Bullet to head didn’t keep Ibis from Miami-Bama. Canes greats reflect on last two classics
Perhaps the Miami Hurricanes might have gotten a hint on New Year’s Eve 1992, the night before they last played Alabama for the national championship in the Sugar Bowl, that the game possibly wouldn’t go their way.
Then again, the then-undefeated, No. 1 Hurricanes, whose 2021 version meet the defending national champion Crimson Tide on Saturday in the season opener at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, were a proud, feisty bunch. And not even their beloved mascot Sebastian the Ibis — AKA John Routh — getting shot in the side of the head by a stray bullet New Year’s Eve on Bourbon Street would have convinced the Canes to beware of the Crimson Tide.
“Right next to my eye, in the area between my right eyelashes and my normal hairline,’’ said Routh, now the executive director of the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame. “It went under the skin and against my skull to about mid-cheek, where it exited and then grazed my chest. The bowl jacket I was wearing, it still has a powder burn.
“That was my last official game as Sebastian before I took the Billy the Marlin job.’’
The Crimson Tide and Hurricanes have met 17 times since 1941, with Alabama winning 14 of those games. That includes that 1992 season, in which No. 2 Alabama also came into the Jan. 1, 1993, game undefeated, and left that way, too, with a 34-13 national title over the favored Canes.
“We fully expected to go in and win that game,’’ said former UM All-American defensive end Greg Mark, who was a graduate assistant coach in 1992 but played and won a national title against the Crimson Tide the previous time the teams met, a 33-25 UM victory on Jan. 1, 1990, to also end the 1989 season in the Sugar Bowl. “We believed we were man-to-man all the way down the roster a more talented team in 1992. What was disappointing was we kind of let ourselves fall in our own trap — that we were better, that we were faster and that we could just show up and win the game.
“A lot of guys on our team played their hearts out, but Alabama also had a very talented team.’’
The Miami Herald spoke to Dennis Erickson, the former UM head coach who led the Hurricanes in both those last two meetings, including the 1989 finale in which he won his first of two UM national titles; as well to others who played in at least one or both of the games.
Erickson, who said he will be in Miami with his 1991 team for the Sept. 18 Michigan State game to commemorate the 30th anniversary of that title, now lives along the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene in Northwest Idaho. He said he used to wear his 1989 national championship ring all the time, and then came the 1991 title, and then, in 2019, his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.
“I wear the Hall of Fame one the most now,’’ Erickson said, because it’s really nice and it reminds me of all the players I’ve coached over the years.’’
Dennis Erickson
Erickson, 74, who grew up in the state of Washington, has a 179-96-1 (65 percent) record as a collegiate head coach at Idaho (1982-85, 2006), Wyoming (1986), Washington State (1987-88), Miami (1989-94), Oregon State (1999-2002) and Arizona State (2007-11). He also coached the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks (1995-98) and San Francisco 49ers (2003-04) .
For him, of course, that first victory over No. 7 Bama to end the ‘89 season was the one he would rather remember. UM, ranked No. 2 going into the game, had a 33-17 lead in the fourth quarter when it learned that No. 4 Notre Dame had just defeated top-ranked Colorado in the Orange Bowl. The Canes allowed a late Alabama touchdown and two-point conversion with 2:53 left, but UM held the lead and secured the title.
Erickson saw the score of the Notre Dame victory repeatedly flash on the Superdome scoreboard, but refused to celebrate with plenty of time still left in the game.
“I couldn’t help but see it,’’ Erickson said that night, “but we had to win this football game.’’
UM quarterback Craig Erickson, no relation to Dennis, was named the most outstanding player after completing 17 of 27 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns for a Miami offense that amassed 477 total yards to Alabama’s 252 (38 yards rushing). UM finished 11-1, its only loss in late October to No. 9 Florida State.
“The UM fans were about ready to send me down the highway after that loss to FSU,’’ Erickson said. “And then to come back and go to the Sugar Bowl and win my first national championship in my first season, following Howard Schnellenberger — God bless him — and Jimmy Johnson after what they did for the program...
“The expectations at UM were off the chart. But the players we had at Miami were resilient. It just goes to show you you’re not out of it with one loss.’’
But on Jan. 1, 1993, the situation wasn’t quite as gratifying. Alabama never trailed, scoring three second-half touchdowns to cap the route. The Hurricanes’ only points came on two Dane Prewitt field goals and a 78-yard punt return for a touchdown by Kevin Williams early in the fourth quarter.
‘The Strip’
UM Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta, the Alabama defense constantly in his face, threw three interceptions that game. But the play the world still remembers has long been known as “The Strip.’’ It happened on UM’s possession after eventual first-round NFL safety George Teague picked off Torretta and returned it 31 yards for a touchdown, giving Bama a 27-6 lead with 9:56 left in the third quarter,
On second down from UM’s own 11-yard line, Torretta connected with Canes smack-talking star Lamar Thomas, who sprinted toward what was sure to be a UM touchdown. But Teague chased down Thomas and, from behind him, took the ball right out of Thomas’ hands mid-stride at about the Alabama 11, turned around and started running the other way. The play ended with an offside penalty against the Tide, but Miami eventually punted with Bama deflating the Hurricanes and on its way to its seventh national championship.
