The 1987 Freedom 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

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the sport, athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's Varsity team, varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Divisi ...

and the

Air Force Falcons The Air Force Falcons are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the United States Air Force Academy, located in El Paso County, Colorado north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. Th ...

Background

Air Force finished third in 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, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

, though they won the

Commander-in-Chief's Trophy The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy (CIC Trophy) is awarded to each season's winner of the American college football series among the teams of the U.S. Military Academy ( Army Black Knights), the U.S. Naval Academy ( Navy Midshipmen), and the U ...

(for beating Army & Navy) and the Ram-Falcon Trophy (for beating Colorado State), with this also being their fifth bowl appearance in six seasons. Arizona State finished 6th in the

Pacific-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

as the team was in their fourth bowl game in six seasons, and third straight under coach John Cooper. This was the first and only Freedom Bowl appearance for both teams.

Scoring summary

A rainy 48 degree weather could not cloud the high scoring, especially in the second quarter. Greg Johnson ran in for a 12-yard touchdown run to give Air Force an early lead. But the second quarter proved to be Air Force's downfall. Channing Williams and Darryl Harris both scored on 2-yard touchdown runs in a span of 3:02, which made it 14–7. Alan Zendejas made it 17–7 on a 26-yard field goal. Air Force responded with a touchdown run by Albert Booker to make it 17–14 with :30 remaining. But nine seconds later, Daniel Ford threw a 61-yard pass to Aaron Cox, who ran into the end zone, making the halftime score 24–14. Zendejas added a 20-yard field goal midway in the third period, the only points of the entire quarter, as the Sun Devils turned the ball over three times in the quarter. Kirk Wendorf scored the last points for the Sun Devils to make it 33–14. With less than three minutes remaining, Lance McDowell (the third-string quarterback) led the Falcons nearly back from the brink. He started with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Steven Senn to narrow the lead. They tried to rush in for a conversion attempt to narrow it to 11, but it failed, keeping the score at 33–20. With 10 seconds remaining, McDowell narrowed the lead again, with another touchdown pass to Senn. This time the conversion attempt succeeded, making it 33–28. But it was too little, too late, as the Falcons could not get lucky a third time as the Sun Devils held on to win their second straight bowl game. Daniel Ford went 16 for 30, but had 272 yards passing in a co-MVP effort. Harris ran for 93 yards on 13 carries. For Air Force, McDowell went 5 for 7 for 66 yards with two touchdowns. Steve Letnich rushed for 90 yards on 16 carries.

Chad Hennings Chad William Hennings (born October 20, 1965) is an American former professional football defensive tackle who played for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Air Force Falcons, earning u ...

had 12 unassisted tackles (with three for 12 yards in losses) and two sacks, named Co-MVP in a losing effort.

Aftermath

Cooper left Arizona State for Ohio State after the game. The Sun Devils would not reach another bowl game for nine years. Air Force would not win a bowl game until 1990.

Statistics

References

{{Arizona State Sun Devils bowl game navbox

Freedom Bowl The Freedom Bowl was an annual post-season college football bowl game played at Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim, California, from 1984 to 1994. The bowl frequently invited a team from the Western Athletic Conference to compete against an at-large opp ...

Freedom Bowl 1980s in Anaheim, California Air Force Falcons football bowl games Arizona State Sun Devils football bowl games 1987 in sports in California December 1987 sports events in the United States