• Burton "Buddy" Reynolds was an all-state RB from West Palm Beach who originally committed to Miami but was persuaded by Coach Tom Nugent to switch to Florida State.
• Buddy was also influenced by a high school friend, Dick Howser, who played baseball at FSU (and later coached the Seminoles as well as managed the 1985 World champion Kansas City Royals and has the FSU baseball stadium named for him).
• Nugent teased Reynolds by telling him that the university wanted him so much they named a freshman girls' dorm on campus Reynolds Hall in his honor. "My own dorm filled with beautiful women," reminisced Burt many years later.

Nugent thought that Reynolds could help his second Seminole team navigate its tougher schedule as the school moved toward major college status.

• Buddy bypassed the freshman team and earned a spot on the varsity immediately.
• Burt scored a TD in the 47-6 romp over Louisville on the road. It was the first game in which the Seminoles had faced black players. The Cardinals had three, including Lenny Lyles, who would later start for the Baltimore Colts.
• On October 23, FSU visited Auburn. Reynolds provided the highlight in the 33-0 loss when he broke away for a 54-yard run before DB Bobby Freeman ran him down. In later years, Burt revised the story to give credit to Fob James, future Alabama governor, for the tackle. "It was me," said Freeman 30 years later, "but I don't know that it makes a whole lot of difference to the hundreds of millions of Chinese out there."
• HB James was one of the Tiger stars, ripping off a 37-yarder. Reynolds gained more yards on his run that the Seminoles netted for the whole game: 44.

The Seminoles finished strong to earn a bowl bid.

• The Auburn loss evened the record to 3-3. But FSU then won the remaining five games: VMI (33-19), Furman (33-14), at Stetson (47-6), Southern Miss (19-18), and at Tampa (13-0).
• Finishing 8-3, the Seminoles played in the Sun Bowl against the hometown team, Texas Western (now Texas El Paso).
• The squad had a great time on both the U.S. and Mexican sides of the Rio Grande. Partly as a result of the distractions but mainly because FSU was no match for the Miners, the host school won easily, 47-20. Another mitigating factor was the loss of sophomore QB Lee Corso to a leg injury early in the contest.

Reynolds looked forward to his sophomore season.

• He filled the #1 HB slot in fall practice until he jumped for a pass and landed awkwardly on his knee. He went home to West Palm Beach to consult a physician there. "I would make a mistake I would regret the rest of my life. I went to a surgeon, and he said the knee needed surgery."
• Years later, a specialist who re-operated on the damaged knee opined that the previous work had been done by a butcher.
• Already active in little theatre back in West Palm, Burt decided to go to New York to start an acting career. Soon he was in Hollywood but getting only bit parts.

After two seasons away from football, he returned to Tallahassee.

• Visiting Nugent at his home, Reynolds received an invitation from the coach to return to the team.
• Burt was not only out of shape but two-three steps slower after the operation. "It would be a year I would like to forget."
• In the game against North Carolina State, star RB Dick Christy got behind Buddy for a 47-yard TD. Films confirmed that Christy stepped out of bounds while running his pattern, making him an ineligible receiver, but the officials missed it. As a result, the Wolfpack defeated Florida State 7-0. According to Reynolds, Nugent told the team at halftime that, if they lost the game it would be Reynolds' fault." "No one could feel as bad as I felt. In the last half, I sat on the bench with no one within 20 yards of me. ... I thought, 'To hell with it.'"
• In his brief return to the gridiron in 1957, Reynolds ran the ball three times and caught two passes. That made his career stats 19 runs for 146 (7.7 average), six receptions for 76 yd, two TD, and one INT.
• "If I hadn't busted my knee, I'd be a high school football coach in West Palm today," Reynolds has said.

The man who went on to become the #1-ranked male box office draw in the world has proved to be one of the best benefactors of the FSU program.

• Reynolds and Bobby Bowden designed the arrow helmet together.
• But bought the team's first set of gold pants in 1979 as well as the first set of all-garnet uniforms, which some of his Hollywood pals helped design.
• Another Reynolds Hall, Burt Reynolds Hall near Doak Campbell Stadium, houses many of today's football players.

