Michigan Football: 5 most memorable Wolverine Bowl Games
By Joel Greer
January 1, 2000
Michigan 35, Alabama 34 (OT)
66th Orange Bowl Game
Pro Player Stadium, Miami, Florida
Still arguably one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL, Tom Brady was just cutting his teeth when he played for the Wolverines from 1996 through 1999.
Brady finally won the starting job in 1998 over Scott Dreisbach and led Michigan to a share of the Big Ten championship and a 45-31 victory over Arkansas in the 1999 Citrus Bowl.
During the 1999 season Brady won the battle with Drew Henson for the starting job and kept it during the second half of the season. His efforts helped Michigan win its final five games, including a 24-17 win over Ohio State and the overtime affair with the Crimson Tide.
In the Orange Bowl, Brady threw four touchdown passes, three to eventual NFL standout David Terrell. Brady’s final touchdown pass found the grasp of tight end Shawn Thompson on Michigan’s initial overtime possession.
The Crimson Tide scored a touchdown on their first possession and could have sent the game to a second overtime. Instead, the extra-point sailed wide right, and Michigan snuck out of Dodge with a one-point victory.
With the three TD passes included with 10 receptions, Terrell earned Orange Bowl MVP honors. finishing the game with 150 receiving yards. Brady finished his career going 34-of-46 for a career mark of 369 yards. That record stood until Chad Henne‘s 373-yard performance broke it in the 2008 Capital One Citrus Bowl.
We climbed aboard a well-stocked charter bus which pulled onto Hollywood Boulevard around 6 a.m. The group of four Michigan freshmen was about to experience a journey we’d like to forget.