The Orange Bowl Stadium: Remembering 70 Years of Greatness (2008)

The Orange Bowl was not built with greatness in mind, but its place in history made it so. The "Orange Bowl Story" is a retrospective that looks back fondly to the beginning of the Orange Bowl Stadium's history. In the 1930's, the Greater Miami Athletic Association decided that tourism in the form of a New Years football game was their solution to the great depression. Of course, you can't have a game without a stadium and that's where this wonderful remembrance begins. We revisit the first game the University of Miami played at the stadium in 1937 and follow its history past World War II, as well as the famous championship high school games. Our journey continues through seven decades of growing pains, including the Dolphins 1972 perfect season, as well as the history dotting the landscape along the way, history like Winston Churchill's honorary doctorate, John F. Kennedy's speech after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, and the refugee encampment created as a result of the Cuban Mariel boat lift in the early 1980's. We visit all the stories and memories that are integral parts of South Florida and the nation because here they are tied together by one amazing structure that wove its history into their fabric. Though the film ends with the demolition of the Stadium, it will never fade from memory because it lives on in this wonderful documentary...forever.