Tom Nugent

Forrest "Fob" James

Dick Christy

Danny McManus fires in 1988 Fiesta Bowl

Deion Sanders

Steve Taylor directs Nebraska

Dexter Carter

Nebraska leading 28-24. 7 minutes left in the game. Cornhusker 1st-and-goal 3y from a commanding lead. The Seminoles need a miracle ...

FSU came into the New Year's Day game in Tempe AZ ranked 3rd while Nebraska was 5th.

• Both teams finished the 1987 regular season with 10 wins and one loss to a rival nemesis.
• Miami had won a 26-25 decision in Tallahassee on October 3 by knocking down a 2-pt conversion pass in the last minute.
• Nebraska had also lost at home to Oklahoma 17-7 on November 21.
• It was the fifth meeting between the schools but the first not played in Lincoln. Each team had won two.

Tom Osborne's Huskers jumped out to a 14-0 lead in Q1 before a sun-bathed but chilly standing-room only crowd of 72,112, third largest in Fiesta Bowl history.

• TB Keith Jones scored from the 3 6:10 into the game following Richard Bell's 27y punt return to the 18. Later, the usually reliable FSU special teams faltered again, allowing Dana Brinson to return a punt 52y to paydirt with 1:10 left.
• FSU owned Q2, tallying 21 unanswered points as QB Danny McManus got hot. 16-30/199 in the first half, Danny hit WR Herb Gainer with a 10y TD pass 4:30 into the second period after a Deion Sanders INT and found Gainer again on a 25y strike with 44 seconds left. In between, FB Dayne Williams plunged in from the 3 to cap a 6-play 75y drive following LB Paul McGowen's fumble recovery.

The lead changed hands three more times in the second half.

• QB Steve Taylor's 3y run 3:19 into Q3 tied the game at 21. Then the Seminoles retook the lead on a 32y FG goal by Derek Schmidt — the NCAA's all-time leading scorer at the time — with 7:49 remaining in the period. But Nebraska drove to take a 28-24 advantage on backup TB Tyreese Knox's 4y run with only 0:40 left in Q3.
• The final period was packed with big plays and excitement. The score remained the same when the situation described at the beginning of this article took place – UN 1st-and-goal at the 3. Faced with the prospect of falling at least 6 points behind and possibly 10, the Seminole D forced Knox to fumble, and DT Eric Hayes pounced on the pigskin at the 3.
• Still, 97y and the Black Shirt D separated the Noles from the go-ahead TD with slightly less than 7 min to play. But McManus cooly moved his unit downfield, primarily through the air. He completed four, two to RB Dexter Carter for 57y, to put the spheroid on the 2 – essentially the same position Nebraska had been in minutes earlier.

FSU nearly squandered the opportunity.

• Cornhusker CB Charles Fryar stuffed Williams for a yard loss on first down.
• The Huskers gang-tackled Carter on a sweep left for no gain. That's when the Seminoles were called for only their second penalty — a personal foul on Carter for kicking one of the tacklers — and it almost beat them. The infraction pushed FSU back to the 18.
• McManus dumped his third-down pass over the middle for only 3 yards.
• On fourth down, Bowden eschewed a FG that would have cut the margin to 1 with only 3 min left. Instead, McManus made the clutch play of the game to cement the MVP award. The senior fired a pass to WR Ronald Lewis wide open in the EZ to give the Seminoles the lead 31-28 and put Nebraska's back to the wall.

A big mistake sealed Nebraska's doom.

• Taking to the air to mount a comeback, Taylor completed a 56y pass and run to the Seminole 2. However, the gain was erased by an illegal formation penalty with 2:41 to go. "The TE lined up on the wrong side of the formation, which made him an ineligible receiver. It was a tragic play as far as we were concerned," Osborne said afterwards.
• The Noles then put pressure on Taylor, forcing him into an intentional grounding penalty. Faced with 4th-and-35, Nebraska ran out of downs, and FSU ran out the clock.

