Three Moments That Changed Seminole Fortunes

By Charlie Barnes

They say it was breezy the night that quarterback Don Grant threw the first pass in Seminole football history. The wind kicked up a bit and the ball drifted into the hands of a Stetson defensive back. Grant's second pass was complete to FSU fullback Ken MacLean.

MacLean had played for the Gators as a freshman before military service in World War II. Today, 75 years later, his 1944 touchdown run from scrimmage against Georgia remains the longest in the history of that Florida-Georgia series.

Grant was also a military veteran. FSU's first quarterback went on to become a Founder of the FSU Varsity Club and a Charter Member of the first Golden Chiefs in 1975, serving for three decades on the Seminole Boosters Board of Directors.

MacLean, Grant and a number of other local boys enrolled in the new Florida State University and wanted to start a team to play football again. No, we weren't officially the Seminoles quite yet on October 18, 1947, but it was the first football game in Florida State University history. Two more games would be played that fall before our students voted Seminoles to be our honored symbol.

Had you been there on that October evening, you might have noticed a group of older men standing together for a photo. They were alumni of the Florida State College, members of the State of Florida Championship football team of 1904. Their College was abruptly closed by the Legislature in 1905 and converted to the Florida Female Academy. College football was absent from Tallahassee for the next 42 years.

That first play on the night of October 18, 1947, was the singularity that marked a unique beginning in college football. Only three National Championships have ever been won by any school that began playing football after World War II. All three of those National Championship trophies are on display in the Moore Center. FSU is the only one.

A second singularity that changed the course of Seminole fortunes in the public eye took place in the Arizona desert after the 1987 season. At that time there were only five "major" bowls. Anything other than Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta or Cotton was considered a step down. Florida State had won coveted invitations to play in the Orange Bowl twice, 1979 and 1980, losing to Oklahoma both times. We had also played in the inaugural Fiesta Bowl in 1971, a game which remained the highest-scoring major bowl game with 83 total points until the 2012 Orange Bowl blowout of West Virginia's 70 points over Clemson's 33.

Being crowned champions of one of the five major bowls was an initiation ceremony reserved only for the elite of college football, and FSU had not yet earned that honor. That is, not until January 1, 1988.

The game started early, around 11 o'clock and the sun was not yet high. It was a scorcher. At first the Seminoles looked snake bit as Nebraska rolled to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. But quarterback Danny McManus hit Dayne Williams and Herb Gainer for three scores and FSU led going into halftime 21-14. By the end of the third quarter Nebraska took a tenuous lead again 28-24.

With minutes left, the Huskers led by 4 and moved methodically down to the Seminoles' 2-yard line. But Nebraska fumbled the ball, and linebacker Paul McGowan pounced.

Time was running out as Danny McManus drove the field. With fourth-and-goal from the Nebraska 15, McManus threw a frozen rope to Ron Lewis for the winning touchdown.

That one day, that major bowl win over mighty Nebraska, the 11-1 record and No. 2 national finish set the stage for what was to come. That victory marked the beginning of The Dynasty, the unprecedented run of 14 years of Top 4 finishes and two national championships, including in 1999 the only team ever to go wire-to-wire ranked No. 1.

The final of our three signature moments occurred during the 1993 football season. The famed Seminoles vs. Irish showdown in South Bend 26 years ago was likely the catalyst that led to today's structured College Football Playoff.

NBC owned broadcast rights to all Notre Dame games and they were all-in to market this No. 1 vs. No. 2 match as the first so-called "Game of the Century." ESPN rode the glory train and covered every possible element of the contest in their 24-hour cycle.

This was to be the very first on-location broadcast of College GameDay.

The national hype and buildup were unprecedented. Heisman winner Charlie Ward led the Seminole offense. Lombardi winner Aaron Taylor led the Irish defense. Sports Illustrated devoted a dozen pages in an elaborate run-up feature complete with colorful cartoons of the key players and personalities, plus lists of whimsical reasons why each team would win or lose.

It was all great fun, and the game itself commanded the largest nationwide television audience in 12 years.

Post-game coverage was highlighted by Team Captain Matt Frier's impassioned and very public plea to the media to not drop the Seminoles lower that No. 2. "The people want to see Florida State and Notre Dame play again!"

It appeared to the world as if No. 1 ranked Notre Dame was headed to play for the national championship. But the following week, despite scoring five touchdowns against Boston College, the Irish fell to BC on a 41-yard field goal as time expired.

In South Bend there was much shrieking and rending of garments, the loudest and most persistent noise coming from Lou Holtz who chased every microphone and camera claiming the deciding factor should be "head to head competition". Given that they had beaten Florida State in South Bend, Notre Dame demanded to be given the chance for a do-over against Florida State in the national championship. But that was to be expected of the Irish. Any program having been awarded a Heisman Trophy for a 2-8 team (1956) surely must believe that they are due extraordinary dispensation simply based on their innate wonderfulness.

None of this lobbying sat well with three other teams, all undefeated at the time, who thought they should be in the national championship game - Nebraska, West Virginia and Auburn - each of whom had lost no games and were sporting flawless 11-0 records.

The fire beneath these simmering resentments never went out. It didn't help matters that Nebraska - selected to play FSU for the national championship - entered the Orange Bowl as a 16½-point underdog. Yes, you read that correctly.

For their part, the Auburn Tigers declared themselves to be the 1993 National Champions. The NCAA had forbidden Auburn to play in a bowl game, but - in Auburn's view - the NCAA did not name an official national champion in football anyway, so why not award the trophy to the only undefeated team left after all the bowl smoke cleared?

At the end of the 2018 season, Sportswriter Bill Connelly summed it up, "After 1993, it would only take a Bowl Coalition, a Bowl Alliance, a Bowl Championship Series, a BCS formula modified to the point of parody, an all-SEC national title game, and a couple decades of increasingly amplified complaints for college football to establish a system that only screws half of FBS instead of 90 percent."

Well, perhaps the story isn't finished to everyone's satisfaction after all.