After the play, a distraught Thomas, who had already won a championship ring after the 1989 season, was seen sitting next to Torretta on the UM bench, a towel draped over his head.
“That’s a sore subject,’’ Erickson said. “I don’t talk to Lamar about that much, but I do remind him about it once in awhile. Yeah, it was shocking. Lamar had no idea he was coming. Teague made some great plays and Alabama was loaded with talent. We weren’t as ready that game as we should have been.”
Greg Mark
Mark, 54, won UM titles as a player in 1987 and ‘89, and as the defensive ends coach in 2001 — and “had another for about five seconds’’ in the Jan. 1, 2003 Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State “before a back judge took it away,’’ he said, referring to the infamous pass interception call. Mark anchored one of the most dominant defensive lines in Miami history, playing alongside gems such as Russell Maryland and Cortez Kennedy. In 1989, Mark had 15 1/2 sacks and 19 quarterback pressures.
Now the owner of Casa dei Bambini, a Montessori school in Miami Beach, Mark was a fifth-year senior when he helped beat Bama for that 1990 Sugar Bowl. “Jimmy Johnson had left for the Dallas Cowboys and it had a big effect on us,’’ Mark said. “It was hard, but the character we had on that team was strong. Dennis came in with his guys from Washington State and did a masterful job.
“That team Alabama had was a solid college team but the pressure from our vertical passing game and fast and nasty defense didn’t give them a chance. To walk away with a national championship your final season is very special.’’
Carlos Huerta
Carlos Huerta, 52, the starting kicker for UM’s 1991 title team, grew up in Miami and graduated from Columbus High. He now lives in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and owns a real estate investment company and several commercial properties out west. Huerta began his college career as a walk-on, became a consensus All-American and was an NCAA record-holder with his 157 consecutive extra points as a four-year starter from 1988-91. He is second in the UM record books with 397 points scored, six behind kicker Michael Badgley’s 403.
Huerta came to UM at the perfect time, winning national titles as a redshirt freshman in 1987, and then in 89 and 91. “We were very, very talented for sure,’’ he said, “but we were really well coached by Johnson and Erickson. “We set an NCAA record in 1989 for covering punt returns — the total return yardage against the Hurricanes was 4 total.’’
He recalls, like Mark, feeling “robbed” the year before when a controversial and still disputed call against UM running back Cleveland Gary helped propel Notre Dame to a one-point victory in what would be UM’s only loss in 1988. The 1989 title helped soothe the pain.
“I remember standing on the sideline when the clock was running down and we knew we had the win,’’ said Huerta, who had an extra point blocked that game. “I did not particularly have a great game, but remember thinking, ‘Wow. Coach Erickson will win the national championship in his first year here.’ I didn’t think anyone could do that because Jimmy was so amazing and because we had lost to FSU.’’
Stephen McGuire
While Huerta was scoring points with his foot, fellow redshirt freshman running back Stephen McGuire was scoring touchdowns in 1989. McGuire, out of Brooklyn, New York, retired July 30 after 20 years as a New York City police officer, and now serves as an interventionist for William H. Turner Technical Arts High School in Miami-Dade County.
McGuire, a sturdy 5-11 and 215 pounds, scored UM’s first touchdown in the 1990 Sugar Bowl — a 3-yard run in the first quarter.
“We were about to kick a field goal and an Alabama player jumped offside and they gave us another first down,’’ said McGuire, 52. “Coach Erickson sent in two backs, I got the ball and ran right in.”
McGuire finished with 80 yards rushing on 17 carries that game. He still holds the UM career record for rushing touchdowns, with 35 — three more than Edgerrin James.
“To win that championship felt pretty damned good being a kid from Brooklyn,’’ McGuire said. “It was my dream to play for Miami.’’
But the last game of his career, the loss to Bama in the 1993 Sugar Bowl, still elicits frustration.
“It kind of sucked toward the end,’’ McGuire said. “We had been through so much with Hurricane Andrew that season. “A whole lot going on. If we would have won I would have won three national championships and we would have been the team of the 90s.”
He reconsidered.
“Actually, we were the team of the 90s.’’
2021 game
All the former Hurricanes will be watching Saturday to see if Miami, 19-point underdogs, can pull off what would be a massive upset. All believe it’s crucial that Miami not crumble when, not if, the Tide makes big plays.
“I’m covering my eyes and leaving a little room to peek through,’’ Mark said, “and hopefully we do what we need to do.’’
Said Erickson: “I have the best seat in the world on that old chair I’m looking at right now. I can second guess everybody, even Nick Saban. If you want to be the best you’ve got to play the best. Even if we lose big, we’re losing to the best program in the country — but I don’t see that happening.’’
John Routh, the former UM mascot who was on the sideline for the last two UM-Bama games and whose bullet wounds from that fateful night have long since healed, is starting out positive.
“I hope this one turns out to be a classic and the Canes end up on top,’’ Routh said. “As they say, two out of three ain’t bad.”
