The 1989 Colorado Buffaloes football team represented the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Big Eight Conference during the 1989 NCAA Division I-A football season. Colorado finished with the most wins in school history, surpassing the 1971 team, and their first conference championship in thirteen years. The Buffaloes went undefeated in the regular season at 11–0 (7–0 in Big 8) and played for the national title, but lost to fourth-ranked Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.^[1]

The team dedicated the season to senior and former starting quarterback Sal Aunese, who was diagnosed with stomach cancer in late March,^[2] and died at age 21 on September 23 due to complications from the disease.^[3][4][5]

For the first time in 28 years, Colorado defeated Oklahoma and Nebraska in the same season.^[6][7] In the 27 seasons in between, they had five wins over Oklahoma (1965, 1966, 1968, 1972, 1976) and two over Nebraska (1967, 1986).

In another feel-good story, the team was host to a Make A Wish recipient Chad Henry for the big game against Nebraska in Boulder. Henry was an up-and-coming high school football player from Indiana, Pennsylvania, and the son of college/NFL coach Jack Henry, who began following the Buffaloes after reading about Sal Aunese's battle with cancer while himself battling a very rare and dangerous form of abdominal cancer. After cheering on the Buffs to the biggest win in school history in early November, Henry and his family were also invited to attend the national championship game in Miami as guests of the university. He went on to defeat the disease and did play football for his high school again in 1990. Although his once promising football career was ended following that season due to complications with side effects from the intense chemotherapy he endured, Henry went on to coach football at his high school and became a scout for the NFL's Detroit Lions and is currently with the Indianapolis Colts.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 4	5:30 pm	Texas*	No. 14	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado	ESPN	W 27–6	47,269
September 9	1:30 pm	Colorado State*	No. 9	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado (Rocky Mountain Showdown)	KCNC	W 45–20	44,921
September 16	1:30 pm	No. 10 Illinois*	No. 8	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado	CBS	W 38–7	46,747
September 30	2:00 pm	at No. 21 Washington*	No. 5	Husky Stadium Seattle	KCNC	W 45–28	69,152
October 7	1:30 pm	Missouri	No. 3	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado		W 49–3	51,855
October 14	1:00 pm	at Iowa State	No. 3	Cyclone Stadium Ames, Iowa	KCNC	W 52–17	41,515
October 21	1:30 pm	Kansas	No. 3	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado		W 49–17	50,057
October 28	12:30 pm	at Oklahoma	No. 3	Oklahoma Memorial Stadium Norman, Oklahoma	KWGN	W 20–3	75,004
November 4	12:30 pm	No. 3 Nebraska	No. 2	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado (rivalry)	CBS	W 27–21	52,877
November 11	12:30 pm	at Oklahoma State	No. 1	Lewis Field Stillwater, Oklahoma	KCNC	W 41–17	41,000
November 18	11:10 am	at Kansas State	No. 2	KSU Stadium Manhattan, Kansas	KCNC	W 59–11	20,117
January 1, 1990	6:00 pm	vs. No. 4 Notre Dame*	No. 1	Orange Bowl Miami, Florida (Orange Bowl)	NBC	L 6–21	81,191
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Mountain time

Source:^[8]

Personnel

Rankings

Season summary

Texas

Colorado State

Illinois

at Washington

Missouri

at Iowa State

Kansas

at Oklahoma

• Colorado 8-0 for first time since 1927
• Culbertson's field goal in second quarter gave Colorado its first lead over Oklahoma in a game since 1976
• Colorado's first win in Norman since 1965
• J.J. Flannigan 25 rushes, 103 yards
• Arthur Walker 8 tackles, sack (Big 8 Defensive Player of Week)

^[9]

Nebraska

^{[10] [11]}

Colorado honored their All-Century team at halftime

at Oklahoma State

at Kansas State

Orange Bowl (vs. Notre Dame)

^[12]