The 1957 Tangerine Bowl was an American

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 on January 1, 1957 at Tangerine Bowl in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. The game pitted the Mississippi Southern Southerners (today's Southern Miss) and the

West Texas State Buffaloes The West Texas A&M Buffaloes, also known as the WTAMU Buffaloes or WT Buffaloes, and formerly West Texas State Buffaloes and WTSU Buffaloes, are the athletic teams that represent West Texas A&M University, located in Canyon, Texas, in NCAA Divi ...

(now West Texas A&M).

Background

The Buffaloes finished 3rd in the

Border Conference The Border Conference, officially known as the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association, was an National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA-affiliated college athletic conference founded in 1931 that disbanded following the 1961–62 season. ...

, but they still managed to get invited to the Tangerine Bowl, their second bowl appearance in seven seasons. The Southerners, an NCAA College Division independent, finished 7–1–1 while being invited to their third bowl game in four years.

Game summary

Mississippi Southern built a 13–0 halftime lead on a J.C. Arvan "

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" touchdown play from 51 yards out along with a 53-yard touchdown pass from Bobby Hughes to Jerry Taylor. However, Ron Mills intercepted an Eagle pass and returned it 75 yards for a touchdown to make it 13–6. Mills added a two-yard plunge to tie the game at 13. Quarterback Bubba Hillman rushed for 19 yards and the touchdown that proved to be the winning points for West Texas State.

Aftermath

The Southerners return to the next Tangerine Bowl a year later. The Buffaloes' next bowl game was the

1962 Sun Bowl The 1962 Sun Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game between the Ohio Bobcats and the West Texas State Buffaloes. Background West Texas State (now known as West Texas A&M) was selected as an independent and was third in scoring with 29.7 ...

References

{{West Texas A&M Buffaloes bowl game navbox Tangerine Bowl Citrus Bowl (game) Southern Miss Golden Eagles football bowl games West Texas A&M Buffaloes football bowl games Tangerine Bowl Tangerine Bowl