AT&T Cotton Bowl

The Cotton Bowl is one of the most prestigious bowls in all of the country. The first game ever played came in 1937 when the TCU Horned Frogs went toe to toe with the Marquette Golden Avalanche. The inaugural game was played in front of 17,000 fans and was never really close in a 16-6.   The game featured the great TCU quarterback "Slingin" Sammy Baugh who would later play in the National Football League.  He was one of the charter members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and in 1995 he was named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary Team. The Cotton Bowl Classic has been the site of a number of other great players like Roger Staubach, Joe Montana, Joe Theismann, Troy Aikman, Erik Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Tim Brown, Doug Flutie, and Bo Jackson. 

The Cotton Bowl has also been the site of a number of amazingly classic college bowl games. The 1979, Cotton Bowl is thought to be the greatest Cotton Bowl ever and by some the greatest bowl game ever. The game matched up the Notre Dame Fighting Irish against the Houston Cougars. The Irish were led by NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana while the Cougars were led by their two 1,000 yard running backs Emmett King and Randy Love. It was the coldest Cotton Bowl ever with the temperature at 20 degrees and with the wind chill factor it felt like it was six below zero. Notre Dame opened up the game by scoring 12 straight points but then they allowed the Cougars to go on a 34 point run through the third quarter. When the teams played the third quarter the Irish was noticeably missing their star quarterback Montana who went out with a below-normal body temperature. The score was at 34-12 with 7:47 left in the game when the Irish blocked a Cougar punt and returned it for a touchdown.  Cue Montana and one of his most memorable showings of the fact that he was a football hero. He came off the bench to throw the two point conversion, and then took his team on a 61-yard touchdown drive that was capped off by a two yard Montana run and a hook up to Kris Haines for the two point conversion to put the score at 34-28 Houston. The clock ticked down to 1:50 and Houston needed a first down to close the game out and elected to try for it on fourth and one from their own 29-yard line. They were stuffed and Montana had a shot to tie the game. He scrambled for a gain of 11 then heaved a pass to Haines for a gain of eight and the clock stopped with only eight ticks left on the clock. On the next play, Montana looked for Haines in the end zone but the pass fell incomplete and two seconds were left on the clock. Montana then went to Haines again in the corner of the end zone and this time connected with no time left on the clock. The Dallas native, Joe Units, came on and kicked the ball through the uprights to cap off one of the greatest comebacks in college football history.

Last year's contest was the last to take place in the Cotton Bowl.  It matched the Southeastern Conference's Ole Miss Rebels against the Big 12's Texas Tech Red Raiders and featured the matchup of QB's;  Ole Miss QB Jevan Sneed against Tech's Graham Harrell.  It was the highest scoring game in Cotton Bowl history and Graham Harrell broke the record for the most touchdown passes thrown than anyone in major-college history.  His record setting 132nd touchdown pass was a short slant to Michael Crabtree early in the second quarter.  Harrell also broke the Cotton Bowl record for passing yards with 364, ending his career with 15,793 passing yards and 134 touchdowns.

The first Cotton bowl game played in the new Cowboys Stadium featured the return of Ole Miss (who had the honor of playing in the final Cotton Bowl at Cotton Bowl Stadium and the first at Cowboys Stadium) squaring off against the Big XII’s Oklahoma State Cowboys.  The two teams had met once before in 2004 when Ole Miss QB Eli Manning led his team to a 31-28 victory.  The outcome wasn’t much different the second time around as Ole Miss defeated Oklahoma State

The Cotton Bowl recently extended the contracts for the two contributing conferences that will carry on through January 2014.