Reference.com

Miami Orange Bowl

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

The Miami Orange Bowl was a stadium in the City of Miami, west of Downtown in Little Havana. It is considered a landmark. It was the home stadium for the University of Miami Hurricanes football team and the temporary home of the Florida International University Golden Panthers for the 2007 football season while the FIU Stadium underwent expansion. It also hosted the Miami Dolphins until the opening of then Joe Robbie Stadium (now known as Dolphin Stadium) in what is now nearby Miami Gardens in 1987. The stadium was renamed in 1959 for the Orange Bowl Classic college football game, which was played at the Orange Bowl following every season from 1937 to 1995, moving to Dolphin Stadium in 1996, which has hosted it ever since (save for the January 1999 contest, which, due to a scheduling conflict, was hosted by the Orange Bowl one final time). The Minor League Baseball Miami Marlins occasionally played games in the Orange Bowl from 1956 to 1960. It is due to be torn down in March 2008, and will eventually make way for a new 37,000 seat retractable roof baseball stadium that is scheduled to open as the home of the Miami Marlins (the current Florida Marlins) in 2011. The team has agreed to change their name as part of the agreement between the team, the city of Miami, and Miami-Dade County.

History

The stadium was built by the City of Miami Public Works Department. Construction began in 1936 and was completed in December 1937. The stadium opened for Miami Hurricanes football on December 10, 1937. From 1926 to 1937 the University of Miami played in a stadium near Tamiami Park and also at Moore Park until the Orange Bowl was built.

The Orange Bowl was originally named Burdine Stadium after Roddy Burdine, one of Miami's pioneers. The original stadium consisted of the two sideline lower decks. Seating was added in the endzones in the 1940s, and by the end of the 1950s the stadium was double-decked on the sidelines. The AFL expansion Miami Dolphins played their first regular season game ever in the stadium on September 2, 1966. The west endzone upper deck section was then added in the 1960s, bringing the stadium to its peak capacity of 80,010. In 1977 the permanent seats in the east endzone were removed, and further upgrades have brought the stadium to its current capacity and design. The city skyline can be seen to the east through the open end, over the modern scoreboard and palm trees. The surface has been natural grass, except for a time in the 1970s. PolyTurf, an artificial turf similar to AstroTurf, was installed for the 1970 football season. It was removed and replaced with a type of natural grass known as Prescription Athletic Turf for the 1976 football season after Super Bowl X.

Under the leadership of Hall of Fame Football Coach Don Shula, the Miami Dolphins enjoyed a winning record in the Orange Bowl against rival teams in the AFC Eastern Division. Under Coach Shula, the Dolphins were an aggregate 57-9-1 (60-10-1 including playoff contests) against the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts (15-3), the Boston/NewEngland Patriots (15-1), the Buffalo Bills (16-1) and the New York Jets (13-4-1). The playoff results are: AFC Championship games: (1971, Miami 21, Baltimore 0); (1982, Miami 14, NY Jets 0) and (1985, New England 31, Miami 14) and AFC First Round game (1982 strike shortened season, Miami 28, New England 13).

Notable winning streaks during the Shula-era in the Orange Bowl include a 13-0 streak against the Buffalo Bills and a 15-0 streak against the New England Patriots, Also of note, the Miami Dolphins enjoyed a record 31-game home winning streak from 1971 to 1975. This 31-game streak includes four playoff wins. The Dolphins have not enjoyed the same level of success in Dolphin Stadium. While much of this lack of success in Dolphin Stadium is obviously attributable to a diminished level of talent and organizational stability, it is also widely recognized that the homefield advantage that the Dolphins enjoyed in the Orange Bowl was exponentially greater than in their newer home. This was in great part due to the atmosphere of the Bowl. The closeness of the seats to the field, along with the closed West End Zone, metal bleachers, and steel structure (and of course the team's success and its status as Miami's only professional sports team for so many years), gave the venue one of the loudest and most electric homefield environments in the NFL. Visiting team quarterbacks often complained to referees or were forced to call time out as their teammates could not hear them barking out the signals due to the unbearable noise, especially when the Dolphins were making a goal-line stand in the closed West End Zone. While Dolphin Stadium is much newer and cleaner and is considered one of the top facilities in the National Football League with top-notch amenities, the seats are much farther from the field, and even at its loudest, the din doesn't come close to comparing to that of the Orange Bowl.

The Orange Bowl is also the site of the NCAA's longest college football winning streak. Between 1985 and 1994, the University of Miami Hurricanes won 58 straight home games at the Bowl. The stadium's home field advantage used to include a steel structure that fans would set to rumbling by stomping their feet. Recent concrete reinforcement has silenced the rumble. Still present is the advantage of the West End Zone, which has a relatively narrow radius that amplifies fan noise. The West End Zone was a factor in the Wide Right (Florida State) curse, in which the Florida State University Seminoles lost a series of close games due to missed field goals. This section was so raucous that some football announcers even confused it with the student section. In fact, the fans in this section were the working and lower middle class citizens of Miami.

In addition to football, the stadium also hosted concerts and other public events. The stadium has a regular capacity of 74,476 orange seats, and can seat up to 82,000 for concerts and other events where additional seating can be placed on the playing field.

The last professional football game to be played in the Orange Bowl took place on April 29th, 2000 and matched the Miami Tropics vs the San Antonio Matadors of the Spring Football League. The Matadors won 16-13.

