Revisiting 1994, the last year Duke football made a bowl

On Nov. 28, 1994, the Hall of Fame Bowl offered a bid to the Duke football team, which was subsequently accepted. Bowl games worked differently then—unlike now, when six wins guarantee a bowl berth, bowls had to extend bids to the teams they wanted.

Duke was 8-3 in 1994 when the Hall of Fame Bowl extended its offer. On that same day—Nov. 28, 1994—infamous serial killer and rapist Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered in jail. More than half of the Duke freshman class was born in 1994. In case you can’t remember back that far, here are some of the top things from the last time the Blue Devils made a bowl game:

  • The Winter Olympics take place in Lillehammer, Norway.
  • March 1, 1994: Justin Bieber is born.
  • April 22, 1994: President Richard Nixon, Law ’37, passes away.
  • June 17, 1994: The O.J. Simpson car chase takes place.
  • Brazil wins the World Cup.
  • The 1994 MLB playoffs and World Series are cancelled due to strike.
  • Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia” wins a Grammy for song of the year.
  • Forrest Gump is named the Best Picture of the Year at the Academy Awards.
  • Pope John Paul II is named the Time Person of the Year.
  • Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin win the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • Current Duke basketball assistant coaches Steve Wojciechowski and Jeff Capel are players on the Duke team.
  • Nannerl Keohane is Duke’s president.

 

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