continued from page game. GilBrandt,Vice ….

continued from page

game. GilBrandt,Vice President of Personnel for the Dallas Cowboys, was giving me a ride to Love Field for my flight. He was anxious to miss the traffic emptying the Cotton Bowl, but I kept lingering back until I saw Texas fumble the punt which gave Georgia one last opportunity for victory.

The Longhorn punt returner fumbled the punt and Brandt is yelling, “Let’s go.” I lingered until that fateful moment. Vince (Dooley) was telling George Haffner, offensive coordinator and play caller, to “put it up George,” but Haffner went with his gut which was to have John Lastinger run the option. You, like everybody else, know the rest of the story. Lastinger scored on a 17-yard run which brought Georgia one of the sweetest victories in history. Geogia fans to this day talk about the time in Dallas where it will always be 10 to 9.

I got to see Lastinger score, and I made it to the airport on time to make my flight to Miami where I got to the Orange Bowl just after kickoff. Nebraska, experiencing one of the coldest cold spells ever in Lincoln landed in Miami in one of the balmiest conditions possible.

That likely made it tough on the Cornhuskers to practice and play in all that heat, but you would not know it when the second half came around. Miami jumped out to a 17-0 lead, but Nebraska fought back.

With time ebbing away, Nebraska scored and could have won the game with a two-point conversion pass with Miami leading 31-30. I was standing on the Cornhusker sideline, no more than a dozen yards from Coach Tom Osborne.

He never wavered following Nebraska’s touchdown. He quickly raised his right hand with his fore finger and middle finger signaling that he wanted to go for two.

An all-out blitz by Miami forced quarterback Turner Gill off balance. Even so, if he had led the receiver a yard to the outside, Nebraska likely would have completed the pass for victory.

A few weeks later, I was with Osborne in Atlanta, and we had a long conversation about the game. I asked him if he had thought about kicking the extra point since a tie might have enabled his team to win the national championship.

“Never crossed my mind,” Osborne said. “I know I would not have voted for a coach who made that decision. I wanted to win it on the field. I did not want to back into a championship.”