Needless to say, it was a long and celebratory night for Mike Pritchard.

He wasn’t alone. Pritchard and his Colorado Buffaloes teammates awoke on the morning of Jan. 2, 1991, as the national champions of college football. It was a first for Colorado football, and a feat the Buffs toasted throughout the night in Miami following an Orange Bowl win against Notre Dame.

Pritchard, though, had to cut his personal party short. CU’s star receiver departed on Jan. 2 for Tokyo, as he was set to appear in the Japan Bowl, one of the college all-star games of the era. After partying like it was 1999 and then spending the better part of a full day traveling to the other side of the globe, Pritchard’s first order of business when he arrived in Japan was to catch up on sleep.

When he awoke, bleary-eyed

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