The 1959 NAIA football season was the fourth season of
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 ...
sponsored by the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...
. The season was played from August to December 1959, culminating in the fourth annual
NAIA Football National Championship
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Football National Championship is decided by a post-season playoff system featuring the best NAIA college football teams in the United States. Under sponsorship of the National Associa ...
, played this year again at
Stewart Field
Stewart Air National Guard Base, located in Orange County, New York, is the base of the 105th Airlift Wing (105 AW), an Air Mobility Command unit of the New York Air National Guard and "host" wing for the installation. The airport also host ...
in
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...
. During its four years in St. Petersburg, the game was called the Holiday Bowl.
Texas A&I
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...
defeated in the championship game, 20–7, to win their first NAIA national title.
Conference standings
Postseason
See also
*
1959 NCAA University Division football season
The 1959 NCAA University Division football season saw Syracuse University crowned as the national champion by both final polls, the AP writers poll and the UPI coaches polls.
A major rule change widened the goal posts from to . This width re ...
*
1959 NCAA College Division football season
References
{{NAIA football
NAIA Football National Championship