Behind The Scenes At The FedEx Orange Bowl
Courtney Morrison-Archer and her all-female staff host 1200 media in Miami

An outside press area at Pro Player Stadium for the national championship football game on Jan. 3, 2001 in Miami seemed like a great idea.

We (I'm Courtney Morrison-Archer, Fed-Ex Orange Bowl Director of Media Relations; my assistants are Eunice Elliott and Kim Hendrix) thought our only worry might be rain, although 95 percent of the outdoor media seats were covered by the upper seating deck.

The average game time temperature over the last 66 years had been 75.5 degrees and I kept hearing "It rarely rains here in January." This was Florida for goodness sakes!

This year's game was played in less-than-balmy 60 degree weather. Oh yes, and it started raining in the second half.

And so goes the planning for a major bowl game which attracted 1,200 media to Pro Player Stadium in Miami to see Oklahoma and Florida State battle for the national championship

Kim, Eunice and I, who all are members of FAME, were the media relations staff not just for the national championship game, but for the entire Orange Bowl Festival. We were handling all the day-to-day requirements for the FedEx Orange Bowl, for a men's and women's basketball classic, for an all-day youth football championship, for a youth cheerleading championship, for a 5K/10K run and for the annual Orange Bowl Parade through downtown Miami on New Year's Eve.

I love a parade, but I'd never promoted one before and it takes as much work as a game. Every unit, just like every coach and player, has a story.

We had additional help with credentials and public relations from Carol Recicar, who handles all the media requests for the University of Miami. Renee Morales also joined us on a part-time basis in November to oversee much of the publicity and pitching for the parade. An eight-person group of volunteers filled out our numbers for college football's most bally-hooed year-end showdown.

One of our prime assignments was to make sure that members of the media had a good time. Kim was in charge of the media outing to South Beach. This is a prime assignment at a bowl game. We all know that, in many cases, part of our jobs revolve around this task.

Just before 3 a.m. on Jan. 3 we began thinking about getting some sleep. It had been another long day and night. Tables and chairs were set up, the seating charts were posted and phones were placed at designated seats. Enough media guides, game notes, conference guides, game programs and flip charts were counted out. We all know the drill, but working with 1,200 media presents its own time-consuming challenges.

The seating chart definitely needed another look in the morning. Pro Player Stadium has a split press box. Two separate press boxes would be one thing, but the stadium media space actually forces the seating into four separate press boxes. One is the standard sideline press box, another is a two-story "baseball" press box in the corner end zone, and still another is a built-out area in front.

With kickoff less than five-and-a-half hours away, I was still wearing my bib overalls over a black concert T-shirt and tennis shoes. My mother and grandmother would disapprove because I didn't look ladylike or professional. But, there was still work to be done. We ran last minute extension cords and set up a few more skirted tables in the interview room.

Just to keep it all in perspective, the stadium staff was worried about the cosmetic appearance of the field. To each his own.

The first media shuttle arrived at 3:46 p.m and the buffet opened at 4 p.m. Several television affiliates (local and national) set up on the field. ABC Television went on-air at 8 p.m. with the kickoff scheduled for 8:18 p.m.

Somewhere between 4 and 8 p.m., I managed to change my clothes.

The first game-day crisis popped up when I was told there were electrical problems in the outdoor press area. The unusual cold spell had created a little bit of a nuisance. I also heard some troubling news from the people that all media coordinators love -- the telephone technicians. My BellSouth rep said the phones were down due to some overloaded circuits within the stadium. When they said it could be fixed, I believed them -- because I had no choice. Imagine what each individual media member who picked up a phone prior to kickoff was thinking. I advised my staff of the problem and ordered them to click into a reassuring mode.

That reassuring mode came in handy when the Orange Bowl Committee CEO and his senior associate director made their tour through the press box. "Everything going okay?" they asked. "Everything is fine", I assured them. I gave them the big "thumbs up" sign as the elevator doors closed. I did not tell them we didn't have any phone lines, outdoor electric current or any of the predicted mild and dry Florida weather.

My internal PA began making all the standard announcements. Media volunteers typed the announcements and distributed them to media working outside. The computer monitors at almost every seat location came in handy. Announcements were placed at the bottom of the screen while current statistics ran on the monitor thanks to Mike Ranieri and Alex Grim from StatCrew who worked the game along with the crews from the Miami Dolphins and the University of Miami.

How do you feed 1200 people during halftime? With those numbers, there could be no buffet or snack table. The volunteer crew passed out box lunches to the media in the press box. More boxes were distributed in the auxiliary press areas. The photographers were given hot dogs, chips and sodas in the stadium's baseball dugout. Thank goodness the Orange Bowl has a halftime tradition of pomp and pageantry, which translates into the longest halftime break allowable.

Postgame became yet another challenge. Oklahoma entered the game undefeated but still considered the underdog. The Sooners had a history of success (10-4) at Orange Bowls and their following includes some very passionate fans.

When Oklahoma won the game, the chaos began. Fans jumped onto the field and photographers swarmed coach Bob Stoops and the entire team. At one point, the Sooner players decided to get some TV time on the ESPN GameDay set.

This and much more presented new problems for us as the print media, particularly those in the East, were on a pretty tight deadline.

Eunice got Florida State coach Bobby Bowden delivered to his press conference and quickly escorted him back to his team. The OU contingent did not move as fast. Ten people from our staff were on the field trying to get them to the press room assuring them that the quicker they addressed the media, the quicker they could return to celebrate. A total of 56 minutes passed before they were ready.

My staff stayed until 3 a.m. to tear down phones and put the extra media guides and flip cards into boxes. Three of us remained until 4:30 a.m. until the last member of the media left and all of the stat monitors were out of the cold.

The alarm went off at 6:30 the next morning. That was the hardest alarm to answer during the entire Orange Bowl Festival. We were hosting a media breakfast before another Oklahoma press conference and trophy photo ops. There were some final announcements to prepare and web site updates to make as well.

The next two days were spent sending back phones and monitors, packing up the hotel and helping return the more than100 courtesy cars we used during the national championship.

At eight o'clock on Jan. 5, almost 48 hours since kickoff, I climbed into my bed for a very long nap.

Editor's Note: Archer and her all-female media relations staff aren't the only story at the Orange Bowl. In February, the Bowl elected its first female president in 67 years.