The 1965 Sun Bowl was a

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

postseason

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

between the

TCU Horned Frogs The TCU Horned Frogs are the athletic teams that represent Texas Christian University. The 18 varsity teams participate in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Division I and in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for football, competi ...

and the

Texas Western Miners The UTEP Miners is the name given to the sports teams of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). They are informally referred to as the Miners, UTEP, or Texas–El Paso. UTEP was a member of the Western Athletic Conference from 1967 to 2005, ...

Background

TCU tied for second in the

Southwestern Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...

, in the penultimate season for Coach Abe Martin, and first bowl game since

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

. Dobbs was in his first season with the independent Texas Western team, in their first bowl game since 1957. This was their seventh appearance in the Sun Bowl.

Game summary

TCU dominated the first half with 48 rushing plays to Texas Western's 20, which led to a 10–0 halftime lead. In the first period, Bruce Alford's field goal attempt from the 28 fell short. However, in the second quarter,

Kent Nix Alvin Kent Nix (born March 12, 1944) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the TCU Horned Frogs. Nix is the son of Emery Nix, who played fo ...

threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to David Smith, and added in a field goal by Alford later in the second quarter. In the third quarter, the Miners came to life.

Billy Stevens William Samuel Stevens (born August 27, 1945) is an American former professional football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). Stevens was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the third round of the 1968 NFL/AFL draft. He played tw ...

shot a 34-yard touchdown pass to

Chuck Hughes Charles Frederick Hughes (March 2, 1943 – October 24, 1971) was an American football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1967 to 1971 with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Detroit Lions. Early life Born on Mar ...

, narrowing the lead to three. Later in the period, they drove 70 yards for a 21-yard field goal, tying the game at 10. In the fourth quarter, the Miners scored early on an 18-yard field goal, to take the lead at 13–10 after recovering a fumble at the 29. TCU scored with 43 seconds left after sacking Stevens in the end zone, to make it 13–12. The Frogs were given the ball back after the

Safety Safety is the state of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings The word 'safety' entered the English language in the 1 ...

, but they only managed to advance 8 yards, falling just short.

Aftermath

The Miners would return to the Sun Bowl two years later and win (by then, Texas Western had become UTEP). They have not won a Sun Bowl, or any bowl (as of 2020) since. The Horned Frogs would not return to the Sun Bowl until

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, which they won to break their 37-year drought.

Statistics

References

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...

Sun Bowl TCU Horned Frogs football bowl games UTEP Miners football bowl games 1965 in sports in Texas December 1965 sports events in the United States {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub