Looking at Tennessee football’s past Orange Bowl results, history

Tennessee will make its triumphant return to the game that started its postseason success more than 80 years ago on December 30 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

A few things have changed since the Vols' first ever bowl game — the Orange Bowl — in 1939.

The Miami Orange Bowl stadium, where the bowl game it is named for was played from 1938 to 1996, was demolished in 2008 to make way for a more modern venue for the Miami Marlins MLB franchise. The Tennessee football program has seen some changes, too.

For the better part of a decade, the Vols were in college football purgatory — suffering through a series of questionable coaching hires that yielded more bad results than good and kept them from playing in the kind of marquee postseason games that built them into one of the most successful powerhouses in the sport.

But Tennessee is back. Back in South Florida. Back in a New Years Six bowl against another football power in the Clemson Tigers with the opportunity to bookend a remarkable 10-win season in head coach Josh Heupel's second season.

At the start of November, the Vols were primed for the College Football Playoff before two losses in their last four games knocked them out of consideration. But for Tennessee to return to the upper echelon, it has to play in historic bowl games that matter.

Tennessee has played in the Orange Bowl four other times. It capped a perfect 11-0 campaign in 1938 with a 17-0 win over Oklahoma. The Vols returned in 1946 and 1967, both of which resulted in close losses to Rice and Oklahoma, respectively.

Peyton Manning played his last game for Tennessee in the game against Nebraska at Pro Player Stadium in 1998. It was a less than memorable end to a storied career for Manning as the Vols lost 42-17 but won a national championship nearly a year later in the first ever BCS National Championship Game.

Tennessee has played in 54 bowl games all-time and is 10-15 in New Year's Six Bowl games.

For SEC teams, the Sugar Bowl is historically the crown jewel of postseason play and the Vols have played in it seven times despite a 31-year (and counting) hiatus, but a number of Tennessee's most memorable seasons ended in the Orange Bowl.

General Robert Neyland had a few unbeaten seasons in his first stint as Tennessee's head coach between 1926-34, but ties likely kept the Vols from being voted national champions.

Neyland, who was called back by the U.S. Army to serve in Panama for one year, returned to Tennessee in 1936. In his third season back, the Vols went 10-0 in the regular season, giving up just 16 points the entire season.

Tennessee finished atop the SEC standings, and its dominating run through the schedule garnered the attention of various NCAA national champion selectors. Six selectors named the Vols the national champions of the 1938 season — the first of six national titles that Tennessee recognizes.

The Vols still had a bowl game to play.

Standing in their way of a perfect season was the No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners, who were also undefeated at the time. The two teams met in the Orange Bowl at the Miami Orange Bowl, which had opened a year before.

The game featured several big names in Tennessee football lore — including Neyland, SEC Player of the Year and All-American George Cafego and Bowden Wyatt, who later became the Vols' head coach from 1955-62.

It was Cafego that set up Tennessee's first touchdown in the first quarter, returning an Oklahoma punt to the 27-yard line then following it up with a run to the 12. Bob Foxx punched in the go-ahead score to lead 7-0 and Wyatt connected on a 22-yard field goal to put the Vols up 10-0 at halftime.

As it had done much of the season, the Tennessee defense stymied the Sooners, allowing less than 100 total yards. Babe Wood put the game away in the fourth quarter with a 19-yard touchdown run on a reverse to give the Vols the 17-0 victory.

"When the last broken bone was whipped back into place, when the last eye had retreated into mourning, some statistician took a fugitive gander at the scoreboard and announced that Tennessee had won, 17-0," Memphis Commercial Appeal writer Walter Stewart wrote. "It wasn't a very good game, if you must insist on the truth, but it was so utterly ferocious that women fainted and strong men turned away their faces-pail faces, too."

Tennessee rolled its undefeated streak into the following season, winning 10 games and becoming the last team in college football history to hold all of its opponents scoreless in the regular season.

Tennessee went west for its 1967 season opener.

The No. 9 Vols played No. 8 UCLA at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and lost 20-16. But Tennessee responded the rest of the way, winning their next nine regular season games.

That winning streak included victories over No. 6 Alabama at Legion Field in Birmingham, Auburn, Georgia Tech and Ole Miss to claim the SEC title.

At 9-1, the Vols were named national champions for the first time since 1951 by Litkenhous and were selected for the Orange Bowl for the third time in program history.

For the second time, second-ranked Tennessee would play No. 3 Oklahoma in Miami, this time in a primetime bout that was nationally televised on NBC. The Sooners were also 9-1 with their lone blemish coming in Week 3 against Texas at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

Oklahoma jumped out to a commanding 19-0 lead at the half and Tennessee's opening drive of the third quarter stalled out. But the Vols found their answer with two touchdowns in the third quarter.

Jimmy Glover intercepted a Bob Warmack pass and returned it 36 yards for a touchdown, then Charley Fulton rushed for another score to cut the deficit down to 19-14.

A field goal inched Tennessee closer, but quarterback Dewey Warren was intercepted in the fourth quarter, which resulted in another Sooners touchdown. However, Warren engineered a 77-yard drive and capped it with a sneak at the goal line to bring the score to 26-24.

With Oklahoma trying to run out the clock, the Tennessee defense made a stand, stuffing Steve Owens on fourth-and-1 at the Sooners' 43 to give the ball back to the offense.

Warren got the Vols as far as the 27, setting up what would be the game-winning field goal, but Karl Kremser's kick missed wide right and Oklahoma held on.

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