The 1977 Fiesta Bowl was the seventh edition of the college football

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...

, played at Sun Devil Stadium in

Tempe, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...

on Sunday, December 25. Part of the 1977–78 bowl game season, it matched the eighth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions and the #15

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member ...

of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to mos ...

(WAC). Favored Penn State took an early lead and won 42–30 on the Sun Devils' home field.

Teams

Penn State

Penn State was ranked as high as fourth until a home loss to #16

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

in early October, but then won seven straight. It was their first Fiesta Bowl

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Arizona State

In the Sun Devils' final year in the WAC, they were co-champion for the seventh and last time, and appeared in their fifth Fiesta Bowl. They were invited after co-champion

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

backed out due to the bowl being slated to play on a Sunday. ASU's sole loss in the WAC was at Colorado State in a snowstorm.

Game summary

The game kicked off on

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

Day (Sunday) shortly after 1 p.m. MST, televised by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. There were no other bowl games on this day, and the NFL divisional playoffs were on a day either side of it; the AFC on Saturday, and the NFC on Monday. Joe Lally blocked a punt and returned it 21 yards to give Penn State the lead early in the first quarter. Bob Torrey caught a touchdown pass from Chuck Fusina to make it 14–0. Arthur Lane caught a touchdown pass from Dennis Sproul to narrow it to 14–7. Bahr made it 17–7 with a field goal. Ron Washington caught a touchdown pass from Sproul to narrow it to 17–14 at halftime. An 18-yard touchdown run by halfback Steve Geise made it 24–14 at the end of the third, and a three-yard run by fullback Matt Suhey increased the lead to seventeen points early in the fourth. Washington caught another touchdown pass from Sproul to narrow it to 31–21, but Bahr kicked another field goal to make it 34–21. Arizona State's George Perry ran in from a yard out to close the gap to 34–28, but Suhey's second touchdown run and a deliberate safety late in the game sealed the game for Penn State, who won their first-ever Fiesta Bowl.

Scoring

First quarter * Penn State – Joe Lally 21-yard blocked punt return ( Matt Bahr kick) * Penn State – Bob Torrey 3-yard pass from Chuck Fusina (Bahr kick) Second quarter * Arizona State – Arthur Lane 11-yard pass from Dennis Sproul (Steve Hicks kick) * Penn State – Bahr 22-yard field goal * Arizona State – Ron Washington 13-yard pass from Sproul (Hicks kick) Third quarter * Penn State – Steve Geise 18-yard run (Bahr kick) Fourth quarter * Penn State – Matt Suhey 3-yard run (Bahr kick) * Arizona State – Washington 30-yard pass from Sproul (Hicks kick) * Penn State – Bahr 32-yard field goal * Arizona State – George Perry 1-yard run (Hicks kick) * Penn State – Suhey 3-yard run (Geise run) * Arizona State – Safety, punter Scott Fitzkee ran out of end zone

Statistics

: :

Aftermath

Penn State's next Fiesta Bowl was three years later; Arizona State returned in January

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

as a member of the Pacific-10 Conference.

References

External links

Fiesta Bowl
– December 25, 1977 {{Penn State Nittany Lions bowl game navbox

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been pla ...

Fiesta Bowl Arizona State Sun Devils football bowl games Penn State Nittany Lions football bowl games December 1977 sports events in the United States