1981 Peach Bowl – West Virginia vs. Florida | WVU | West Virginia Mountaineers sports coverage

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May 15, 2020 at 5:30 am #117044

Greg Hunter

1981 Peach Bowl – West Virginia vs. Florida As athletic events come to a halt, we’ll spend some time looking back at Mountaineer highlights and games
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May 15, 2020 at 9:49 am #117051

Pedro82

Ah, yes. Endzone seats but had a great time!!

May 15, 2020 at 11:17 am #117056

Kevin Kinder

Me too – we were on the front row of the end zone where Walczak scored his TD. Total rain the whole game, but it was a major party.

I’ve been around many fans of ofther teams, but to me Florida fans are the worst. A total enjoyment seeing them slink away.

May 15, 2020 at 12:39 pm #117057

Allen

Complete domination in that game. Hard to believe that Don lost 8 straight bowl games. Charlie Pell and the Gators must have never gotten over that game as they did nothing in SEC until Pell’s sixth and last as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Pell resigned after the third game of the season due to numerous NCAA violations committed by him and his staff over the previous few years.

New offensive coordinator Galen Hall served as interim coach for the remainder of the season. After the Gators began the season as a 1–1–1 team under Pell, Hall’s 1984 Florida Gators posted a 9–1–1 overall record and a SEC record of 5–0–1 (8–0 and 4–0, respectively, under Hall), finishing first among ten SEC teams, and won their first-ever SEC title. Before then, the Gators had been one of only two charter SEC members (the other being Vanderbilt to have never won the conference title. The Gators finished third in the Associated Press Poll and seventh in the Coaches Poll, and were also named national champions by twenty-two publications including The New York Times and The Sporting News.

May 16, 2020 at 9:25 pm #117120

JAL

Bowl seemed to mean more to fans then than they do now.

May 17, 2020 at 10:20 am #117126

Oldguyeer

I remember their only TD was a meaningless one late in the game. Our run defense was phenomenal; Florida had negative rushing yardage for the game. Just a beautiful thing to see.

May 17, 2020 at 12:52 pm #117132

Dropout71

That was a fun day. WVU hadn’t been to a bowl game in six years, so the fan base was pumped.

Remember working until about 10 that morning, then driving a little over an hour to Dulles to catch a rickety DC-9 to Atlanta. Took a taxi from Hartsfield to the stadium and reached our seats (end zone uppers) a few minutes prior to the 2:30 kickoff. Air travel was so much simpler then. Didn’t have a hotel reservation, so we crashed on the floor of a friend’s room that night.

Galen Hall, you’ll recall, began his coaching career under Gene Corum at WVU. Can’t remember if he was approached about the head coaching job after the departures of Bowden and/or Cignetti. At the time, he had pretty good gig as OC at Oklahoma.

May 17, 2020 at 2:52 pm #117133

Kevin Kinder

Great memories, Dropout! And bet it didn’t take you much time to navigate checkin at the airport.

May 17, 2020 at 10:49 pm #117143

Shepherdstown

My future wife and 4 other friends drove down in my Mother’s car. It was an eventful trip and looking back I am surprised we still got married.

I always felt the rain and cold weather favored us for the win. Do not remember any Florida fans from that game, but my Father and I attended the Sugar Bowl against Florida and Kevin is right. They are the most obnoxious fans I have ever met.

May 19, 2020 at 7:47 am #117219

Kevin Kinder

I’ve probably told this here before, but Florida fans on our shuttle from the Peachtree Plaza to the game were even heckling my mom, the most inoffensive fan in history. Afterward, going back, she let them have it.

Lovely!
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