I was five years old. I remember my dad watching it because I remember asking him repeatedly, "What's a Bluebonnet Bowl?" Apparently I used that phrase a lot for the next several months.
Anyone remember the '77 Liberty Bowl? I spent summer vacation in '93 working in inner-city Chicago (with Ben Sasse, coincidentally), and I spent 4 weeks working at the summer learning program for the Lawndale Community Church, which is located in Lawndale, which is in Chicago's west-side. The head pastor of the church was a wonderful man named
Pastor Carey Casey. Not only did he grow up in Virginia and play for the team depicted in
Remember the Titans (he's been a lifelong friend of Herman Boone), and not only were he and his wife good friends of Mr. and Mrs. Reggie White ("The six-million-dollar man sleeps on
my hide-away bed when they come to visit, and I'm telling you: it's NOT comfortable"), but, more importantly, he was a stud running back for UNC, who won the ACC in 1977, so he played against Nebraska in the '77 Liberty Bowl. When I met him, it was the summer of '93, so the mid-90s magic hadn't happened yet. When I asked him what he remembered about playing against Nebraska, he said, "Well, we went in at halftime up by a touchdown, but then they beat us like dogs in the second half. I wanted that game to be over so bad. They were just ferocious. That fourth quarter wasn't fun."
I'd love to watch that game if anyone knows how to find it online. I'm sure that I watched it as a 6-year-old, but please forgive me for not remembering any of the details.