.

Read more about the history of The Belt & a preview of the Oklahoma/Florida match-up at http://collegefootballbelt.com

One Response to “This Date in College Football Belt History (12/31)”

WallyDecember 31st, 2008 - 1:36 pm

Casey –
I remember that ’73 game very well! Gutsy call by Ara and great execution on the long pass from Clements to Weber sealed the win over ‘Bama. Boy, was Bear Bryant ticked off