1988 Orange Bowl
| 1988 Orange Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| 54th Orange Bowl "The National Championship" | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 1, 1988 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1987 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Orange Bowl | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Miami, Florida | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Bernard Clark (Miami LB) Darrell Reed (Oklahoma DE) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Oklahoma by 3 points | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Bill McDonald (CIFOA) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 74,760 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Network | NBC | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Don Criqui, Bob Trumpy, and Tom Hammond | ||||||||||||||||||||
The 1988 Orange Bowl was the 54th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, on Friday, January 1. Part of the 1987–88 bowl game season, it matched undefeated teams: the independent and second-ranked Miami Hurricanes and the #1 Oklahoma Sooners of the Big Eight Conference.
Miami was led by head coach Jimmy Johnson and Oklahoma by Barry Switzer. A slight underdog on their home field, Miami won 20–14.
To date, it is the only time the opposing head coaches from a college national championship football game each later served as head coach of the same professional football team, and won the Super Bowl with that team, the Dallas Cowboys. Further fuel for the fire was provided by the growing personal animosity between Johnson and Switzer who coincidentally were both former Arkansas players. Switzer was a 1961 graduate who was the assistant coach on the championship 1964 Arkansas team that featured both Jimmy Johnson and teammate Jerry Jones who became the owner of the Dallas Cowboys whom they both worked for eventually.