The 1945
Sugar Bowl
The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed onl ...
, part of the
1944
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 2 – WWII:
** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...
season, took place on January 1, 1945, at
Tulane Stadium
Tulane Stadium was an outdoor football stadium that stood in New Orleans from 1926 to 1980. It was officially the Third Tulane Stadium and replaced the "Second Tulane Stadium", which was located where the Telephone Exchange Building is now. Th ...
in
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. The competing teams were the 1944 Alabama Crimson Tide football team, Alabama Crimson Tide, representing the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the 1944 Duke Blue Devils football team, Duke Blue Devils, representing the Southern Conference (SoCon). Duke won the game 29–26.
Teams
Alabama
The 1942 Alabama squad finished the regular season 5–1–2 with its loss coming to the 1944 Georgia Bulldogs football team, Georgia Bulldogs and the two ties coming against the LSU Tigers football, LSU Tigers and the Tennessee Volunteers football, Tennessee Volunteers. With most of America's youth still serving in the armed forces, Frank Thomas scrambled to assemble a team in 1944. Finally he was able to fill out a roster, mostly composed of 17-year-old freshmen and students who had been rejected as unsuitable for military service. This team went down in Tide history as the "War Babies".
[Scott, Richard. ''Legends of Alabama Football''. Sports Publishing LLC, 2004, , p. 12] On November 25, the Crimson Tide was invited to compete in the Sugar Bowl, marking the first time that a school had competed in the four major bowls at that time (Rose Bowl Game, Rose, Cotton Bowl Classic, Cotton, Orange Bowl, Orange and Sugar Bowl, Sugar bowl game, Bowls).
The appearance marked the first for Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, and their eighth overall bowl appearance.
Duke
Game summary
References
{{Duke bowl games
1944–45 NCAA football bowl games, Sugar Bowl
Sugar Bowl
Alabama Crimson Tide football bowl games
Duke Blue Devils football bowl games
January 1945 sports events in the United States, Sugar Bowl
1945 in sports in Louisiana, Sugar Bowl