Memories of UM-OU games in past: 1985

No match up defined College Football in 1980s more than the Hurricanes games against Oklahoma. Not only was it a glimpse into College Football present and future but it was a glimpse into the future of the most popular professional sports franchise in America, the Dallas Cowboys.

The game in 1985 will always be sentimental to me. Miami was unranked despite having won the National Championship in 1983. The 1984 season had finished in disastrous fashion. The Hurricanes were ranked #4 in the country when three consecutive last second losses to Maryland, Boston College and UCLA left the Canes in a state of shock. 1985 began with a loss at home to Florida (the last time Florida beat Miami) and then four straight wins against poorly perceived opposition.

Oklahoma was ranked #2 coming into the game. Jimmy Johnson had never beaten OU as player at Arkansas or as a coach at Oklahoma State. For him and many of his assistants who had come from OSU with him, this game meant everything. Oklahoma for the first time had a highly touted passing QB at a traditionally option school. His name was Troy Aikman and his coach was Barry Switzer.

That day Troy Aikman played his last game for OU, as Jerome Brown who would become a thorn in the side of Johnson and Aikman's Cowboys in the early 1990s before a tragic and untimely death took Aikman down and ruled him out for the season. The Canes would cruise that day in Norman but OU would win the National Championship after Miami got bombed in the Sugar Bowl and Oklahoma beat Penn State in the Orange Bowl.