The 1950 Salad Bowl was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

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 ...

played between

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 studen ...

and

Arizona State College Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the List ...

Montgomery Stadium Phoenix Union High School (PUHS) was a high school that was part of the Phoenix Union High School District in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, one of five high school-only school districts in the Phoenix area. Founded in 1895 and closed in 1992, the s ...

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. Xavier entered the game with a 9–1 record, best in the state of Ohio, and favored over 7–2 Arizona State, which had the best record in Arizona. Xavier defeated Arizona State 33-21 before 20,000 fans, then the most fans who had ever watched a football game (of any level) in the state of

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. This marked Xavier's first and only appearance in a post-season bowl game.

Background

The Phoenix Kiwanis Club, who sponsored the

Salad Bowl A salad bowl is a serving dish for salad. It can also refer to: * Salad bowl (cultural idea), a cultural idea referring to the United States * Salad Bowl (game), a defunct, annual, post-season college football bowl game * Salad Bowl strike, a serie ...

, selected Arizona State as the home team after the Sun Devils defeated the

Arizona Wildcats The Arizona Wildcats are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Arizona, located in Tucson, Arizona, Tucson. The Wildcats compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Divis ...

, 34–7. Arizona State had not beaten Arizona since 1931. At the end of November the organizers invited Xavier, whose 9–1 record was best in Ohio, to face Arizona State. Other teams considered included the College of the Pacific,

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

and

Colorado A&M Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

Game summary

*Arizona State – White 1 pass from Coleman (Fuller kick) *Xavier – Wilke touchdown (Keefe kick) *Xavier – O’Brien touchdown (Keefe kick) *Arizona State – Coleman 1 run (Fuller kick) *Xavier – McQuade touchdown (kick failed) *Xavier – Finnell touchdown (Keefe kick) *Arizona State – White 5 run (Fuller kick) *Xavier – Crowe 1 run (kick failed) During the game Xavier benefited from mistakes by Arizona State, including three

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

drives which began with Arizona State turnovers. On the other side of the ball, Arizona State's barefoot kicker Bobby Fuller kicked all three extra points. The following season Fuller would make 48 of 51 attempts, a record which stood for 20 years. The pre-game parade featured

Jacque Mercer Jacquelyn Joy Mercer (January 7, 1931 – February 2, 1982) was Miss America in 1949. Biography Mercer was born in Thatcher, Arizona. In 1949, she won the title of Miss America. She is mentioned (usually by title, once by name) several times ...

, the 1949

Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As ...

and a native of

Litchfield Park, Arizona Litchfield Park is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is located west of Phoenix. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 6,847, up from 5,476 in 2010. History The town of Litchfield Park is a historically af ...

. Her presence came from a special connection: Robert Hannelly, who was president of both the Phoenix Kiwanis Club and

Phoenix College Phoenix College (PC) is a public community college in Encanto, Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1920, it is one of the oldest community colleges in the country. History The college was originally a part of the Phoenix Union High School and Junio ...

, which Mercer attended. Although a number of modern sources state that the game took place on

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...

, contemporary newspaper accounts confirm that the game was played, along with most bowl games that year, on January 2. No bowl games were played on January 1, 1950, because it fell on a Sunday.

References

Salad Bowl (game) Arizona State Sun Devils football bowl games Xavier Musketeers football bowl games

January 1950 sports events in the United States {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub