Orange Blossom Classic

[FIUPride]

Sounds like a great opportunity here, lets make our plans now for a great event! I don't know about you, but I'm making our hotel reservations early. Here's the article from FIU's athletic site:

Monday, June 28, 2004

Florida A&M University and Florida International University
Announce Return of the Orange Blossom Classic

Florida A&M University and Florida International University announced Monday the return of the historic Orange Blossom Classic. The Nov. 27 match-up was finalized during a symbolic Signing Luncheon held at Don Shula’s Golf Club in Miami Lakes.

FAMU President Fred Gainous and FIU President Modesto A. Maidique, were joined by their athletic directors and head football coaches, Miami area dignitaries, Orange Bowl Committee officials and alumni for the event.

"This partnership between Florida A&M, Florida International and the Orange Bowl Committee is one that we believe will be very fruitful,” said FAMU Athletic Director Dr. Joseph P. Ramsey. “With the strong support of the Orange Bowl Committee, of the alumni and supporters of both institutions in the South Florida area, as well as the great tradition of the Orange Blossom Classic itself, we are looking forward to a great weekend in Miami."

"This marks a very significant period in our athletic history. Our goal will always be to place our program in a position to provide exposure and impact the growth and maturity of our program,” said FIU Athletic Director Rick Mello. “This event not only does this in that it will more than likely be the highest attended home athletic contest ever staged, but it will significantly impact the community from a financial standpoint. This game is also very significant because it will go along way in assisting us with the new NCAA attendance standard as we enter our transition period this season. I am very excited about this game and very appreciative of FAMU's willingness to enter into this partnership."

The contest between the two in-state universities promises to generate millions in revenue for South Florida because of strong support from fans, and deep student and alumni ties to the region. Additionally, a number of ancillary events, which include a fundraising event, “An Evening with Bill Cosby and FAMU,” a parade and a Battle of the Bands competition, are planned.

The legacy of the Orange Blossom Classic began in 1933 as a clash between Florida A&M College (FAMCEE) and Howard University of Washington, D.C. Then-FAMU President J.R.E. Lee arranged travel for Howard coaches and players by train to Jacksonville for the inaugural game. FAMU won that first game, 9-6, which marked the beginning of the Black College Bowl.

The Classic moved in 1947 to Miami, where it became a major sports event through the late 1960s. FAMU always faced off against a top opponent at the end of the regular season. In 1961, the Classic reached its zenith when 47,191 fans packed the Orange Bowl to witness FAMU take on Jackson (Miss.) State. After FAMU joined NCAA Division 1-AA, the Orange Blossom Classic continued as a part of FAMU’s regular season schedule through the ‘90s.

In the newly revived classic, the FAMU Rattlers will take on the FIU Golden Panthers at 1 p.m. during the Thanksgiving Weekend in Miami’s Orange Bowl.

[MaXx]

That sounds like an awesome event, should be very exciting. I like the logo too:

[FIUFanatic]

Very exciting indeed!! We should make plans to make that weekend a very special one. The logo is just fantastic, and with the collaboration of the Orange Bowl Committee, the prospect of it being successful are bright!!

Good job by Mello, Maidique, Strock and the whole gang!!

P.S. Anybody know how the season ticket campaign is going? Is there any "visible" marketing campaign going on? Please, let us out-of-towners know this situation...

[Devastator]

Hopefully there will be a 50/50 split in the crowd for this game,though most likely it will be a 65/35 in their favor. If we can come to this game with a winning record, that should help bring in a pro FIU crowd. Also I heard that FAMU has self reported 196 NCAA violations. Wonder how this will affect their program.

[ARod]

I can't wait for this event! Don Strock, Rick Mello, and Modesto Maidique have done an awesome job getting the Orange Blossom Classic together. If we can show up (fans and players - like I know we can) and win, this should create a nice in-state rivalry; especially if FAMU ever decides to move up to I-A.
And for a transition year (I-AA to I-A), this is a really competitive schedule. I think that with the consistency with the key players and the experience derived from past years, the players should definitely be able to get over the hump this upcoming year. And with that said, hopefully we can have some momentum coming in by winning the DON SHULA trophy (for the 1st time) the week before versus FAU.

[Mike]

I would like to see more information, publicity, and history, anything about the Orange Blossom Classic. Searching Google turned about nothing.

There is no mention that we are going to host the Orange Blossom Classic in the Orange Bowl every year. That needs to be clarified and made official. If we are going to play FA&M University on alternate years then we need another opponent. FAU is a candidate and we will be playing them every year. Is the FAU game scheduled for Joe Robbie Stadium every year? Once FAU builds their own stadium I would think they would want to move the game to their stadium the year they are considered the home team. We should move our annual game against FAU to the Orange Bowl for the Orange Blossom Classic during the alternate year when we are the home team.