The Seminole field general set two Fiesta Bowl records and tied another.

• McManus's 375y passing broke the record of 347 set by another Seminole, Gary Huff, in the first Fiesta Bowl in 1971.
• His 3 TD passes tied a record, and his 51 attempts surpassed the 50 thrown by Miami's Vinny Testaverde just the year before against Penn State.
• "I don't even throw 51 times in practice. I haven't thrown for 300 yards since high school," said McManus, whose previous best college game was 275y in the 1987 season-opener against Texas Tech. "I was just glad our receiver (Lewis) was wide open on the last play. That was the easiest pass I had."

Florida State finished #2 in the final AP poll behind Miami, which defeated previous #1 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. It would mark the start of an incredible 12-year run of top 5 finishes for FSU.

• His position coach was Bobby Bowden, an assistant on Bill Peter­son's fabulous staff that included Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells, Don James, Dan Henning, and Jim Meyer.
• T. K. remembers Bobby as animated and intense but not a screamer. "Coach Bowden would chew us up one side and then down the other if we didn't perform up to his expectations."
• The ex-FSU president says he made the varsity based on his blocking rather than his catching ability. "I couldn't catch a cold."
• Weatherall relates an incident that illustrates Bowden's ap­proach.

My first year on the varsity was my sophomore year, and our first game was against Texas Christian. We put in this play called 60 Divide. ... I was supposed to run a curl route or zero route ... But this was a divide, which meant we were going to do something different. I would run an out. Our TE would run a curl; and our RB, Larry Green, would hit the middle of that seam. We practiced that play all summer long ... It was perfect in practice. Green would be all alone every time ...

We got into the Texas Christian game and fell behind 7-3 in the fourth quarter. The 60 Divide was set up perfectly - left hash, 35y line. We called 60 Divide, and I went in there and ran the wrong zero route and ran flat into Larry Green. The ball bounced off of Larry's helmet, and Texas Christian inter­cepted the ball and almost scored.

I ran off the field, and there was Coach Bowden staring at me and saying, "Are you stupid or something?" We lost that game 7-3. [Note: The actual score was 10-0.]

• T. K. got in Bobby's doghouse again the following season.

I remember playing against Houston in 1965, and we had a play where the receiver tripped and fell down, and the DB would run away. And then all of a sudden, we would throw the ball over there. I did that. QB Ed Pritchett rolled out, and I got up and was 25y behind everybody. Pritchett threw this beautiful pass, and it just floated up there, and I said to myself, "I got this puppy." I throttled it back a little bit, and that ball started coming down more like a punt, and I realized I had misjudged the throw. I turned the afterburners back on but missed it off the tip of my fingers. I looked at Bowden on the sidelines, and he started on me the moment I began jogging over there. I sat out three series before he put me back in.

• In that simpler era, the assistants took care of their boys off the field as well as on. The receivers went to the Bowden residence on Sunday after church and Bobby and his wife Anne fed them hamburgers and hot dogs. Many of the players hunted and would leave their shotguns at the Bowden house, and there would always be cases of shells for them. (Was that an NCAA violation then?)

Bowden left Florida State after the '65 season to become the O coor­dinator at West Virginia. After four years, he became head man in Mor­gantown.

Dr. T. K. Weatherall and Coach Bobby Bowden

Bobby and Anne Bowden in younger days

The Sod Cemetery at Florida State contains pieces of the turf from stadiums where the Seminoles scored road victories.

The Sod Cemetery became famous during Bobby Bowden's early years in Tallahassee when his Road Warriors scored wins at Florida, LSU, Nebras­ka, Ohio State, and Notre Dame. However, the cemetery actually began in 1962.

