The 1979 Tangerine Bowl was an American

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

that was played on December 22, 1979 at

Orlando Stadium Orlando Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Soweto, a township in Johannesburg, in Gauteng province in South Africa. It is the home venue for Orlando Pirates Football Club, a professional soccer team that plays in the Premier Soccer League a ...

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. The game matched the

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers (also known as the Fighting Tigers) are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in Division I of the National Collegiat ...

against the

Wake Forest Demon Deacons The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Wake Forest University, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Assoc ...

. It was the final contest of the

1979 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1979 NCAA Division I-A football season saw the Alabama Crimson Tide bring home a national title with a perfect 12–0 season. The title was Alabama's 11th claimed, and their 6th Associated Press awarded title. This was an extremely dominan ...

for both teams. The game ended in a 34–10 victory for the Tigers.

Teams

The game matched the

of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

against the

of the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

. The Tigers had a conference record of and the Demon Decons had a conference record of . The game was the first bowl game featuring the Tigers and the Demon Deacons, and was their third overall meeting. LSU led the series heading into the game. The teams' first meeting was in 1960, when the Tigers defeated the Demon Deacons 16–0. The teams also played in 1978, with LSU prevailing 13-11 at Baton Rouge. LSU entered the matchup looking to end a four-game bowl skid, dating to a 33-15 decision over

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State be ...

in the

1971 Sun Bowl The 1971 Sun Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game between the LSU Tigers and the Iowa State Cyclones. Background LSU tied for 6th in the Southeastern Conference while the Cyclones tied for 4th in the Big Eight Conference. This was the ...

Finale for "Cholly Mac"

The game was the last for LSU coach

Charles McClendon Charles Youmans McClendon (October 17, 1923 – December 6, 2001), also known as "Cholly Mac", was an American college football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Louisiana State University (LSU) from 1962 to 1979, compilin ...

, who was stepping down after 18 seasons at the helm of the Bayou Bengals.

Bo Rein Robert Edward Rein (July 20, 1945 – January 10, 1980) was an American football and baseball player and football coach. He was a two-sport athlete at Ohio State University and served as the head football coach at North Carolina State Universi ...

was named McClendon's successor 22 days prior to the bowl. Ironically, Rein coached

North Carolina State North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina sy ...

to victory over Wake Forest en route to the 1979 ACC championship. The Wolfpack, however, did not play in a bowl game, while three other ACC teams which finished below NC State (Wake Forest, Clemson and North Carolina), did. McClendon had been at LSU since 1955. He was defensive coordinator under

Paul Dietzel Paul Franklin Dietzel (September 5, 1924 – September 24, 2013) was an American college football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head coach at Louisiana State University (1955–1961), the United States Military Aca ...

from 1955–61, helping the Tigers win the national championship in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

. Dietzel left to coach

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

following the 1961 season. In 1978, Dietzel returned to LSU as its athletic director. He was fired in February 1982 after the LSU Board of Supervisors discovered gross financial mismanagement within the school's athletic department under Dietzel's watch.

Game summary

Scoring summary

Statistics

Aftermath

LSU and Wake Forest have not played each other in football since this game. The victory gave McClendon a final record of 137-59-7. He still holds LSU records for longest tenure and most victories. He was named Executive Director of the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

in 1980 after serving as its president in 1979. Following his death in 2001, LSU's football practice fields were named in McClendon's honor. No LSU coach after McClendon lasted longer than five seasons until

Les Miles Leslie Edwin Miles (born November 10, 1953) is a former American football coach. He most recently served as the head coach at Kansas. His head coaching career began with the Oklahoma State Cowboys, where he coached from 2001 to 2004. Following t ...

, who coached 11 full seasons (2005–15). Miles was fired after four games of the 2016 season. Bo Rein perished in a plane crash on January 10, 1980. Former LSU All-American

Jerry Stovall Jerry Lane Stovall (born April 30, 1941), nicknamed "Mr. Everything", is an American former football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He played college football for the LSU Tigers, where he was a unanimous selection to the ...

, the runner-up for the

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy ( ; also known simply as the Heisman) is awarded annually since 1935 to the top player in college football. It is considered the most prestigious award in the sport and is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust followin ...

in 1962, McClendon's first year as head coach, was named Rein's successor. Paul Dietzel was fired as LSU's athletic director in early 1982. The LSU Board of Supervisors cited mismanagement of athletic department finances as the reason for Dietzel's dismissal. LSU has returned to Orlando three times to play in the Tangerine Bowl's successor, the

Citrus Bowl The Citrus Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group that also organizes the Pop-Tarts Bowl and Florida Classic. The g ...

. The Tigers lost 30-25 to

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

and 19-17 to

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and 21-17 to Notre Dame in

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, while defeating

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29-9 in December 2016. Wake Forest did not return to a bowl game until the

1992 Independence Bowl The 1992 Independence Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game between the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and the Oregon Ducks. Background The Ducks finished 6th in the Pac-10 Conference. The Demon Deacons rebounded from a 1–3 start to win s ...

. The Demon Deacons have played in only one bowl in Florida since this game, the

2007 Orange Bowl The 2007 FedEx Orange Bowl game was a college football Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl game following the 2006 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The game was played on January 2, 2007, at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The g ...

, which they lost 24-13 to Louisville.

References

{{Wake Forest Demon Deacons bowl game navbox

Tangerine Bowl Tangerine Bowl may refer to: * Tangerine Bowl (1947–1982), a college football bowl game now known as the Citrus Bowl * Tangerine Bowl (2001–2003), three editions of the college football bowl game originally known as the Blockbuster Bowl and now ...

Citrus Bowl (game) LSU Tigers football bowl games Wake Forest Demon Deacons football bowl games