This was the smallest Sugar Bowl crowd since 1939 when 44,308 watched TCU beat Carnegie Tech 15-7. Back then, Tulane Stadium only held 49,000. The next year an upper deck was added, expanding capacity to 70,000 and the Sugar Bowl sold out.
If 50,000 people saw this one in person (counting the bands) I’ll eat a fried gator.
Louisville traveled as well as could be expected for a 13-point underdog. More than half the attendees were wearing Cardinal red.
It was the Florida contingent that was embarrassingly small. According to the Orlando Sentinal, Florida sold fewer than 7,000 tickets from its official allotment of 17,500.The Sugar Bowl committee didn’t make up the slack as there were empty seats on the 40-yard line in the Florida section, and an entire upper deck end zone never saw a soul.