|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Miami Hurricane fans have a love/hate relationship with the referees. They love to hate the refs. Mention the name Terry Porter and you’re likely to get a look of disgust from most Cane fanatics. But another official played a huge role in UM’s rise to national prominence. Longtime SEC referee Jimmy Harper was the head official when the Hurricanes upset #1 Nebraska 31-30 to win the 1984 Orange Bowl and clinch the school’s first national championship. Harper later said of the 1984 Orange Bowl, “It was the best played game I’ve ever been involved with. There were practically no penalties; maybe five in the whole game. We officials might as well as not have been there.” Nearly 6 years later, Harper was the referee when the Canes beat #1 Notre Dame 27-10 at the Orange Bowl to win their third national championship.
But Harper is most remembered as the referee in the infamous 1991 Cotton Bowl. Harper and his SEC crew littered the field with yellow laundry, throwing a record 15 flags and penalizing Miami for 202 yards during the Canes 46-3 crushing win over Texas. Nine of those penalties were for unsportsmanlike conduct. The 1991 Cotton Bowl forever changed how games were officiated. The NCAA soon instituted new celebration penalties banning excessive dancing and taunting.
On January 1, 1996, Harper officiated his last game. Appropriately, it was at the Orange Bowl. Florida State defeated Notre Dame 31-26 in the 1996 Fed Ex Orange Bowl. It was the last New Year’s Orange Bowl game scheduled at the Orange Bowl Stadium. Altogether, Jimmy Harper officiated 3 national championship games and 43 bowl games in a 33 year career. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. To read more stories about the Orange Bowl, visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/
