Happy Friday! Today’s entry in my top Ten University of Louisville Football Games of all time in no particular order is…. Oh yeah. I forgot. The top 3 I actually DID put in order. The rest were a toss up, but the next 3 are in order so buckle up.
At #3 is the Sugar Bowl vs Florida. Something else different I will do in my top 3 is include staff members memories of that game. Then we will follow that up with my memories and the video of the game. I really hope you enjoy it!
First up are the staffs memories:
Katie Goben: A group of pi phis and I decided to go down, they offered awesome prices on student tickets and we were excited to experience our first BCS game. My roommate was in the UofL band and he asked if we wanted to come down early to hang out and do New Year’s Eve on Bourbon Street, so we packed up and headed down. We knew from that moment it would be the trip of a lifetime. NYE was awesome. The street was packed with card fans and we got to stay in the fancy team hotel; we were living our best life. By the time game day rolled around, we were ready. We had moved to our not so fancy hotel, but we were having a blast. We painted up for the game and hung out with everyone before hand. After the first play, I think we all started sobering up because we knew something special was about to happen. We knew we needed to soak in every detail. Once we won, the entire student section was going crazy. We were hugging one another and cheering our hearts out. It is still to this day, my favorite sport memory of all time.
Shawn Barbour: My memory was going to Cardinal HOF Cafe after taking my nephew to first UofL bball game. We walked in, grabbed a seat, and saw Terrell Floyd get the pick 6. Great night of good food and great game ensued.
Paige Sherrard: I went with a few sorority sisters, Ben, & my cousin Adam. I remember sitting in the student section – it was my senior year. I remember the play where the Florida guy juggles the ball & we picked it off for a TD. But, mostly, I remember standing on the seat after we won & screaming, “Pour some sugar on me” at the top of my lungs with everyone else in the student section. I was tipsy. The beer in the stadium wasn’t cheap lol.
Editors note: She does not remember more because I found her at 4pm dancing on top of things and she was feeling good…if you know what i mean.
Mitch Motley: I made the trip with my dad, my uncle, and my cousin. Funny enough, we ran into a few UofL fans at a restaurant on the way down who were just as optimistic as we were and then we ran into them again right before the game in NOLA. I remember the deafening tone after Floyd’s pick-6 and the “Teddy” chants after Bostic’s hit on our first offensive play. To this day, it’s my favorite football memory I have and it was all topped off by politely getting told to “f—- off” by a very kind Florida fan on our way out.
Sam Basden: Sugar Bowl: I remember the drive down, couldn’t wait to visit New Orleans for the 1st time. I didn’t think we had that much of a shot, so I just wanted to enjoy the scenery and night life while hoping Florida didn’t embarrass UofL. Prior to the game UF fans were so hospitable, it was like they had a quiet confidence about their team. When it came to the actual game, 1st play: I remember ‘Big Game’ James Burgess coming on a blitz, not getting there, but disrupting Driskel’s vision causing the wide throw leading to Floyd’s interception return for a TD. Cards up 7-0. The hit that Jon Bostic put on Teddy Bridgewater and Bridgewater’s response to that hit made me start to believe that we could hold our own vs Florida. It wasn’t until Teddy’s pass to Copeland to start the 2nd that I realized that Louisville could and would actually pull off this upset. I was actually upset that Louisville’s defense didn’t score on the strip sack by Calvin Pryor, but after another defense stop the rest of the night was a blur. I wasn’t a good sportsman after that, I was even caught on ESPN hanging a stuffed gator with a piece of nylon. It was a great night. #GoCards
Justin Krueger: I had to work during the first half of the Sugar Bowl. Fortunately that day, it was busy enough at the restaurant I worked at, that I managed to avoid checking the score of the game. My initial plan was to avoid spoilers on social media and watch the entire game at home on DVR. That changed after I clocked out of my shift at 10:00. When I was taking our store’s cash to the bank, I got a call from one of my friends. He and another buddy were watching the game at his dad’s apartment complex. He asked me if I was watching the game, and I said, “No I had the game on DVR, so I was avoiding spoilers until I got home.” Then for whatever reason, one of them let the cat out of the bag. All of a sudden I hear, “Hey Justin, Louisville is up 24-3 right now.” At first, I thought it was a rib, because that’s what friends do sometimes. But I stopped for a little bit at said bank, and saw the score. My jaw dropped, it was unlike anything I could’ve believed. So at the request of my buddies, I decided to change plans and watch the rest of the game at the apartment complex. I think the first play I actually saw when I walked in was the Teddy-to-Copeland throw to start the second half. From there, it was just sitting there in amazement, watching perhaps the biggest upset in BCS history. I actually did believe Louisville could win, but Florida (and the rest of the SEC) had this untouchable aura about them for the last four years. Even if I believed it, it still didn’t feel real to suggest they could. So to do so on national TV, with a team as likable and gutsy as that group … it felt cathartic. Almost like an out-of-body experience. To this day, it’s still one of my top moments as a sports fan. It was a culmination of a 2012-13 season that had a ton of closer than expected games, last minute wins, and an absolute roller coaster of a season.
Higgy: That game, leading up to it, my dad kept telling me there’s a chance, but I couldn’t believe we were getting a chance to play Florida. I was excited & I’m still shocked Teddy played that game. I lost my voice from yelling excitedly the whole game. Still one of my favorite memories of being a cardinal fan!
Here was my experience: (excerpts from my game day chronicles on CSZ)
The Sugar Bowl was without a doubt the biggest game in the history of the program. It was also big to us the fans. We had to listen to how we didn’t belong in the game and how we couldn’t win. I thought we could win. I predicted that we would win 24-21. I knew we could beat them; I just didn’t know we could beat them down.
On New Years Eve. I was like a kid on Christmas Eve. I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t wait. When it was finally time to go, me, Steve Rummage…from 93.9 the Ville (paid to mention that), and our friend Chris T, a uk fan at the time, decided to begin our journey. We took off towards our destination, the city of New Orleans. The whole ride down we talked about this game, this moment. We took very minimal bathroom breaks and tried to get down quickly, but safely. We couldn’t wait to be at the Sugar Bowl. For me and Steve because it was our first chance to go to a BCS game and for Chris…..well he cheers for the cats so who knows if he will ever get an opportunity…so we felt like it was our duty to help a brother out. We made good time getting down there and went to bed rather early so we could get up and explore the city. There was a feeling in the air, a feeling that something special was about to happen.
We decided to go in about 6:30 despite adventuring around since 10 am. Shoutout to Paige, Justin, and their wonderful friends. And also shout out Patty O’Briens. Steve goes down to the field while Chris and I take our seats. We thought the seats were 18 rows back, only to find ourselves 6 rows back from the front. It was a spectacular view. We sit down and are just taking pictures and soaking everything in. We are in our seats 99 minutes early but we don’t care. We are just having a good time. We look down and notice that there are about 2,000 white crunch zone towels on all the student section seats. Nice souvenirs. About that time, this guy sits down next to us and says “HEY! Aren’t you that guy from TV the other night?’ I very calmly say, “Yes….yes I am,” and then turn to Chris and laugh. I talked to the guy for a few minutes and then started to focus on what was happening….we were about to kickoff at the Sugar Bowl.
I won’t go into details because I know you watched the game, but from that first play to the last I screamed and yelled and was out of my mind. Even Chris was pumped. It was amazing. I didn’t even try to punch any of the obnoxious Florida fans that surrounded us. There were only 10 in our section but they were all around me. All of the Gator bait chants and get up and go’s and even the idiots around me that chanted SEC for the 2 minutes before the game kicked off; I didn’t try to punch anyone! I was proud. I did, however, almost smack a UL fan who kept hitting me with a pom-pom. Stupid drunk lady…I digress. Then came Charlie and Teddy and then came the confetti. I inadvertently made that rhyme….lol. Listening to our fans chant Teddy and sing “Pour Some Sugar On Me” right after the game was electric.
The entire night, all I could hear was “Louisville isn’t fast enough, their O-line can’t hold back Florida’s SEC D-lineman…..UL has no chance.” Then I proceeded to see our wide receivers burn their SEC counterparts and our O-lineman destroy Florida’s D-line. Everything they said we couldn’t do, we did. We came out and punched the bully in the mouth and then, instead of running, we beat the crap out of that bully. It felt great. We competed with the almighty SEC and we shut up HerbStreit and his group of elves who gave lightning a better chance of striking them than the Cards turning Florida into Gator bait.
What else felt great was that we made this a home game. There were over 30,000 UL fans in the Superdome. Every time Florida fans, or Flor-ons as I have affectionately dubbed them, started to chant, Louisville fans drowned them out instantly. We came in droves and it showed. We had each others’ backs and more importantly we had our teams backs. This is what Charlie wanted and we gave it to him. If you don’t think he noticed then your dead wrong because he voiced his appreciation and approval after the game. AD Tom Jurich was told by a Sugar Bowl Rep “Without the red, we would be dead” because we pulled the weight attendance wise. We need to do this every game for our boys and our coach. If we can get 30,000 + to New Orleans, we can sell out PJCS with no problem. We can get in our seats 30 minutes early and stay until the game is over.
We hope you enjoyed our memories! Enjoy the full game video below!
