Editor’s note: Watch CNN Original Series “Decades in Sports” on the CNN app. Across six episodes, the series explores the defining moments, athletes and cultural shifts that shaped sports over the past six decades, from the television revolution and Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, right up to the impact of social media on today’s biggest stars.
There have been plenty of dominant teams in the 150-plus-year history of college football, but few have left a bigger mark on the sport than the Miami Hurricanes did during the 1980s.
The Canes were a team that went against the grain, trash-talking in a way that constantly got under their opponents’ skin, celebrating wildly after big plays and dancing in the end zone after touchdowns with a swagger that stood out as much as their bright orange jerseys.
“That made them such a phenomenon,” says John U. Bacon, author of Fourth and Long: The Fight for the Soul of College Football, as the Hurricanes’ bold, brash and arrogant style transformed college football into something closer to theater.
As Bacon also highlights in the series, “The Hurricanes were the bad boys of college football.” However, their impact was felt far beyond the gridiron, as the 1986 squad was even labeled the most hated team of all time by Sports Illustrated.
