The news that Louisville and Alabama will open the 2018 season in the Citrus Bowl brings back an assortment of memories from the last time they met. That would have been the Fiesta Bowl in 1991 at Tempe, Arizona, inspiring us to get that first big-screen TV.louisville-cardinals-fiesta-bowl-dvd-3200168

Easily the biggest game in UofL football history at the time, Alabama was a prohibitive favorite, a traditional SEC power expected to easily roll over Louisville, which was an independent at the time. The fact that UofL Coach Howard Schnellenberger had almost a month to prepare for Alabama was lost on the sports media, along with Louisville’s 9-1-1 record that season.

Three days before the game, I had forked over mucho bucks for a huge console TV, with a 48-inch screen, encased in a walnut cabinet. State of the art, it would be main attraction in the basement. I couldn’t wait for it to be delivered the night before the big game.

The call came from Smith Furniture that they were on the way. I figured it would take a while for them to get there so I dashed out to a video store to rent a movie. I returned home, video cassette in hand, eager to get acquainted.

But sitting in the center of the family room sat the TV where the guys from Smith Furniture had left it, making no effort to get the monster to the basement. The set weighed at 300 pounds and the delivery guys told my wife they wouldn’t be able to get around the corner into the basement. Lots of company coming by the next day for the Fiesta Bowl party. Calls to Smith Furniture were to no avail, they were closed.

Panic time. I told Barbara the TV was going to get to the basement if I had to start cutting holes in ceilings and walls. Desperate, I called Joe, our next door neighbor, and he called another neighbor. Three anxious and perspiring individuals, refusing to accept failure, were slowly and cautiously able to get it down the steps and around the corner. Finally, there it was. A monument to persistence and fanaticism.

The next day came a football game-watching party that will never be equalled. Browning Nagle completing a 70-yard pass for a touchdown to Latrell Ware, Ralph Dawkins scoring on a five-yard run, a 37-yard pass to Anthony Cummings for another TD, and a UofL recovery of a fumble in the Alabama end zone. UofL was up 25-0 after the first quarter. The Cardinals would win the game, 34-7, shocking the world of college football.

The TV was in the basement for about eight years before I handed it down to my son Steve. I wasn’t there when he arrived with friends so I’ll never know how he got it out of the house. “Leverage, dad,” he said. “Simple leverage.” I suspect that were some high levels of anticipation on the part of the newest owner, eager to watch UofL football on his own big screen.

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By Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer is a former Louisville editor and sportswriter, a public affairs consultant, a UofL grad and longtime fan.

2 thoughts on “Mission impossible in 1990 for UofL against Alabama”
  1. “A monument to persistence and fanaticism.” Probably the best sentence you ever wrote. Certainly the truest! (Glad you described the scene in G-rated terms. Not quite how I remember it, LOL.) Go Cards!

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