• The 2-1-1 Seminoles of third-year Coach Bill Peterson traveled to Athens GA to face a 2-1 Bulldog squad that ranked in the nation's top 10 in both O and D.
• At the end of the Thursday practice, Dean Coyle Moore, a member of the Athletic Board, issued a challenge to the team: "Bring back some sod from between the hedges at Georgia."
• The morning of the game, 18 Seminoles woke up with diarrhea. "For­tunately, they responded to medication," recalled team physician Bob Johnson.
• Early in the contest, the FSU D stopped Georgia on the 1 following first-and-goal from the 6.
• Ken Sussom returned a punt 38y in Q2 to the Georgia 26. Nine plays later, "kicking specialist" Doug Messer split the uprights from the 17 to give the visitors a 3-0 lead.
• The Seminoles marched 80y in 16 plays in Q3, with the TD coming on a 6y pass from Eddie Feely to E Hank Sytsma. The big plays of the drive were an 18y Steve Tensi pass to Sytsma and another of 17y to Winfred Bailey as well as a 14y run by speed merchant Phil Spoon­er. A bad pass from C caused holder Feely to toss to Gene Roberts for two instead and an 11-0 lead.
• FB Dave Snyder intercepted a pass from Bulldog QB Larry Rake­straw and raced 15y for the final score of the game in Q4. Another INT in the closing seconds set up another chance but time ran out with FSU on the 1.

Afterwards, captain Gene McDowell remembered Dean Moore's challenge and grabbed some grass as a souvenir of the 18-0 triumph.

• The team presented the grass to Moore at the Monday practice.
• Moore and Peterson buried the grass at the edge of the practice field and placed a tombstone-like plaque to commemorate the triumph.
• The '62 team also brought home grass from Georgia Tech and Auburn where they earned 14-14 ties.
• Over time, the tradition changed to taking home a chunk of the turf of the enemy field. Eventually, it was decided to enshrine only road vic­tories where the Noles were underdogs, with all ACC championship games and all bowl games counting as Sod Games.
• The Seminole captains continue the tradition each season by gather­ing their teammates to explain the significance of the tradition before leaving for a sod games. Victorious captains return with a piece of the opponent's turf to be buried in the Sod Cemetery outside the gates of the practice field.

Fred Biletnikoff

Coach Bill Peterson

Steve Spurrier

Fred Biletnikoff, Raiders

• Coach Bill Peterson and his staff recruited Biletnikoff out of Tech Me­morial in Erie PA.
• After playing on the freshman team in 1961, Fred was hurt early in his sophomore season but came back to catch his first TD pass of his col­lege career, a 66-yarder from Steve Tensi against Georgia Tech at Grant Field. The score put FSU ahead 14-7, but Tech eventually gained a tie at 14, one of three Seminole deadlocks that season.
• Peterson said of his receiver, "Biletnikoff was a great athlete who could have played any position for us. After his injury, we could have kept him out and preserved a year of eligibility – but he wanted to play in those late games."
• In the 20-7 loss to Florida in Gainesville, Fred jumped offsides three times in the first half alone. FSU coaches accused the Gators of shout­ing FSU's offensive signals, an illegal tactic. Coach Ray Graves denied the charge.

Biletnikoff began to blossom his junior year under the tutelage of a new re­ceivers coach named Bobby Bowden.

