In recognition of Washington’s invitation to San Antonio for the 19th Alamo Bowl, here are 19 Alamo Bowl facts.
1. The bowl that kicked off in 1993 was not San Antonio’s first attempt to bring postseason college football to south Texas. A game scheduled to be played on Jan. 1, 1947 – also called the Alamo Bowl – pitted Hardin-Simmons against the University of Denver.
It was delayed three days by an ice storm, and when the weather finally thawed at the 23,000-seat Alamo Stadium, the crowd of 3,370 fell far below the expected turnout of 10,000. Organizers took a financial bath, and the Alamo Bowl was one-and-done. (By the way, for those who think there are too many bowl games nowadays, the 1947 postseason was cluttered with the likes of such bowls as the Delta, Dixie, Grape, Great Lakes, Harbor, Raisin and Salad. None would survive beyond 1951.)
2. San Antonio, with a population of more than 1.3 million, is the seventh-largest city in the United States. Among the populations of bowl-game destinations, San Antonio ranks behind only New York City, Houston and Phoenix.
3. The winning coach of the inaugural 1993 Alamo Bowl game, between California and Iowa, was once and future Huskies coach Keith Gilbertson. Cal’s 37-3 victory represented the pinnacle of Gilbertson’s four-year career in Berkeley. Despite finishing that season 9-4 with a No. 24 national ranking, Gilbertson was fired the following year, after producing only one winning season.
4. A casual assessment of Washington State’s distinguished quarterback history – the list includes Jack Thompson, Drew Bledsoe, Timm Rosenbach, Ryan Leaf, Mark Rypien and Jason Gesser – does not often find Chad Davis mentioned. Davis, who completed 27 of 35 passes for 286 yards during the Cougars’ 10-3 victory over Iowa, was named Offensive MVP of the 1994 Alamo Bowl.
The performance did not auger a spectacular career for Davis at WSU. With two games remaining in 1995, coach Mike Price benched him for “unsupportive behavior.”
5. The ESPN television play-by-play voice for that ’94 Alamo Bowl? Mariners broadcaster Dave Sims.
6. The 2005 Alamo Bowl came close to rivaling the 1982 Cal-Stanford game for Craziest Final Play in college football history. Trailing Nebraska, 32-28, with a few seconds remaining, Michigan quarterback Chad Henne threw a pass to Jason Avant, who tossed the ball on a lateral to Steve Breaston, who threw it back to Mike Hart.
Because of time constraints, we move to further action on the final play: the Wolverines’ Tyler Ecker picked up a ball that had bounced, thought to be an incomplete pass by almost everybody but the officials, who never blew a whistle. As benches from both teams emptied for the postgame trophy presentation, Ecker ran some 60 yards before the Huskers’ Titus Brothers shoved him out of bounds at the Nebraska 16.
7. Purdue sophomore Drew Brees secured a spot in the national spotlight in the 1998 Alamo Bowl, when he led the Boilermakers on an 84-yard, game-winning drive that took only 54 seconds. Brees ended up throwing for 230 yards and three touchdowns, but he was intercepted three times by a Kansas State defense that seemed to have a better idea about how to contain him than anybody in the NFL does.
8. Twelve years before child-molestation allegations against Jerry Sandusky found Penn State mired in a scandal unparalleled in the history of American sports, the former defensive coordinator was carried off the field after the Nittany Lions’ 24-0 victory over Texas A&M in the 1999 Alamo Bowl. Sandusky had announced his plans to retire after the game.
9. Sandusky’s boss, Joe Paterno, celebrated the 500th game of his head coaching career with a 24-17 comeback victory over Texas A&M in the 2007 Alamo Bowl.
Afterward, answering questions related to his contract expiring in 2008, Paterno told reporters: “You guys drive me nuts sometimes. Did you see that crowd and that atmosphere tonight? Where else would I want to be?”
10. Although Baylor’s Robert Griffin III will be the first reigning Heisman recipient to appear in the Alamo Bowl, two other players who would go on to win the Heisman have been showcased in San Antonio: Michigan defensive back Charles Woodson (1995), and Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch (2000).
11. Mike Leach, recently hired to replace Paul Wulff as coach at Washington State, took two Texas Tech teams to the Alamo Bowl, but he got to work only one of the games. Leach was suspended a few days before the Raiders showed up at San Antonio in 2009. Behind interim coach Ruffin McNeill, Tech beat Michigan State, 41-31, in a shootout then touted as the most-watched bowl game in ESPN history. An audience of 7.8 million tuned in.
12. Texas Tech’s first trip to the Alamo Bowl under Leach, in 2001, set them up against Iowa, a school noted for bringing out-of-town fans to bowl games. No surprise, then, that Iowa’s 19-16 victory was seen by a sellout crowd of 65,232 – the only sellout of the ’01 bowl season.
13. Between 1995 and 2009, the Alamo Bowl had a contractual association with the Big 12 and Big Ten. A new deal gives the Alamo Bowl the choice of inviting the No. 2 team in the Pacific-12 Conference (after BCS bids are sorted out) to face the No. 3 team in the Big 12 after the Fiesta and Cotton bowls. Put it this way: the Alamo Bowl now ranks higher on the Pac-12’s bowl-game pecking order than the Holiday Bowl.
14. Bo Pellini achieved his first victory as a college coach in the 2003 Alamo Bowl, where the then-Nebraska defensive coordinator – serving as an interim coach in place of the fired Frank Solich – oversaw the Cornhuskers’ 17-3 conquest of Michigan State.
Pellini was a candidate to take over as full-time head coach, but after a 41-day search, Nebraska hired ex-Oakland Raiders coach Bill Callahan.
15. Before Les Miles was acclaimed as a Coach of the Year genius, and the NCAA determined Jim Tressel to be a pariah who likely will never get another coaching job in college, the two faced each other in the 2004 Alamo Bowl. Tressel’s Ohio State Buckeyes, enjoying the dazzling broken-field moves of Ted Ginn Jr., beat Miles’ Oklahoma State Cowboys, 33-7.
16. The Alamodome, completed in 1993 at a cost of $186 million, was built to help lure an NFL franchise to San Antonio. While waiting for an NFL team, San Antonio used the 65,000-seat dome as home for the NBA’s Spurs – capacity was reduced to 35,000 for basketball – until the Spurs pleaded with Bexar County to build them a basketball-centric arena.
17. Participants in this year’s Alamo Bowl will receive a $400 Best Buy gift card, a Fossil watch, a Schutt mini helmet and a panoramic team photo.
18. Players are scheduled to appear for a Team Day at SeaWorld San Antonio (Monday), a Team Fiesta at Rudy’s Bar-B-Q, and a Kickoff Luncheon (Wednesday). Fans are invited to a pregame party at Sunset Station (next Thursday).
19. Not that it matters – the Alamo Bowl will be played indoors – but the long-range forecast for San Antonio next week is calling for mostly sunny on game day, with a high of 67 and a low of 53: Optimum conditions for taking a Riverwalk stroll during the last week of December.
john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com
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