University of Richmond Athletics
50-Year Anniversary Look Back – 1968 Team Wins Southern Conference Title & Tangerine Bowl Berth
11/25/2018 | Football
RICHMOND, Va. – The 2018 season for Richmond football marks the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Tangerine Bowl Championship. Spider athletics will be taking a walk down memory lane throughout the fall, reliving moments in the season heading to the Tangerine Bowl. This week, we look back at the Spiders' regular season finale that saw them claim the Southern Conference championship and accept the bid to the 1968 Tangerine Bowl.
Richmond capped a perfect 6-0 Southern Conference regular season with a 31-6 win over rival William & Mary at City Stadium. The title was the first in program history and allowed the Spiders to accept a berth opposing Ohio University in the Tangerine Bowl December 27, 1968 in Orlando.
The win marked the first time a team in the SoCon had beaten every other member of the conference since realignment in 1953. It was also the first time a Spider team had won as many as seven games in a season since the 1939 team posted a 7-1-2 mark.
Just three years earlier the Spiders suffered through an 0-10 season overall and an 0-6 mark in SoCon play. The program turnaround coincided with head coach Frank Jones' arrival on campus as he helped the Spiders snap the nation's longest losing streak (19 games) in his first year in 1966. The losing streak was a distant memory by the 1968 campaign that saw the Spiders improve to 7-3 on the year with the win over the Indians.
Quarterback Buster O'Brien and wide receiver Walker Gillette did a lot of the damage for the Spiders. O'Brien connected on 16-of-26 for 245 yards and three touchdowns. His numbers padded his school records and gave him 21 touchdowns on the season, a new SoCon mark. Gillette caught all three touchdown passes in the victory giving him a school-record eight on the year. The two combined for touchdown scores of six-yards, 34-yards and 56-yards.
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Richmond capped a perfect 6-0 Southern Conference regular season with a 31-6 win over rival William & Mary at City Stadium. The title was the first in program history and allowed the Spiders to accept a berth opposing Ohio University in the Tangerine Bowl December 27, 1968 in Orlando.
The win marked the first time a team in the SoCon had beaten every other member of the conference since realignment in 1953. It was also the first time a Spider team had won as many as seven games in a season since the 1939 team posted a 7-1-2 mark.
Just three years earlier the Spiders suffered through an 0-10 season overall and an 0-6 mark in SoCon play. The program turnaround coincided with head coach Frank Jones' arrival on campus as he helped the Spiders snap the nation's longest losing streak (19 games) in his first year in 1966. The losing streak was a distant memory by the 1968 campaign that saw the Spiders improve to 7-3 on the year with the win over the Indians.
Quarterback Buster O'Brien and wide receiver Walker Gillette did a lot of the damage for the Spiders. O'Brien connected on 16-of-26 for 245 yards and three touchdowns. His numbers padded his school records and gave him 21 touchdowns on the season, a new SoCon mark. Gillette caught all three touchdown passes in the victory giving him a school-record eight on the year. The two combined for touchdown scores of six-yards, 34-yards and 56-yards.
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Saturday, April 11
Wednesday, April 01
Wednesday, April 01
Wednesday, November 19