Cotton Bowl Tickets
Cotton Bowl Tickets-History of the Cotton BowlThe Cotton Bowl Classic, founded in 1937 at the Texas State Fair in Dallas, Texas, was created and funded by Texas oil executive J. Curtis Sanford. Texas Christian University took on Marquette, winning 16-6, but the game lost money even though some 17,000 attended. Sanford persevered despite his financial loss, and in 1938 the game made a profit as Rice defeated Colorado 28-14, in front of a crowd of 37,000. In 1940, an underdog Clemson team surprised the Boston College Eagles 6-3, in the first of several appearances at the Cotton Bowl by Tigers coach Frank Howard. Attendance at this game was given as 20,000. Later that year, a group of prominent Dallas citizens took over the staging of the game as the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association. A few months later, the CBAA became an agency of the Southwest Conference. From 1941 to 1994, the SWC's champion hosted the Cotton Bowl. In 1947 LSU and Arkansas played in front of 38,000 people to a 0-0 tie in what would later become known as the "Ice Bowl." LSU got the better of Arkansas most of the game but the game truly belonged to the weatherman. The 1970 game featured Notre Dame's return to bowl games after a 45-year self-imposed ban. When the Irish made that decision, 9-1 LSU was overlooked for the game, and the Tigers stayed home instead. The Irish, led by quarterback Joe Theismann, faced top-ranked and undefeated Texas. Notre Dame led 17-14 late in the fourth quarter, but the Longhorns scored a late touchdown to clinch a 21-17 victory and an undisputed national championship. The same two teams met the next year, but this time, the Irish ended the Longhorns' 30-game winning streak with a 24-11 victory, denying Texas the Associated Press national championship (the Longhorns had already clinched the championship in the United Press International poll, which did not release a post-bowl poll at the time). Texas and Notre Dame met again in the 1978 game, with the Longhorns again ranked number one, only to see the Irish and quarterback Joe Montana roll to a 38-10 victory. The Irish vaulted from fifth to first in the final polls with the victory. For 40 years the champion of the now-defunct Southwest Conference (SWC) played as the home team in the Cotton Bowl, a tie-in which continued through the 1994 season. Until the mid-80s the contest was universally considered as a major New Year's Day bowl. However, by the late 1980s the Cotton Bowl's prestige was dropping as many SWC teams served NCAA probations for rule violations, rendering them bowl-ineligible. Also, the conference's quality of play suffered a marked decline. The SWC champion lost the last 7 times they hosted the event, and the last national champion to play in the Cotton Bowl was Notre Dame in 1977, although the Irish again staked a claim to a championship after the 1994 contest. Meanwhile, the Fiesta Bowl, unhindered by conference tie-ins, was attracting national championship contenders, most notably with its January 1987 game between Penn State and Miami. In the minds of many fans, the Fiesta replaced the Cotton as a major bowl. Despite this, the Cotton Bowl still retained enough prestige that it was included as one of the top bowls in the Bowl Coalition when it was formed in 1992. However, in 1995, the new Bowl Alliance (the predecessor of today's BCS) chose to include the Fiesta Bowl over the Cotton in its national championship game rotation, sealing the Cotton Bowl's displacement from the four "major bowls." In 1995, the SWC gave up control of the Cotton Bowl as part of its planned dissolution after the season. In 1996, the BYU Cougars became the first team from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to play in the game defeating the Kansas State Wildcats 19-15 winning an NCAA record 14th game and finishing the season ranked fifth in the country with a 14-1 record. Since 1996, the game has been anchored by the Big 12 Conference. The opponent in the late 1990s was either the Pacific 10 Conference or WAC. Since 1999, however, the Southeastern Conference (usually a Western Division team) with Southwestern Bell (now AT&T) sponsoring the event. The Cotton Bowl continues to be played on New Year's Day (except when January 1 falls on a Sunday; then it is moved to January 2), and is usually the second game of the day to kick off, generally following the Outback Bowl. Snatch up your 2009 Cotton Bowl tickets and witness one of the greatest events in college football!
Cotton Bowl Tickets- Previous Games of the Cotton Bowl1937 TCU 16 Marquette 6 2009??? Get your 2009 Cotton Bowl tickets and find out! |
