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who knows the canes record when playing in japan?

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I live in Japan but I don't recall the Canes playing here. But I'm way down in southern Japan so maybe I missed it.
 
I don't remember the score but I believe we lost to Notre Dame . I think it was back when Carl Selmer was coaching. I had totally forgot about that game.
 
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I remember we lost to Notre Dame, and I remember I was in high school at the time (I graduated in 1980), but I don't remember the exact score or year.
 
Japan Bowl against ND. '79 or '80. 0-1.

Note - it wasn't really a bowl game, just the season finale.
 
I remember it very well. That 1979 season appeared to be a setback until we somehow upset Penn State at Happy Valley. To this day it's the most stunningly positive result from a Miami sports team in my lifetime.

There were still a few games left in the season and all of a sudden interest perked up. We went to Alabama and actually faired well physically until late in the game when their wishbone wore us out. The disappointment was that Kelly and the offense were shut out. After the Penn State game we had the false impression that we would be dangerous and score against anybody.

The game in Japan was a big deal. Lots of local and national press. Many Miami writers and broadcasters made the trip and filed reports on the game and the culture. I always get a kick out of conventional wisdom that nobody knew anything until the internet or cable television.

The Canes moved the ball better in that game but Notre Dame jumped on us and the outcome was never in doubt.

The remarkable aspect was a week later, when the Canes regrouped and upset Florida. I had low expectations for that game and so did the local fan base. It was a much smaller crowd than typical for a game hosting the Gators. Prior to the season there was lots of talk that we weren't doing ourselves any favor by scheduling the game against our arch rival immediately after returning from a draining trip to Japan.

The '70s weren't a productive decade for the Canes but I retain very fond memories of those years, attending all the home games with my parents before going away to college at the outset of the '80s. Miami had just enough top talent and big wins to keep it interesting. For one thing, we almost always had at least one disruptive penetrating force at defensive tackle, unlike recent seasons.

Japan was making a big push in those years to get acquainted with American football and spread some of the related pageantry to its citizens. There was a college all star game for several years in the '80s called the Japan Bowl. That game followed the success of Miami/Notre Dame. When I was at USC the song girls and yell leaders and even some of the USC band members received fully paid trips to perform at the Japan Bowl. It was bizarre to watch a game from Japan with all the USC fight songs being played virtually nonstop in the background. It was very popular with the locals. USC gained a big following. After they graduated, some of the song girls were hired to go to Japan at good salary to teach sports dance classes.
 
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The 20-0 win over ND is the most significant! (I was in my Ford Granada, banging this hot blonde girl parked on A1A in Palm Beach, listening to the game on the radio!)

First girl I banged that wasn't a cousin!
 
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SmokeyRone said:
The 20-0 win over ND is the most significant! (I was in my Ford Granada, banging this hot blonde girl parked on A1A in Palm Beach, listening to the game on the radio!)

First girl I banged that wasn't a cousin!
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That's not the link up I was hoping for...
 
Awsi Dooger said:
TheMatador said:
Didn't they call it the Mirage Bowl?
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Great memory. I think you are correct.
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Actually, I saw some of the replay of that game. I had trouble seeing UM football in the '70's, since there were not all these cable channels, no ESPN, no FoxSports. I rarely saw UM during the '70's. One of the local stations in DC had a ND highlight show every Sunday morniing. I recall watching highlights of the Mirage Bowl. For some reason, I have a recollection of a foggy field. Does that sound right? I didn't enjoy very much what I saw since we got wiped out. By 1981, we were one of the best teams in the country, although it was not widely recognized.
 
Here's a link to some highlights of the 1979 Mirage Bowl, including some interceptions of Jim Kelly. Later on,there appears to be a blocked punt by ND which I guess gave them a safety. The score was 40-15. We were outclassed. It was rainy, so that's why i seem to remember something like fog. I remembered that the conditions were not good.

[video=youtube;04MpIfXbYWQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04MpIfXbYWQ[/video]

Just looking at that picture, you can see that ND was playing what was the predominant defense in college football back then, a 5-2, with a NG straight up against the center. That's what everybody did (except maybe U-MD and maybe Va Tech, who both ran the wide tackle six as I recall.) It was Jimmy Johnson who later revolutionized college football with the 4-3 slide.
 
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Does anybody know our record playing in Havana? I think we played in Havana years ago, but I might be wrong. I think we might have also played n the first indoor night game. Of course, when we had freshman teams--there was a time when freshmen were not eligible to play on the varsity--we played against one of the Mexican universities, and often got beat. I think we played a team called Mexico City Poly. George Mira Senior played against them and started cursing at them in Spanish.

A fair number of Mexican universities field teams that play American football.

EDIT: I checked, and we did play Univ. of Havana in Havana. We actually played the U of Havana twice in 1926--on Thanksgiving Day in Miami and Christmas Day in Havana.

We also played one of the first night games ever in 1930 against Bowden College. (Does that school still exist?)

I tried to find information on Bowden College and can find nothing. Google keeps bringing up Bowdoin in Maine, but we didn't play them. I guess Bowden College doesn't exist anymore.

We also played an indoor game against Temple in Atlantic City,and they beat us 34-0. That was our first game outside the south.
 
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77cane said:
I don't remember the score but I believe we lost to Notre Dame . I think it was back when Carl Selmer was coaching. I had totally forgot about that game.
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No, it was '79 so Schnelly was the coach and Kelly was QB. He did not have a good game.
 
TheMatador said:
Awsi Dooger said:
TheMatador said:
Didn't they call it the Mirage Bowl?
Click to expand...

Great memory. I think you are correct.
Click to expand...

Actually, I saw some of the replay of that game. I had trouble seeing UM football in the '70's, since there were not all these cable channels, no ESPN, no FoxSports. I rarely saw UM during the '70's. One of the local stations in DC had a ND highlight show every Sunday morniing. I recall watching highlights of the Mirage Bowl. For some reason, I have a recollection of a foggy field. Does that sound right? I didn't enjoy very much what I saw since we got wiped out. By 1981, we were one of the best teams in the country, although it was not widely recognized.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the video. It was sloppier than my memory.

The television coverage was better than I expected. And I remember being surprised at how many people were on the sidelines.

By late the next season I was very upbeat about the program. I was wearing Canes shirts on campus at USC. I had a portable shortwave radio and listened to some of our games via American Forces Radio. They aired college games all day long on Saturday, with the same host for years. Quite distinctive. He would say, "You are listening to college football on AFRTS..."
 
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