Miami football legend Michael Irvin one of ESPN favorite 1980s players

Miami football legend Michael Irvin was named the favorite player of ESPN writer Andrea Adelson who grew up in South Florida. Adelson wrote about the playmaker as part of an ESPN article “Our favorite college football players from the 1980s.

No player has meant more to the success and brand of the Miami football program than wide receiver and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin. Irvin played at Miami from 1985-87 winning a national championship under Jimmy Johnson in his final season. Irvin forwarded the Miami swagger during his three-year tenure.

Irvin was one of the first players who stated he was from “The U.” The image of the brash Miami football teams in the 1980s had a lot to do with the attitude perpetuated by Irvin on and off the field. The playmaker is still near the top of the Miami receiving records 32 seasons after he played his last game in Orange and Green.

Irvin is fifth in Miami history with 143 career receptions, third with 2,423 receiving yards and still holds the Hurricanes career TD record with 26. Irvin went on to a Hall of Fame career in the NFL after being selected 11th overall by the Dallas Cowboys in the 1988 NFL Draft. Irvin played five seasons for Johnson in Dallas.

In the Orange Bowl victory over number one Oklahoma on New Year’s Day 1988 that clinched the 1987 National Championship, Irvin scored one of the two Hurricanes touchdowns. It was Miami’s third victory over the Sooners in as many seasons. The two coaches in Irvin’s last two college games were his coaches in the NFL.

"Andrea Adelson: Michael IrvinI consider myself among the most fortunate people in the entire country, because I grew up in Miami during the 1980s at the height of the Hurricanes dynasty.I could probably list off so many obscure Miami Hurricanes from the 1980s to fit this category (Melvin Bratton signed my shoe when he came to my elementary school and I never wore it again), but my favorite player from that era is Michael Irvin.I loved his swagger, I loved how he played the game, and I loved how the white towel he used to wear hanging off his uniform would flap wildly every time he ran down the field. Watching those Miami teams made me want to write about sports, so a big shoutout to the Hurricanes and Michael Irvin for helping this little girl live out her dream"

Longtime Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer succeeded Johnson in Dallas and won a Super Bowl with Irvin with the Cowboys opposed Irvin and Johnson in the 1988 Orange Bowl. The reasons that Adelson was a fan of Irvin is what drew most Miami football fans to the playmaker and the Hurricanes program.

The Miami football program revolutionized the sport by the way the play and how they carried themselves in the 1980s. Irvin and his teammates made watching football fun and the wide-open offense began by Howard Schnellenberger and continued under Johnson brought a lot of notoriety to Miami.