The 1989 Holiday Bowl was a 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 December 30, 1989, at

Qualcomm Stadium San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium on the West Coast of the United States, west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. The stadium opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium and was known as Jack Murphy Stadium from 1981 to 199 ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

. It was part of the

1989 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1989 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with Miami winning its third National Championship during the 1980s, cementing its claim as the decade's top team, winning more titles than any other program. Notre Dame signed a six-year, $30 ...

. It featured the

Penn State Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The interc ...

and BYU Cougars.

Game summary

*Penn State - Tarasi 30 yard field goal *BYU - Chaffetz 20 yard field goal *Penn State - Smith 24 touchdown yard pass from Sacca (kick failed) *BYU - Detmer 1 touchdown yard run (Chaffetz kick) *Penn State - Tarasi 36 yard field goal *BYU - Chaffetz 22 yard field goal *Penn State - Tarasi 51 yard field goal *Penn State - Thompson 16 yard touchdown run (Tarasi kick) *BYU - Detmer 1 yard touchdown run (kick failed) *Penn State - Thompson 14 yard touchdown run (Tarasi kick) *BYU - Boyce 12 yard touchdown pass from Detmer (Chaffetz kick) *Penn State - Thomas 7 yard touchdown run (run failed) *Penn State - Daniels 52 yard touchdown pass from Sacca (pass failed) *BYU - Whittingham 10 yard touchdown run (Chaffetz kick) *BYU - Nyberg 3 yard touchdown yard pass from Detmer (pass failed) *Penn State - Collins 2-point conversion interception return *Penn State - Brown 53 yard touchdown fumble return (kick) BYU quarterback

Ty Detmer Ty Hubert Detmer (born October 30, 1967) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He won the Heisman Trophy in 1990 while playing college football for the BYU Cougars. D ...

was marching the Cougars toward a game-winning touchdown in the closing seconds when he had the ball stripped by Penn State's Gary Brown, who returned it 53 yards for a touchdown to seal the Nittany Lions victory. Stealing the ball before Detmer could throw it was the only way he could be stopped by the Penn State defense. Detmer completed 42 of 59 passes for 576 yards, all Holiday Bowl records, and shared Offensive MVP honors with Penn State running back Blair Thomas, who rushed for a Holiday Bowl record 35 times for 186 yards.

References

External links

New York Times summary of game

Holiday Bowl The Holiday Bowl is a post-season NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game that has been played in San Diego since 1978. San Diego County Credit Union has been the game's title sponsor since 2017, and the bowl has ...

Holiday Bowl BYU Cougars football bowl games Penn State Nittany Lions football bowl games 1989 in sports in California {{California-sport-stub