1956 Orange Bowl
| 1956 Orange Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 2, 1956 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1955 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Burdine Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Miami, Florida | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 76,561 | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | CBS | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Tom Harmon & Chris Schenkel | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1956 Orange Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Maryland Terrapins. The game was played on January 2, because New Year's Day was a Sunday.
Oklahoma and Maryland were both champion of the Big Seven Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference and both were undefeated and ranked in the top 3. This was Oklahoma's 9th conference title under Wilkinson and 10th straight overall, with a 30 game winning streak. Maryland shared the ACC title with Duke, though the Terrapins reached the Orange Bowl for the first time since 1954, which was also against Oklahoma. Tatum had coached the Sooners in 1946 before departing for Maryland.
Maryland scored on a 15 yard touchdown run by Ed Vereb to make it 6-0 at halftime. The Sooners took over in the second half, starting with Tommy McDonald's 32 yard punt return that gave them the ball at the Terrapin 46. Seven plays later, McDonald score on a 4 yard touchdown run, the highlight being the Sooner offense running 3 plays in 38 seconds. The next Sooner possession used the hurry-up offense again, leading to a Jay O'Neal touchdown sneak to make it 14-6. Maryland tried to narrow the lead, but Jerry Tubbs intercepted a pass at the Sooner 26. Maryland tried to score again in the fourth, even reaching Oklahoma's 30. However, Carl Dodd intercepted Lynn Beightol's pass and returned it 82 yards for the touchdown, sealing the victory for the Sooners and the championship.
The Terrapins did not return to the Orange Bowl again until 2002. As for the Sooners, they reached the Orange Bowl two years later, in 1958. The win streak went to 47 until it ended in November 1957.
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