Oct. 29, 2008

By Jim Sumner
theACC.com

Miami and Virginia Tech haven’t been members of the ACC very long. When they joined the league, they brought with them a rivalry that became nationally prominent in the 1990s, when both were Big East powers.

However, the rivalry started long before the Big East was even a twinkle in the eye. The teams first met in 1953, the year the ACC was established. Independent Miami shut out Tech 26-0 and the two programs went their separate ways for more than a decade.

It took an outside agency to get the programs back together. The 1966 Liberty Bowl to be specific.

There were only eight bowl games in 1966, leaving lots of pretty good teams home for the holidays. Neither Miami nor Virginia Tech would have been on many bowl short lists at the start of the season. Tech was coming off some winning seasons but had just left the Southern Conference and nobody knew how they would respond to an upgraded, independent schedule.

Miami knew all about independent schedules. The Hurricanes had left the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association following the 1941 season and had spent more than two decades without a conference affiliation.

There was some success. Andy Gustafson went 83-65-3 from 1948-1963 and took Miami to four bowls before becoming the athletic director in 1964. Charlie Tate, a former assistant under Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech, replaced him.

Offensive end Jim Cox was recruited by Gustafson but played under Tate. Cox says, “Tate was a defensive coach, first and last. He didn’t pay much attention to offense. We all wanted him to open up the offense but he wasn’t interested. We ran the ball on first and second down and threw it on third down if we needed to. Passing was an afterthought.”

Tate’s first two Miami teams went 4-5-1 and 5-4-1 against brutal schedules; Notre Dame, Florida, LSU, Florida State and Georgia Tech. But they were young teams, growing up together.

Defensive lineman Phil Smith remembers the team gelling in 1966. “Most of us had played together for two years. We lived together, ate together, were punished together. We had paid our dues and were ready to win.”

As an independent, Miami played a curious schedule. Smith says, “We didn’t have a lot of rivalries. We tended to play teams one time and that was it. We were ready to travel anywhere.”

Miami opened the 1966 season with a win over Colorado, before losing a pair of heartbreakers: 24-23 to Florida State in a downpour and 10-8 to LSU.

But the team rebounded. It wasn’t just the seniors. Gangly sophomore Ted Hendricks, all 6’8”, 210-pounds worth, was set to play tight end, when a series of injuries forced him to the defensive side of the ball. (Hendricks wouldn’t stop playing defense until his retirement from the NFL following the 1983 season.)

Miami put together a winning streak that included Georgia, Indiana, and fifth-ranked Southern Cal. The Hurricanes and Tulane played to a 10-10 tie but Miami ended the regular season with three more wins, including a 21-16 victory over Florida and its Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier.

The AP poll only went 10 deep in those days but Miami received votes most of the season and ended the regular season ranked ninth. That might have merited a higher-profile bowl game than the Liberty but Hendricks says, “We were just happy to be going to any bowl, playing anybody.”

Virginia Tech’s schedule was a little weaker than that of Miami, but the Hokies had some solid wins in their 8-1-1 regular season, including a 23-21 win over a Florida State team that boasted a win over Miami. Still, Miami was a solid 10-point favorite over the Hokies.

The Liberty Bowl was in its eighth year in 1966. It was first held in Philadelphia, then Atlantic City. But cold weather plagued the game; only 8,000 fans attended in 1963. So for 1966, the game was moved to the Sunny South, specifically balmy Memphis.

Well, not so balmy Memphis, at least not the evening of December 10, 1966. The temperature was in the middle 30s and a persistent rain further discomforted the 25,000 fans who actually braved the elements.

The fans weren’t the only ones who noticed the weather. Smith says, “It was the coldest, most miserable game I ever played in. You couldn’t warm up. All you wanted to do was get into the locker room at halftime and dry off.”

Cox gives some added context. “We had played in a few cold places before but never in the rain. A lot of our players wore long johns to stay warm. That was a big mistake in the rain. They just absorbed the moisture and made it feel colder. The long johns came off at halftime.”

At least one Miami player saw some advantages in the weather. Hendricks laughs “I always liked rain games. It brought the backs down to my speed.”

Defense was Miami’s signature that season. Hendricks says, “There were times that season when the defense carried the team. We were pretty confident in ourselves.”

But Virginia Tech matched Miami’s intensity. The Hokies were smaller than Miami but were led by Frank Loria, one of the nation’s top defensive backs, and defensive end George Foussekis. Both made assorted All-America teams, as did Hendricks. (That 1966 Virginia Tech team also featured a sophomore cornerback who would become a well-known name to Hokie fans… Frank Beamer.)

