Garnet and Great

Pat Carter and the catch -- and national championship -- that almost was

If you were at Doak in 1987, or glued to the annual TV Game of the Century that was FSU - Miami, then you recall the heart stopping finish. Ronald Lewis caught a TD in the back of the end zone, just a hair from the end line, to bring the Noles to within one point. Then, with 42 seconds left, Bobby Bowden rolled the dice. Forget the dadgum extra point. It was win the game and a possible national championship on a two-point conversion attempt.

That's where Pat Carter played his biggest role as an FSU tight end. Pat went on to have a decade-long NFL career, followed by a coaching gig at Detroit. But among his biggest football regrets is the two-point pass play that he never laid a single finger on. He joined us recently to look back at the highlights and lowlights of his Seminole career.

What would you consider your biggest win at FSU?

"I guess to me it would have to be the Florida game my senior year, just for the simple fact that we finally got one after losing the first three. I knew if I didn't get this one I was going to be shut out. And I just didn't want that to happen."

Talk about a game that probably isn't your favorite -- the '87 game against MIami?

"That was a tough one. We just didn't close it. We had the game and we didn't take care of our business as we should have. And we lost to a really good team. Now they weren't a better team. And it's funny, every time I saw Coach Bowden he said that the '87 team was his best team. And we didn't even win it. But Miami was the only one we lost."

It came down to the two point conversion and the pass to you in the end zone, which was just a little short.

"Yeah, it was short. It was supposed to go to the back corner pylon. And when I looked up I saw the ball was short. I wish I just could've been able to make a play back there -- maybe just tipped it up to myself. But unfortunately it fell short. And the Miami players, they always like to make the claim they were in the right position. But if Danny (McManus) had thrown that to the back pylon, they would've been done. That's one of the plays we always practiced, and it's unfortunate we didn't execute it."

Was there a debate on the sidelines about whether to go for two or not?

How Florida Was Ordered To Play Florida State

  1958: FSU's Bobby Renn returns the opening kickoff 78 yards to the UF 15

Separating Fact from Fiction

by PJD3883

It would be difficult to fully comprehend the struggle that Florida State University endured to schedule a football game verses the University of Florida without first explaining the birth of the animosity between the two schools.

The Beginning...

House Bill No. 361, commonly know as the Buckman Act, condensed all state universities into three schools.

 Florida State College, in Tallahassee was renamed the Florida State College for Women, and would remain in Tallahassee.

Florida A&M School for Negroes, as it was known in those days, was established and it also was located in Tallahassee.

The University of Florida was moved from Lake City to Gainesville.

The Schools operated in their segregated modes for the next thirty-eight (38) years, but World War II began to make Florida Lawmakers rethink their stance on gender segregation.

The war had created a gender imbalance. The University of Florida, had empty buildings and half-empty classrooms, while FSCW was experiencing over-crowded conditions.

The idea of establishing coeducational institutions first officially came up for debate when the State's Board of Control met in March of 1945. There was ample justification to make such a move, but the Board tabled the matter.

The State Legislature remained concerned, but they likewise failed to act on the matter.

The end of World War II changed all of that.