This gives us two games in stadiums that hold over 50,000 seats.

[ARod]

I think alot of these issues need to be raised on Coach Strock's show (Strock Talk) on Wednesdays between 6:00pm-7:00pm on 790 AM. I think all of you raise intelligent questions, including the stadium and parking issues (in relation to the Season Tickets). As I recall, from time to time this past off-season, AD Rick Mello has even been on to answer questions. So again, I urge you all to tune in and bombard the host, Randy K. and the Coach with your questions and concerns. I try to listen as often as possible and even call in from time to time.
We should have the BEACON even publish this website address to make more students and alumni aware of our concerns and presence. A huge majority of other college fans and alumni from around the nation maintain message boards just like this in which discussions about all types of issues occur. If our AD and others involved with the program knew we existed, maybe these issues could be brought up. I've been a HUGE FIU fan for a long time now and just recently stumbled across this website recently!
Regarding involvement with the fans, why don't we have something similar to what FAU is doing:

Football to Celebrate the 4th
Join the team, the university and the city for the fireworks show.
June 30, 2004
Boca Raton -
Florida Atlantic University Head Football Coach Howard Schnellenberger will gather with the City of Boca Raton on the Boca Raton Campus to celebrate the Nation's Day of Independence, July 4th.
While the country celebrates the nation's accomplishments, the Owls' football team, that finished 11-3 and ranked no. 4 nationally, will celebrate NCAA Division I-A and Sun Belt Conference affiliation.
Coach Schnellenberger will address the crowd at 7:10 pm while the members of the football team will circulate through the crowd distributing their 2004 schedule and signing autographs.
The Athletics Department will also sponsor a tent, from 5:45 pm - 7:15 pm, where fans can pick up schedule cards, season ticket brochures as well as information on the Owl and Junior Owl Clubs.

I visit their website from time to time just to see what the competition is up to. And it looks like they are at least trying to get the fans involved. We should do something like that at the UP Stadium in conjunction with the City of Sweethingyer or at the BBC Stadium in conjunction with the City of North Miami (which has been doing it for 14 years!)
Heck, I bought some tickets for some family members last year and they had a blast at one of the games and have pledged to come back again this year! So again, I think that we need to just let the public know that we are out there and push the issue so that we won't be forgotten in the offseason!
And to those of you that post regularly, please tell family and friends so that we can get the headcount up at each of our games because we DO want to reach 15,000 and we DO want to transition to Div. I-A without any hang-ups. (And we don't just want to rely on the one big FIU vs FAMU game to get us over the hump)
What happened to that crowd that was there on Thursday, August 29, 2002 (a sellout crowd of 17,314) We need some type of print ups to hand out at other events.
Can someone please back me up on all these issues ;D Can I get a witness

[FIUFanatic]

From what I've read, the weekend of the Football game against FAMU, there will also be a basketball game versus FAMU on Friday afternoon/night. This is just good timing and preparation to make this weekend rivalry a success. Not just in terms of football, but also basketball will be involved.

[Mike]

Minotaur said:

Hopefully there will be a 50/50 split in the crowd for this game,though most likely it will be a 65/35 in their favor. If we can come to this game with a winning record, that should help bring in a pro FIU crowd. Also I heard that FAMU has self reported 196 NCAA violations. Wonder how this will affect their program.

Fla. A&M returns to MEAC 07/23/2004

After announcing it was leaving the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference last year, Florida A&M's football program was re-admitted to the conference on Wednesday in a move that might signal the end of the program's desire to jump from Division I-AA to I-A.

The MEAC also announced this week that it was stripping FAMU of 11 championships as punishment for reporting 196 NCAA violations, MEAC commissioner Dennis Thomas said.

Our football programs are like two ships passing in opposite directions. FAMU is de-emphasizing football by not moving to I-A while we are quickly becoming a strong I-A team. I don't see us playing FAMU in the future unless they want to use us for the I-A opponent they lose to every year and we want to use them for our annual I-AA team.

How will FAMU's decision to remain an I-AA team affect their relationship with the OBC and their relationship with FIU?

[FIUFan]

I don't know that FAMU is so much de-emphasizing football as much as the reality of their situation is starting to set in.

Hopefully the FIU faithful are attracted to this game in the Orange Bowl in big numbers, because sooner or later we're going to out-grow D-IAA FAMU and we'll need to schedule other marquee opponents (maybe Strock's alma mater Va Tech).

The Oragne Blossum Classic will be a proving ground for the Orange Bowl Committee that could show there is potnetial for FIU to draw big crowds and therefore attract marquee match-ups.

However, in economic terms, this is a 'demand push' model.