President John F. Kennedy once visited the stadium.

University of Miami

The City of Miami recently embarked on a plan to extensively renovate the stadium. However, those plans fell by the wayside as Miami focused on keeping the Florida Marlins in town, forcing the Hurricanes to threaten a move to Dolphin Stadium in suburban Miami Gardens if a plan to renovate the stadium were not in place within 45 days. Some feared that Miami would permit the college to leave, only to tear down the Orange Bowl and replace it with the new stadium for the Marlins.

That fear became reality as Paul Dee, Athletic Director for the University of Miami, announced that the Hurricanes would be moving to Dolphin Stadium for the 2008 season. Dee and university president Donna Shalala made the announcement during a press conference at the Hecht Athletic Center on August 21, 2007. The University has tentatively agreed to a 25-year contract to play at Dolphin Stadium. According to Miami City Manager Pete Hernandez, this now puts the Orange Bowl back in the forefront as a possible site for a new Marlins stadium. The hope is that talks resume soon on that possibility.

Many Hurricane fans vocally support a reversal of the decision to move stadium locations and prefer maintaining the Orange Bowl as the Hurricanes' home field, out of concern of Dolphin Stadium's extra distance from campus, the severing of an icon of the Hurricanes' historical successes on the field, and potentially more expensive parking costs. Many fans have even stated to various broadcast, print and internet-based media outlets that they will no longer attend the games of Hurricanes football, once the team leaves the Orange Bowl. Some speculate that the Orange Bowl might have cursed the Miami Hurricanes and would cite the Miami Dolphins as a precedent. Indeed a common explanation for the Miami Dolphins' poor performance during the 2007 season is that "they've never been the same since they left the Orange Bowl.

Hurricane Wilma

In 2005, Hurricane Wilma caused structural damage to the stadium which rekindled discussion of tearing down the aging facility. The damage has since been repaired.

Final Year and Demolition...

Despite some protests, the historic stadium was earmarked for demolition when the University of Miami announced that they were moving out of the Orange Bowl after the 2007 season to begin play at Dolphin Stadium in 2008 in a 25-year deal. On November 10, 2007, the University of Miami Hurricanes lost their final game at the Orange Bowl when the University of Virginia defeated Miami 48-0 in the Hurricanes worst home shutout loss in school history. The Florida International University Golden Panthers won their last game at the Orange Bowl against the University of North Texas Mean Green on December 1st, 2007 by a score of 38-19, snapping a 23-game losing streak. A high school all-star game, "The O-D All-American Bowl", took place on January 4, 2008 and was the last game before the closing events.

A "Farewell To The Orange Bowl" celebration was held on January 26, 2008. Approximately 15,000 people watched a team of ex-Miami Hurricanes beat a team of ex-Dolphins, 65-51 in a flag-football exhibition. The game featured former Dolphin and Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino, plus Mark Duper, Mercury Morris, Dwight Stephenson, A.J. Duhe, Don Strock, Jim Kiick, John Offerdahl, Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, Melvin Bratton, Bernie Blades, Benny Blades and Eddie Brown. The NFL's winningest coach Don Shula coached the Dolphin players while Florida Atlantic University and former Hurricanes coach (and former Dolphins assistant) Howard Schnellenberger coached the UM players.

The Orange Bowl was open to the public for the last time February 8-10, 2008 when a public auction of stadium artifacts and memorabilia was held. The stadium was stripped and pieces were sold by a company called Mounted Memories. Demolition of the Orange Bowl began on March 3rd 2008.

The Rebirth of the Orange Bowl Site

Click the link below to learn about the rebirth of the Orange Bowl location for use by baseball's Florida Marlins.

Stadium events

Football

Baseball

  • Miami Marlins -- An estimated 57,000 fans, the largest crowd ever for a minor-league baseball game, watched 50-year-old Satchel Paige pitch there for the Marlins on Aug. 7, 1956. The minor-league Marlins played some games there between 1956 and 1960.

Super Bowls

The Orange Bowl hosted 5 NFL Super Bowls:

  • Super Bowl II - Green Bay Packers 33, Oakland Raiders 14

  • Super Bowl III - New York Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7

  • Super Bowl V - Baltimore Colts 16, Dallas Cowboys 13 (first Super Bowl played on artificial turf)

  • Super Bowl X - Pittsburgh Steelers 21, Dallas Cowboys 17 (last Orange Bowl game played on artificial turf)

  • Super Bowl XIII - Pittsburgh Steelers 35, Dallas Cowboys 31

Non-athletic events

Popular Boxing fights

  • Archie Moore defeated Joey Maxim by UD 15 rounds on 1/27/1954
  • Roberto Duran defeated Jimmy Batten by UD 10 rounds on 11/12/1982
  • Aaron Pryor defeated Alexis Arguello by TKO 14 out of 15 on 11/12/1982

Concerts

Soccer

Wrestling

Other

  • The Orange Bowl was a central location in the 1977 film Black Sunday. A significant portion of the filming was done during Super Bowl X on January 18, 1976. A significant portion of the movie Any Given Sunday was filmed here as well.

  • The site was used by the Haiti national football (soccer) team for their "home" matches due to violent flare-ups in Haiti resulting from political instability.

  • Two episodes of Spike TV's Pros vs. Joes third season series were filmed here. Those episodes were the South Regional playoffs.

Gallery

References

External links



Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 22:13:41 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation