Dec. 28, 2016
By Jack Smith
The hero of the 1984 Sugar Bowl kept hearing about a sign inside a Bourbon Street bar.
"Free drinks for Al Del Greco all night," it read.
The young man who had kicked three field goals to lift Auburn to a hard-fought 9-7 win over Michigan didn't find the bar as easily as he found the uprights in the Sugar Bowl that day. But with the help of his eager buddies, they arrived at the rumored bar while the celebration was still going.
"I presented myself to the bartender and said, 'I'm Al Del Greco.'"
The bartender looked the Miami native up and down.
"He said, 'Hey, whatever,'" Del Greco recalls with a chuckle.
"I had to show him my ID before he believed me."
In the spirit of the close-knit 1983 Auburn team, Del Greco had one request for the bartender.
"I said how about you just give everybody in my group a drink. So, he bought everybody's drink."
Del Greco, a group of his senior teammates and friends, along with thousands of Auburn fans enjoying the revelry on Bourbon Street, raised their glasses and celebrated what they thought was a National Championship.
But free drinks weren't the only memorable part of the night for the Tigers, the 1983 SEC Champions.
One of the memories Del Greco cherishes happened at The Roosevelt Hotel, a storied historic landmark a few steps from the French Quarter and a short walk to the banks of the muddy Mississippi River. Legend has it Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long was so enamored by The Roosevelt's luxury, and his favorite drink there, that he built Airline Highway to shorten his drive from Baton Rouge to the hotel, which has hosted a who's who list of celebrities and presidents.
At the end of the 1983 season, The Roosevelt was home to the Auburn football team for a week.
Del Greco and his teammates never imagined what would transpire their final night at the hotel, after No. 3 Auburn seemed to be poised for a National Championship when Georgia knocked off No. 2 Texas and No. 5 Miami defeated the mighty Nebraska Cornhuskers in a game for the ages.
Even as Auburn battled Michigan in a physical war inside the Superdome, struggling against a Wolverine defense intent on containing Auburn's vaunted wishbone attack with Bo Jackson, Lionel James and Tommie Agee, word started getting to players that Miami was matching #1 Nebraska score for score.
By the time the team left the stadium, Del Greco and teammates like quarterback Randy Campbell had already learned the Orange Bowl upset they needed might actually happen.
"We were on the sideline during the middle of the game, and people were coming up to us giving us updates on the score," Campbell said. "It was a little weird."
The team listened to the final moments of the Orange Bowl while on the bus rolling back toward the team hotel.
"I remember after our game, we were on the bus and actually listened to that last touchdown and the two-point conversion," Del Greco said. "The consensus was we needed Nebraska to lose. When Miami stopped them, we thought we were going to be national champions."
So, did hundreds of Auburn fans jammed into the lobby of the stately Roosevelt to give the team a hero's welcome.
"Everybody there was super excited," Del Greco said. "My family was there and we had never experienced anything like that before. All the fans and the families were really enjoying the euphoria of the big win."
Campbell soaked up the atmosphere in the French Quarter hours after leading his team to victory.
"That night I can remember walking down Bourbon Street with my index finger in the air, thinking we had won it all," Campbell said.
'I was just shocked'
The euphoria of one of the sweetest victories in Auburn history soon turned to bitter disappointment.
In those days, selectors like the Associated Press and UPI didn't announce college football's National Champion until at least the following day once votes were counted.
Like many of his teammates, Campbell heard the news over the car radio as his family drove from New Orleans back to Auburn. He couldn't believe what he heard.
No. 5 Miami had jumped No. 3 Auburn and been declared the National Champion after defeating the Huskies. Even though No. 2 also lost, Auburn somehow didn't move in the polls. They were stuck at No. 3 despite having won on New Year's Day and defeating seven bowl teams in what was arguably the toughest schedule in college football that season.
"I was just shocked," Campbell said. "I couldn't believe it. It just didn't make any sense. To find out the next day they had leapfrogged Miami from fifth to first left us third when we were the only team that won, it was a horrible feeling. It was terrible."
Del Greco had a different experience as one of only about 10 players who flew back to Montgomery on the team plane. He learned the news by telephone once he returned to campus.
"I remember getting off the plane and asking (Sports Information Director) David Housel when they were going to find out. I wanted to know, so I told David to please call me as soon as he knew."
When the phone rang and he picked up the receiver, Del Greco knew the news wasn't good as soon as he heard Housel's voice.
"They didn't pick us," Housel told him.
Del Greco, who today hosts the state's top sports talk radio show from Red Mountain in Birmingham every morning after a stellar 17-year career in the NFL, can still rattle off reasons Auburn should've been crowned National Champions.
"We played seven bowl teams that year," he said. "We played five teams who had an off week before they played us. We had a really good football team. It still hurts to this day."
Looking back, Campbell said it's not as surprising to figure out why voters shortchanged the Tigers, even though he says it was wrong.
Auburn was still a program on the rise in 1983, while Nebraska was heralded as the best team in the history of college football. Miami coach Howard Schnellenberger had intensely lobbied the media and voters in the weeks leading up to the Orange Bowl with his characteristic flair, declaring that if Nebraska was the best team in the country by far, that game should decide the national champion.
It worked.
"People were saying they were the greatest college football team to ever walk on a blade of grass," Campbell said. "They said there was no way Miami could even stay on the field with them. And so when Miami upset them, it was a huge thing."
Del Greco agreed.
"They had made that Nebraska team out to be the best college football team ever," he said. "Look at the names on that roster, because they were considered unbeatable. I think that has more to do with why Miami was given so much credit for that win."
While the team was crushed, perspective wasn't so hard to regain. The players knew what real pain felt like.
Tested by tragedy
A season that ended with a celebration in New Orleans began with a funeral.
The 1983 team was tested by the fire of tragedy before the first game. The death of fullback Greg Pratt in the sweltering heat of summer drills had devastated the young men and the coaching staff, just as it saddened the entire Auburn Family. It also brought the team together in a powerful way no game ever could.
"The most tragic part of the year was Greg Pratt dying the first day of summer camp," Del Greco said. "It shook all of us. Coach Dye had come in two years earlier and talked about being a team and everybody working together. We all had to deal with that in different ways. I had never had to deal with anything like that in my life."
Before the tragedy, the pieces had finally begun to fall into place for Auburn football.
Auburn had been transformed by the hiring of Coach Pat Dye in 1981 and the infamously brutal spring and winter workouts that followed. Several dozen players walked away. Those who survived took their first steps on the journey to the school's first SEC Championship since 1957.
There were key landmarks on the road to New Orleans and Auburn's return to glory.
Dye and his staff signed Bo Jackson, Auburn beat Alabama 23-22 in 1982 and then defeated Doug Flutie and Boston College in the 1983 Tangerine Bowl.
It was a team destined for great things. They just didn't know overcoming a tragedy would be part of their journey.
"The coaches did a great job helping us deal with that, and we became a lot closer," Del Greco said. "We kind of played the season for him. Coach Dye will tell you to this day, the 1983 team or his first year may be the most important team he ever had. They bought in to what he knew that it took to be a championship team."
Regardless of what the polls said, they were champions. Sugar Bowl champions. SEC champions. Champions of the heart that would inspire teams to come.
More than winning trophies, they gave the Auburn Family would it had wanted for so long.
Hope.
That's the real story of the 1983 Auburn Tigers.