“En Memento, Elvis” Cards for the 1977-78 Liberty Bowl, Nebraska and North Carolina for SOM College Football

Elvis Presley Died August 16, 1977 in Memphis

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“En Memento, Elvis”  Cards for the 1977-78 Liberty Bowl, Nebraska and North Carolina for SOM College Football

The 1977 Liberty Bowl was significant for Elvis Presley because he was awarded the Liberty Bowl's highest honor, which his father, Vernon Presley, accepted on his behalf, and the halftime show featured a tribute to him with Roy Orbison and Margarette Piazza performing songs. The program for the Nebraska vs. North Carolina game also featured Elvis on the cover.  Elvis, as it happens, was a huge football fan and even attended games at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, in his hometown of Memphis. 

The game was also Nebraska backup QB Randy Garcia’s Road to Redemption, on a night when Tom Osborne delivered perhaps his most emotional halftime speech ever to spur 8-3 and 12 ranked Nebraska to a 21-17 win.  The win came at the expense of 8-2-1 and 14th ranked North Carolina, which came into the Liberty Bowl as the 1977 ACC champions with freshman Lawrence Taylor and the nation’s leading defense against scoring.

LT was only a freshman but had impact on the Tar Heel Defense 

North Carolina took a 17-7 lead in the third quarter on a 47-yard field goal by Tom Biddle. On the Tar Heels’ first possession of the second half, Kupec took his team from its 12 to the Nebraska 30, and Biddle booted the 47‐yarder, the longest field goal of his career. On the kick, aided by a wind of 15 to 20 miles an hour, the ball struck the crossbar and bounced over, breaking the Liberty Bowl record of 46 yards, set by Mississippi's Van Brown in 1968.

Nebraska's comeback began in the fourth quarter when backup quarterback Randy Garcia entered the game. Garcia, a senior who during the regular season shared the quarterbacking duties with Tom Sorley, the Nebraska starter, went to work, entering the game on Nebraska's first possession of the final period. He completed a 13‐yard pass to Ken Spaeth and used the running of I.M. Hipp and Monte Anthony to move the ball to the Carolina 10.  Garcia then faked inside, fooling the Carolina defense, and tossed to Curtis Craig, who made a diving catch in the end zone with 10:51 remaining to cut the deficit to 17-14. 

After a Nebraska fumble recovery, Garcia connected with Tim Smith for the game-winning 34-yard touchdown pass with 3:16 remaining.  Nebraska's defensive player of the game, George Andrews, also contributed with a sack of North Carolina Kupec.  

It was the eighth bowl victory in nine seasons for Nebraska; they remained at twelfth in the final AP poll, and North Carolina slipped to seventeenth.

The jubilant Huskers after the game. 

Initial Date of Publication: 7-16-2025

Reprinted with Permission, Chris Stewart