Saturday, December 26, 2015

Revisit the 1985 Cotton Bowl

At this time of year I am used to watching BC in a secondary bowl. This year we got nothing. So I thought it was a good time to rewatch BC's biggest bowl game of the modern era. Below is the full 1985 Cotton Bowl. It was Flutie's last game and BC's last New Year's Day Bowl. The Cotton lost a little prestige when the Southwest Conference dissolved, but this was a huge deal at the time. Enjoy and hopefully we are back in a real bowl next season. 


16 comments:

Lenny Sienko said...

Thanks for posting this. It hardly seems possible that's been 31 years since my Dad and I flew from upstate New York to Dallas in an ice storm. We joined 22,000 from Boston in the largest airlift from N.E. since WWII. In those days nobody said we didn't "travel well".

It was cold on the day and many local tickets were available. Scalping tickets was legal in Texas at that time. I ended up with corporate box seats no.'s one and two. Great game, but it seemed very cold, even though we had managed to buy long underwear in Dallas the day before.

The game was great. Flute & Co. were a balanced and talented team, our best in the modern era. Jack Bicknell was at the height of his success as head coach. "Those were the days, my friends. We thought they'd never end."...

I hope that I get to see us on our way back sometime soon...Go, you Eagles.

JBQ said...

Several interesting facts about Doug Flutie from Wikipedia: Tom Coughlin was his quarterback coach for the first 3 years. Donald Trump drafted him into the USFL. The Rams then drafted him in the 11th round. He crossed picket lines to play for the Patriots. His great grandfather was a Lebanese immigrant. I watched "THE game" and he threw the ball from his own 35 yard line to Gerard Phelan. Sigh! Those indeed were the days. By the way on the recent ND-BC game, he related that he is "color blind". He would not be much of a judge on the uniform controversy.

The Boston Series said...

Flutie put BC on the map. He made the School what it is today more than anyone else over the past fifty years. Many of the best students who came there did so because of the belief he represented what was at BC.

Unfortunately there will never be another Flutie - a young aspiring freshman who would lead the team for four years to greater glory. Now we are doomed to suffer with quarterbacks who come from other colleges and play one year at BC because they have experience but aren't any better than mediocre otherwise they would have gone on to higher glory.

What freshman quarterback with great potential would go to BC knowing he'd never get a chance to play. The dumbest idea any coach could have is to bring in fifth yearcquarterbacks with no allegiance to the school to play one yrar. It is a recipe for destroying any hope for another Flutie miracle. It is a only a shortcut to perhaps an immediate victory or two while bypassing the chance for future greatness.

Why not win with guys who go and grow at BC and develop our own quarterbacks rather than bringing in strangers who use BC as a no more than a stage.

How did we get a coach so weak and incompetent that he cannot see the damage he is doing. Four years in and he has yet to bring in his own quarterback and ensures no youngster with talent will consider BC.

blist said...

I think three three freshmen got a shot this year, TBS. How much more opportunity did any of them earn?

ccw said...

This is the state of BC football. Reminiscing about bygone glories from 30 years ago.

mod34b said...

Ccw. Agree. Ugghh

We are in need of a DC and OC

Interesting the two former Daz assistants from Daz's Temple days both successfully coached bowl games yesterday.

Presumptive OC to be Scott Loeffler (supposedly a pro style guy. Hint hint) coach VT offense to 52 points and a win

Presumptive DC to be Chuck Heater coached as DC for a Marshall win over Yukon with excellent defense.

You know - maybe this guys could be good??

When is the announcement Daz?

mod34b said...

Boston Series.

Let's give the Flutie Effect a rest.

It is a myth and an insult to true BC Heroes Jesuits Neenan and Monan. They are the ones who propelled BC to greater Heights!

Hoib said...

CCW
That's how a pessimist looks at it. An optimist would think we did it before and can do it again.

TeePeriod said...

I believe BC played on New Years Day in 1994 - Carquest Bowl vs UVA.

Squid said...

They also played in the Hall of Fame Bowl (now the Outback Bowl) against Tennessee in 1993.

JBQ said...

Really great game today from a BC perspective. Mattie Ice really played well and so did Cool Hand Luke. Let's see what a "pro style" offense will bring. It may be good. Towles could be a role model for Wade. Ryan is 6 ft 4. Towles is 6 ft 5. Wade is 5 ft 10. You can't teach height. BC has to recruit bigger offensive players. A 5 ft 5 punt returner is cute. The jet sweep was also cute. He was taking some shots and is now gone. At Florida, Addazio had Timmie T at 250 plus. Maybe, the offense can go through the same growing plan as the defense. Don Brown really looked bad with bad players. With good players, he turned into a genius. Let's see if Addazio can "pull a rabbit out of a hat". I am one who will give him his chance. He is sitting on 2.6 mill for 5 years. Let's see if he can earn it.

Napolean Bonaparte said...

JBQ - love your optimism - but this offense was so bad this year - not mildly bad - but puke shit bad. I don't know after a year like this.

I also think reminiscing about the only major bowl 31 years ago is about as sad as looking at another rerun of the miracle in Miami. It really makes you realize just how faithful and utterly starved our football fans have been for a championship season. Yes - some good years post Flutie - but nothing really great other than an occasional upset. And now we are starved for anything that at least isn't embarrassing. Makes you want to scream at the long line of clownshoes connected with the administration of football and basketball at BC.

Knucklehead said...

CCW,
You wouldn't know the current "state" of Boston College football if it was written in Cliffs Notes.

Napolean Bonaparte said...

Sorry for sounding discouraged - but for those of us who attended some games this year - it was pretty discouraging. There's something different once you see it in person.

Again - the single most important thing right now in terms of righting the ship is to understand exactly where Father Leahy stands with respect to both major revenue programs and the extent to which he is prepared to do what is necessary for BC to become highly competitive in the conference. The speculation and rumors have to end - he needs to express his views and future priorities re these programs unambiguously to the students, coaches and alums. Next steps will follow more clearly after that.

blist said...

This nonsense that Leahy has to come out in support of football, whatever that means, is pointless. If he hates football so much, he had the perfect chance to kill it his first year at BC, when the gambling scandal broke. He didn't. We moved to the ACC under his watch. BC isn't the Yankees and Leahy doesn't need to (or should) act like George Steinbrenner.

More importantly, why the shift back to pro-style offense? I assume it's b/c we likely can recruit better QBs in that style b/c fewer schools run a pro-style? We certainly had great success -- two BC QBs started in the NFL yesterday

Knucklehead said...

. . . It is non-sense because he and the board already have. They doubled the salary outlay to football head-coach and basketball coaching staff.