From its inception five decades ago, the Fiesta Bowl has been an instrument of change.
No bowls in the Southwest? We'll see about that.
Jan. 1 reserved for the traditional players? Not so fast there.
Corporate sponsors chipping in? Now a standard practice.
A radical agenda fully realized.
And through it all, the football has been spectacular.
The product on the field has equaled the innovative vision of founding fathers Donald D. Meyers,
Bill Shover,
Jim Meyer,
Karl Eller et al, so much so that the Fiesta has produced more than its share of the greatest bowl games ever played. You could look it up.
Since 1971 the Fiesta Bowl staged seven national championship games, featured a who's who of college powers, hosted 13 Heisman Trophy winners and — not least of all for a game that began as a maverick —
provided a home for the original BCS Busters from Utah in 2005.
Double-overtime games.
Trick plays.
Goal-line stands.
Plighted troth.
We have seen it all, and it has been good.
A countdown of the top five.
FIESTA BOWL IV
Arizona State 17, Nebraska 14
Dec. 26, 1975
The late
Frank Kush turned Arizona State into a powerhouse, and son Danny helped solidify the Sun Devils' rightful place on the national stage when he made a tie-breaking 29-yard field goal with less than five
minutes to stun the Cornhuskers.
Arizona State entered the game undefeated, untied and under-appreciated despite an 11-0 regular-season record and a sixth straight WAC title. The Sun Devils were ranked No. 7 coming in, but their credentials were validated as they outgained Nebraska and scored the final 11 points for the victory.
"I hope to hell this keeps those people off our butts who have been complaining about our supposedly soft schedule,"
Frank Kush said.
ASU was only the only major college team to finish the season 12-0, although it ended the year ranked No. 2 in both the AP and coaches' polls to Oklahoma (11-1), the only other team to beat Nebraska.
FIESTA BOWL XVIII
Notre Dame 34, West Virginia 21
Jan. 2, 1989
Notre Dame's first trip to the Fiesta resulted in the most recent of its 11 national championships.
The game matched two of the three top-ranked teams in the country — Notre Dame entered No. 1 and West Virginia was No. 3 — and a Heisman Trophy candidate in Mountaineers' quarterback Major Harris.
Leave it to Irish quarterback Tony Rice to steal the show. Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz down-played RIce's passing ability in the run-up to the
game, but Rice was spot-on, completing 7-of-11 passes for 213 yards and two touchdowns. The Irish led 16-0 before West Virginia had a first down, and Rice's 29-yard scoring pass to Rocket Ismail late in the first half made it 23-3 lead.
"For a guy who wasn't supposed to throw, he looked all right to me," said West Virginia coach Don Nehlen, whose team played its first New Year's Day bowl game in 46 years.
FIESTA BOWL XVI
Penn State 14, Miami 10
Jan. 2, 1987
The Fiesta Bowl's coup in landing the nation's two best teams led to one of the most dramatic games in bowl history.
No. 1 Miami arrived full of swagger, deplaning in military fatigues, an idea proposed by star defensive tackle Jerome Brown, who went on to a long NFL career. This was combat, and the Hurricanes would take no prisoners. No. 2 Penn State, for its part, poked fun of Miami coach Jimmy Johnson's coif in a skit at the traditional steak fry. Lines were drawn.
Miami had beaten defending national champion Oklahoma decisively early in the regular season and was a heavy favorite behind Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Vinny Testadverde.
The Hurricanes moved the ball, outgaining Penn State, 445 yards to 162, but could not overcome seven turnovers. Testaverde threw five interceptions, the fourth setting up D.J. Dozier's go-ahead touchdown midway through the fourth quarter.
Nittany Lions linebacker Pete Giftopolous intercepted a pass in the end zone in the final minute to deal the victory.
FIESTA BOWL XXXII
Ohio State 31, Miami 24 (double overtime)
Jan. 2, 2003
Miami and Ohio State entered unbeaten, but Miami (12-0) seemed so much more so, riding a 34-game winning streak after being the 2001 consensus national champion. Ohio State (13-0) had worked its way up the rankings from No. 13 to No. 2, six of its victories by seven points or fewer.
If the game was supposed to be a mismatch, the Buckeyes were not buying it. They led 17-7 late in the third quarter before a Willis McGahee touchdown run made it close and Todd Sievers' 40-yard field goal as regulation time expired forced overtime.
Miami took a 24-17 lead on Ken Dorsey's touchdown pass on the first possession of overtime, an Ohio State fourth-down incompletion seemed to end the game. But Miami was called for pass interference in the end zone, and quarterback Craig Krenzel scored three plays later to tie it.
Maurice Clarett's touchdown run on the next possession made it 31-24 lead, and the Hurricanes could not tie the game despite getting a first down at the 2-yard line.
"It was just like two great heavyweights slugging it out," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said.
FIESTA BOWL XXXVI
Boise State 43, Oklahoma 42 (overtime)
Jan. 1, 2007
The first college game played at State Farm Stadium combined the wild, the improbable and the downright unbelievable.
The teams scored 22 points in the final 86 seconds of regulation to force overtime in a game the Broncos once led by 18. Creative Boise State coach Chris Petersen used a fourth-down "hook-and-ladder" play for a 50-yard touchdown to tie the game with seven seconds remaining.
It did not stop there. After Adrian Peterson scored to give the Sooners the lead, Boise State pulled with one on a fourth-down halfback pass from the 5-yard line.
Ian Johnson then scored the winning two-point conversion on a Statue of Liberty, and pulled out his own surprise by getting on his knee during a postgame interview to propose marriage to girlfriend Chrissy Popadics, Boise State's head cheerleader.
Like everything else 13-0 Boise State tried, that worked, too. She said yes.
"This probably goes down in the history of college football," Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky said.
