Adam Hendel
April 9, 2012

U In the 80’s

      Imagine marching to the middle of the field to call the coin toss during your biggest game of college football and the other team refused to shake hands and told you, “We are going to eat you alive!” This happened to Notre Dame during the orange bowl of  198* against the university of Miami. The U didn’t know what football was until they brought until coach Howard Schellenberger’s involvement. He was the reason for the tremendous amount of football success during the 1980’s. His virtue was his recruiting process. He decided to recruit from solely the dadeland area, bringing in the monsters of the University’s football team. From Tampa to south Miami, the recruits designated the area the State of Miami. The head coach would walk into the impoverished housing units and personally invite the best and sometimes poorest locals from Miami to play. The reason being was these were the most ferocious of all the American kids. Considering the street struggles during the 1980s, many of the upcoming high school players had parents locked up in prison. They saw football as their way up from the hood and the coach capitalized on that. What the team became was the reflection of the Miami local body outside of Coral Gables.
            When the University of Miami football players moved from liberty city to Coral Gables, they were surprised to find that there was another side to the city they had not seen. The segregation of Miami was so intense I’m sure it seemed like they were at a country club. However, even when in the light of the upscale school, they still let their inner Miami shine through. The players were like nothing anyone had seen. They would slaughter the other team, dance, taunt and even fight the other teams without mercy. They played without any restriction, which resembled their lives off the field in Miami.
            The Miami Hurricanes appalled most people, they were involved with countless arrests and some mix ups in south beach, but I understand their behavior as a movement. These kids were underprivileged their entire lives. To play in the giant orange bowl in front of the people they grew up with brought hometown pride, and their confidence couldn’t be broken. Everyone around them supported them like superstars. Uncle Luke from two live crew made the raunchiest booty music known today and often represented the university of Miami football team as a primary spectacle of what it means to be cool. The athletes ran with it, and so did the city of Miami. Everywhere else in the country was jealous or annoyed of Miami, except for the Miamians. All the showboating and taunting was just feeding the fire that brought in more supporters from the Miami area and only produced more revenue. The people of Miami have always been about the flash and glamour and this exemplified it.
            The 80s was an unregulated time, a free-for-all on the field and even in the cities walls. Even players like Michael Irving were doing cocaine during season until they were demanded by school authorities to clean up their act. Despite the attention from the football players, the school overtime became the prestigious school it is today. I feel that the school and the city of Miami are in parallel in this regard of shaping up over the past two decades. Miami doesn’t seem like the scary place it was known to be and now our football team is not considered hoodlums and gangsters, but they are still out there. The segregation is still just as bad. It was almost as if the university used overtown’s abilities for a few years and then went back to the way things were being segregated. Maybe it was too much for society to handle considering all the intense and new Miami trends, but I feel as if it was an era that was on the rise, but did not prevail with progress