SouthBeachHoosier Time Machine: Reviewing the Battle of the Orange Bowl

Continuing with the decision by U-M President Donna Shalala and the U-M Board of Trustees to do what's right for the school, the team and the vast majority of South Florida's Hurricane fans by leaving the Orange Bowl in the rear-view mirror, what follows is the March 16, 1979 Miami Herald story by Bill Rose, which ran about two months before the Bill Braucher column that was the basis for my last post.

It traces the history of how Dolphins owner Joe Robbie got the better of Dade County Mayor Steve Clark and Commissioner J.L Plummer by publicly embarrassing them, simply by telling the truth to the gathered NFL owners in Hawaii, which, unhappily for Clark and Plummer, was a history replete with broken promises to Robbie and the Dolphins and real threats for them to move out of Miami if they didn't like it.

Joe Robbie, who'll be the future subject of a South Beach Hoosier post dealing with his role as the Dade County Democratic Party chair, lived long enough to call their bluff and have the last laugh!

Yes, the fights over beer sales, and the fights in court when the Dolphins prevailed and the govt. didn't like it and appealed and lost again, the threat to prevent the Dolphins from actually playing a preseason game in the Orange Bowl, et al.

This as the NFL owners convened to decide among other things, the site of the 1981 Super Bowl, which turned out to be Detroit, even as Miami officials took it for granted that they were in the driver's seat.
(That was Super Bowl XVI, where the 49ers beat the Bengals 26-21, the first of their Super Bowl meetings, with the second coming in SB XXIII in Miami, with the 49ers winning 20-16.)
Just as was the case with the Braucher column post, I'll try to write out the story in the future here in case you can't read it completely.



Reviewing the Battle of the Orange Bowl, Bill Rose, March 16, 1979, Miami Herald