From Quiet Start, Fiesta Bowl Now National Spectacle : College football: When Nebraska and Florida meet on Jan. 2, it will mark the third title game played in Tempe in nine years.

It began in 1971 as a way to showcase Arizona State’s football program.

Twenty-five years later, the Fiesta Bowl has become a showcase for all collegiate football, playing host to its third national championship game in nine years when No. 1 Nebraska plays No. 2 Florida on Jan. 2.

“People ask me, ‘How do you guys keep doing it?’ My pat answer is luck is better than brains sometimes,” said Don Meyers, an attorney who is chairman of the Fiesta Bowl’s selection committee.

“No. 1 versus No. 2 very seldom happens. Everything fell into place for us again. We didn’t try to be visionaries, but it’s turned out better than we could have imagined.”

Meyers has been one of the bowl’s driving forces from the start, long before the first sunburst logo appeared on the pocket of a representative’s lemon-colored blazer.

He remembers a breakfast meeting in December 1969 with eight other area businessmen, all determined to bring Arizona a bowl game.

“Arizona State went three straight years with an 8-2 record--in 1967, 1968 and 1969--and didn’t get any bowl invitations,” Meyers said. “Also at that time, there were only two major bowls west of the Mississippi--the Rose Bowl and the Cotton Bowl--plus the Sun Bowl in El Paso.

“We saw that teams like ASU and others in the Western Athletic Conference and the then Pac-8 were emerging and maybe there should be another major bowl in the western United States,” added Meyers. “We also thought of all the bowl sites, we had the best climate and the best scenery. It was a perfect setting for a bowl game.”

On its third application, the Fiesta Bowl received NCAA certification on April 26, 1971, and staged its first game on Dec. 27, matching Arizona State against Florida State.

The 11-0 Sun Devils outlasted Florida State, 45-38, in the inaugural Fiesta before a hometown crowd of 51,098.

The game had a payout of $168,237 to each team, at that time the most ever for a first-year bowl.

Arizona State, under quarterback Danny White and coach Frank Kush, also won the next two Fiestas, beating Missouri, 49-35, and Tony Dorsett-led Pittsburgh, 28-7.

In 1975, the Sun Devils capped a 12-0 season with a 17-14 upset of Nebraska, the first of four Fiesta losses for the Cornhuskers.

The bowl continued to grow in national scope, with NBC taking over the television rights in 1978 after CBS’ four-year deal expired. The new TV deal pushed payouts to $342,562 per team.

In 1982, the Fiesta abandoned its Christmas week format and switched to New Year’s Day with a crowd of 71,053 watching as Penn State beat Southern Cal, 26-10, holding Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Allen to 85 yards rushing on 30 carries.

Sunkist Growers entered into a five-year sponsorship deal in 1985, increasing payouts from $500,000 to a minimum of $1.1 million per team.

Then came the first “Battle for No. 1” between top-ranked Miami and No. 2 Penn State in 1987--a matchup Meyers helped make possible.

“I literally commuted back and forth to Florida the last six weeks of that season trying to put that game together,” he said. “Miami was No. 1 all season. Everyone figured they were going to stay home and play in the Orange Bowl. We had to convince Miami that if they wanted to win the national title, they had to beat the No. 2 team at a neutral site, and that was Penn State.

“We got NBC to move the game to prime time and move it from Jan. 1 to Jan. 2, a Monday night. That wasn’t easy because we had to bump the top-rated TV series at that time, ‘Miami Vice.’ And we convinced Miami to come here and play for about $1 million less than what the Orange Bowl offered.”

A national television audience of 70 million watched Penn State win 14-10, intercepting Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde five times--the last at the Nittany Lions’ 1-yard line with nine seconds remaining.

“It was a great, great game,” Meyers said. “And I think it also showed a lot of people that we were capable of staging a national championship game.”

Another one came the Fiesta’s way in 1989, when No. 1 Notre Dame played No. 3 West Virginia before a record crowd of 74,911.

The Fighting Irish led 23-6 at halftime and coasted to a 34-21 win and a $3 million payout, topping the Fiesta’s previous mark of $2.4 million in 1987.

Now, in the first year of the bowl alliance, the Fiesta has another title game, a record $13 million payout per team and the ninth No. 1 vs No. 2 matchup in college bowl history.

“To look back and see how far we’ve come in 25 years is mind-boggling,” Meyers said. “Nobody ever could have imagined we’d have three national title games in nine years. Nobody.”