PonyFans.com

Youtube clip of SMU getting used by Bama in the 1983 Sun Bowl. Check out the comments by the Bama posters.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CM9CxqxAvro

With a 10-1 record, and a #6 ranking, and the only loss coming down to a missed 2 point conversion against UT.......SMU was bitter about not getting an invite to the Sugar Bowl, we had ZERO interest in this game, and played like it too. The day before the game was beautiful, then, a massive coldfront came through, and it was in the low 20's for the game. Seems like we had 4 or 5 turnovers in the first half of that game, what a miserable performance.

After getting spurned by the Sugar Bowl and settling for the Sun Bowl, one of our players was (in)famously quoted as saying: El Paso, that's a pitiful town." You can bet the El Pasoans ate that up.

Yes, SMU deserved better. Not only were we 10-1 with only the nailbiter loss to Texas, you have to remember the year before we were 11-0-1 and finished No. 2 in the nation. SMU wasn't some newcomer to the Top 20 that had to wait its turn for a major bowl, we were an established power. It was a total shaft that SMU didn't get a better bowl bid.

There weren't nearly as many bowls back then, but there weren't many 10-1 teams either. The big boys were keeping all the goodies to themselves long before the BCS came around.

And that day in El Paso was just about the coldest game I've ever been to. I took a camera to the game and it stopped working because the battery froze. One reason we didn't play so well is that we wore our mesh jerseys with the Sun Bowl logos (I guess to appease the hosts) while Bama broke out their cold-weather, thick cotton jerseys. It was a miserable day and hardly deserving of the final game of Lance McIlhenney's career.

I was too young to notice when it was played, but that game is like my worst nightmare...my beloved alma mater versus the school my Dad played at which I was raised rooting for and loving...lets hope for my sake this game never happens again so I am never put to the ultimate test to see who I pull for in my heart of hearts. I hope that I would be a strong enough man to pull for my mustangs, and not be revealed to be a second rate ponyfan...

I heard there may have been a late night in Juarez the night before the game. That was back when the players ruled the program, so given the way they played I'm inclined to believe it.

jtstang wrote:I heard there may have been a late night in Juarez the night before the game. That was back when the players ruled the program, so given the way they played I'm inclined to believe it.

Maybe we should ask Kiki to confirm!