Cox thinks his team underrated the Hokies. “We had heard of Virginia Tech and we had seen some game film. We weren’t that impressed. But when I got in the ball game, I learned real quickly they had a real good team. We hadn’t given a lot of thought to the idea that they were pretty good. It was an eye-opener.”

The rain reinforced Tate’s innate offensive conservatism. The teams exchanged punts throughout the first half. Tech forced a break in the middle of the second period when Jimmy Richards blocked and recovered a punt deep in Miami territory. Richards was playing in his first game since breaking his collarbone in mid-season.

Tech took over at the 21. Tony Francisco carried the ball four straight times, the touchdown coming from one-yard out. The extra point made the halftime score 7-0 in favor of the Hokies.

Miami ended the first half with only 16 yards in total offense. Cox says, “Whatever the coaches talked about at halftime, they didn’t communicate to us. But it was apparent that we had to open it up.”

Miami dodged a bullet early in the third quarter. Francisco returned the opening kickoff 57 yards. The Miami defense dug in and forced a punt after three plays.

Later in the third period, Miami started a drive from its own 47. The Hurricanes drove down the field, mostly on the ground, but benefited from a critical roughing-the-passer penalty. Quarterback Bill Miller hit halfback Larry Mira from the seven for the score. The extra point tied the game at 7-7.

Miami missed a golden opportunity after John Barnett intercepted a pass and returned it 42 yards to the Tech 18. But Miami passed up a chance to attempt a field goal in the rain and lost the ball on downs at the 9.

It still was 7-7 when Miami made the decisive drive. By this point, Tate had agreed to throw the ball. Cox, Miami’s best receiver, had become the key. He says, “It was simple. Nothing else was working, we couldn’t get it to anybody else.”

Twice Miller hit Cox for a first down. Then Cox ran a “sideline and up and (I) found myself open.” Miller hit him in stride for a 38-yard pass that gave Miami the ball at the Tech 5.

Mira carried the ball twice, reaching the two. Fullback Doug McGee reached the one. On fourth and goal, Tate again eschewed the field goal attempt. This time McGee punched it over. The extra point made it 14-7.

Virginia Tech, meanwhile, was having no success moving the football. But it wasn’t for lack of imagination. Tech coach Jerry Claiborne threw the playbook at Miami; a fake punt, a quick kick, a statue-of-liberty play. In the fourth quarter, they even tried to run a no-huddle-play but jumped offside.

None of this worked. Hendricks credits defensive line coach Walt Kichefski. “We were so well coached. Coach Kichefski drilled into us the concept of taking care of your territory first. Teams always tried stuff like that on us but we were always ready.”

Smith adds, “I can’t say enough about the kind of coaching we had. Everybody had a responsibility and everybody took care of it. Coach Kichefski was a master at giving us keys. We knew what to look for. It was almost like we were in the other team’s huddle.”

Virginia Tech couldn’t add to its first-half touchdown. The final was 14-7.

The dominance of the two defenses showed up in the final statistics. Miami outgained Virginia Tech 163 yards to 111 and picked up 11 first downs to seven for the Hokies. The two teams punted 19 times.

Cox ended the game with five receptions for 77 yards and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. Cox now lives in San Diego, where he runs an advertising agency. He says, “The kids broke that trophy long ago. The pieces are still in the garage but I’ve never bothered to have it fixed. But winning a bowl game was more important. It’s something to look back on.”

Smith says, “We didn’t always have as much talent as the teams we played. But we had great chemistry and a great work ethic. We didn’t want publicity; we just wanted to play football. It’s amazing what happens when everybody does their job.”

Miami and Virginia Tech didn’t have to wait 13 years for their next meeting. They played regular season games the next two seasons, Miami winning 14-7 in Blacksburg in 1967 and 13-8 in Miami the following year.

Virginia Tech didn’t post its first victory in the series until 1995, when the Hokies ended an 0-12 streak against the Hurricanes and started a five-game winning streak of their own. The rivalry between the teams has grown and evolved in the years since the 1966 Liberty Bowl. They aren’t playing just for bragging rights now but for positioning in a fiercely competitive ACC race.

Jim Sumner's articles on southern sports history have appeared in the ACC Handbook, the ACC Area Sports Journal, Blue Devil Weekly, Inside Carolina, the Wolfpacker, Baseball America, Basketball America, and other publications. His latest book, Tales From the Duke Blue Devils Hardwood, was published in 2005. In his bimonthly column "Looking Back... by Jim Sumner", he will examine the rich history of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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