• In the opener against Miami in the Orange Bowl, he capped a long drive by snagging a 23y touchdown pass from Tensi. Then he caught a 17-yard­er to put the Noles up 14-0 at halftime. Playing defense as well, Bilet­nikoff grabbed a George Mira pass and ran 99y for his third touchdown to spark the 24-0 triumph. The game highlighted the 4-5-1 season in which FSU didn't exploit the Tensi-Biletnikoff enough.
• Peterson decided to follow his gut and emphasize the passing attack in 1964 despite the opposition of some of his assistants. When Vince Gibson left to take a position at Tennessee, he urged Tallahassee Dem­ocrat sportswriter Bill McGrotha to talk to Peterson. "Don't let him start Tensi. He can't do it."
• The 6'5" Tensi and 6'1" Biletnikoff worked out all spring, practicing every possible pattern.
• It wasn't until the fourth game that the passing O began clicking. Once again, Biletnikoff burned the Hurricanes, catching nine balls and scoring both touchdowns in the 14-0 victory.
• The shocking 48-6 homecoming victory over #5 Kentucky on October 10 catapulted the Seminoles into the national limelight. Dick Dunkel proclaimed the game one of the biggest upsets in the history of his Dunkel Index ratings. Fred had a 43y reception for the second touchdown and grabbed another in the second half.
• Georgia lay in wait the following week in Athens. Showing no sign of a letdown, the Noles jumped to a 10-0 lead thanks to two fumble recov­eries. But the Dogs rallied to take a 14-10 lead early in the fourth quarter. The Tensi-Biletnikoff combo pulled it out, connecting on a fourth down to keep the drive going before Freddie grabbed an aerial between two defen­ders for the winning touchdown from the 20.
• The following week Tensi completed 21 passes, 11 of them to Biletni­koff, both school records. But despite outgaining Virginia Tech 423­191, the Seminoles lost in Blacksburg 20-11. The touchdown was Tensi-to-Bi­letnikoff for 4y. When the frustrated wide receiver threw the ball into the stands, boos and jeeres erupted.
• After larruping USM 34-0, FSU visited Houston. Writers accused Peter­son of covering up the fact that Fred would not play because of a char­ley horse. The coach finally stated that Biletnikoff would start, which he did. However, after that one play, he came out and didn't return as the Cougars gained a 13-13 tie because FSU missed an extra point and, late in the game, a field goal from the seven.
• Against North Carolina State the next Saturday in Tallahassee, Fred caught two TD passes in the 28-6 victory.

That brought the Gators, fresh off an open date, to Tallahassee for the first time.

• Since Florida led the nation in pass defense, the game would pit the unstoppable force against the immovable object. The UF jerseys said "Go for Seven" in honor of the 6-0 advantage the Gators held in the series.
• FSU started shakily, losing a fumble on its 19. But when Florida drove to the 1, they returned the favor with a fumbled snap. Nevertheless, the Noles played from deep in their territory into Q2. Finally, another Gator fumble gave the Noles the ball at their 45. Tensi struck immedi­ately, finding Biletnikoff behind two defenders. Fred raced into the end zone untouched.
• The game remained 7-0 into Q4 when two field goals added to the lead, which proved important when sophomore Steve Spurrier came off the bench to lead a touchdown drive. After a failed onsides kick, FSU drove for another field goal and their first victory over their snotty rivals from Gaines­ville, 16-7.

The 8-1-1 regular season and #10 ranking earned FSU a bid to the Gator Bowl to play Oklahoma.

• While preparing for the bowl, Biletnikoff learned that he had made the consensus All-American team, a first for any Seminole.
• Tensi had a field day in Jacksonville, 23-for-36 for 303y and 5 TDs.
• Biletnikoff had 13 receptions for 191y and 4 touchdowns.
• "We gave them a show, didn't we?" said an exuberant Peterson after the 36-19 romp. It was the greatest passing performance in any bowl to that point and added to FSU's national reputation as an aerial cir­cus.

Immediately after the game, Biletnikoff signed with the Oakland Raiders underneath the goal posts. Then he completed his FSU career by getting married under the goal posts at Doak Campbell Stadium. He then went on to star in the NFL for the Raiders until he retired after the '78 season.

• Fred was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988.
• Three years later, he earned a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame.
• Raider coach John Madden emphatically remarked: "Fred tops my list of all-time great receivers."

Shawn Jones


William Floyd

Scott Sisson

Dorsey Levens

Marlon Williams

Danny Kanell



Reggie Freeman

Reference: Seminoles! The First Forty Years, by Bill McGrotha

Top of Page

Joe Majors

With Florida State set to play in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, it's appropriate to go back in time to the first Peach Bowl, the forerunner of the Chick-fil-A Bowl, when FSU placed LSU. The game matched two head coaches who had been assistants on Paul Dietzel's staff in Baton Rouge in the 1950s.

The independent Seminoles finished the regular season 8-2.

• The losses were to Florida in Tallahassee, 9-3, when the Gator defense held Bill Peterson's aerial circus to 17 fewer points than they would score in any other game that season. The other loss also came at home to Virginia Tech 40-22.
• The key victories were 24-14 at Maryland in the season opener, 48-7 at North Carolina State, and 40-20 over Houston in Jacksonville. The last game was a big upset over a Cougar team that had beaten Tulsa 100-6, accumulating 762y.
• Junior QB Bill Cappleman (Dunedin FL) had the best statistical season of any FSU quarterback to that point: 162-for-287 for 2,410y and 25 touchdown. His main target, All-American receiver Ron Sellers, broke the national record for career pass yardage.

LSU won seven and lost three.

• The Tigers' defeats came at Miami 30-0, to Archie Manning and Ole Miss 27-24, and to Alabama, as usual, 16-7.
• Charlie McClendon's season included victories over four Southwest Conference foes: Texas A&M (13-12), at Rice (21-7), Baylor (48-16), and TCU (10-7), in addition to traditional foes Kentucky (13-3), Mississippi State (20-16), and at Tulane (34-10).
• A junior quarterback also led the Tigers, lefty Mike Hillman from Lockport LA.

35,545 fans turned out on a cold, rainy night (42º with wind gusting to 25 mph) in Fulton County Stadium to watch a game that caused the UPI reporter to ask in his lead: "What is the Peach Bowl going to do for an encore? The first annual Peach Bowl was a dilly ..."

• LSU fumbled the opening kickoff, and FSU led 7-0 after only 15 seconds on a 37y run by Tom Bailey (Miami) and the PAT by Grant Guthrie.
• After LSU turned the ball over on each of its first four possessions, the Noles struck again on the first play of the second quarter. Cappleman hit Bill Gunter for a 75y touchdown. The failed extra point left the score 13-0.
• The Tigers finally came to life when Craig Burns returned a punt 39y to paydirt. Mark Lumpkin's kick made it 13-7. Afterwards, Peterson said, "We had them in a hole early, but we could have played a better first half. That punt return turned it around." McClendon agreed that Burns' score "gave us momentum."
• Later in the period, Lumpkin booted a 32y field goal to make it 13-10 at the half.
• The Tigers dominated the third quarter with 14 unanswered points. TE Bob Hamlett (Bossier City) caught an 11y score from Hillman to climax the first possession of the second half. Then the southpaw threw another 11y touchdown, this one to Bill Stober (Rockford OH).
• FSU answered with 14 of their own in the fourth quarter to regain the lead. After being held to only one catch in the first three periods, Sellers caught two touchdown passes from Cappleman, one from the two to culminate a 72y drive and the other from the four after the Tigers fumbled away another kickoff. After failing on a two-point pass after the first touchdown, Cappleman hit 6'4" 235 LB Chip Glass to make it 27-24 with six minutes left.
• LSU began a drive from its 39 but faced 3rd-and-19 at the FSU 37 when Hillman drilled one down the middle that E Tommy Morel (New Orleans) took away from three defenders for 20y – just enough to move the chains. "That Morel, in that last drive, made one of the greatest clutch catches – in a crowd – that I ever saw," McClendon said.
• Maurice LeBlanc, an often-injured second-team running back who led all rushers with 97y in 14 carries, toted the pigskin to the 14. Hillman kept for 11, then LeBlanc carried it across for the go-ahead tally with 2:39 left. Lumpkin's kick made it a four-point game, 31-27.
• LSU survived a scare when CB Barton Frye (Baton Rouge) tipped a pass away from Sellers in the last seconds.

Hillman, not Cappleman, won the outstanding offensive player award while DE Buddy Millican (Baton Rouge) took defensive honors.

• "Actually, we beat them at their own game," McClendon observed. Hillman finished 16-29 for 229 while Cappleman was 21-41 for 221 with 1 interception. Morel had more yards, 103, on six catches than Sellers' 75 on 8 receptions.
• McClendon, as always, praised his defensee. "We mixed our defense in the second half. Our pass rush was effective and that was the difference." Peterson agreed, "Cappleman was thrown for losses more in this game than at any other time."

Bill Peterson (L) and Charles McClendon on LSU staff 1958

Bill Cappleman

Ron Sellers