The 1966 Cotton Bowl Classic (December) was the 31st

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of the college football

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 Subdivi ...

, played at the Cotton Bowl in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas 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 ...

, on December 31. It matched the No. 10

SMU Mustangs The SMU Mustangs are the athletic teams that represent Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, United States. The Mustangs were founded in 1911 and joined the Southwest Conference, competing against Baylor, Rice, Texas, Texa ...

of the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma ...

(SWC) and the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

(SEC). Kickoff for the Saturday game was 1:30 p.m. CST and it was televised by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. This was the first playing of the Cotton Bowl Classic in December—the "1967 game" was moved to New Year's Eve because New Year's Day was a Sunday in 1967. The decision to move the game had been announced in January 1966. The other major bowls ( Sugar,

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) were played on January 2.

Teams

SMU

The #10 Mustangs (8–2) had won the Southwest Conference (SWC) championship (6–1) for the first time since 1948, led by fifth-year head coach

Hayden Fry John Hayden Fry (February 28, 1929 – December 17, 2019) was an American college football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Southern Methodist University (SMU) from 1962 to 1972, North Texas State University—now known ...

. They won all five games at the Cotton Bowl, their home stadium through 1978.

Georgia

Fourth-ranked Georgia (9–1) shared the Southeastern Conference (SEC) title (6–0) with #3

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

, with a one-point loss to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

as their only blemish. They completed the regular season with a

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

win over previously undefeated

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

. Led by

Vince Dooley Vincent Joseph Dooley (September 4, 1932 – October 28, 2022) was an American college football coach. He was the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs from 1964 to 1988, as well as the University of Georgia's (UGA) athletic director from 1979 to ...

, in the third of his 25 seasons as head coach, the Bulldogs were a seven-point favorite. It was their first

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in a major bowl in seven years.

Game summary

On the second play from scrimmage, Georgia's Kent Lawrence ran 74 yards for a touchdown. SMU responded with a field goal later in the quarter, but Georgia scored ten more points (highlighted by a

Billy Payne William Porter Payne (born October 13, 1947) is the former chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, having served in that position from 2006 to 2017 and overseeing the introduction of the first women to the club's membership rolls. He was Managin ...

touchdown catch from Kirby Moore) to lead 17–3. Mike Richardson of SMU scored a touchdown from a yard out to narrow the lead, but the kick was blocked, and it was 17–9 at halftime. Those were SMU's last points, as Georgia held the Mustangs in check the rest of the game. The Bulldogs scored once more in the fourth quarter, on a four-yard Ronnie Jenkins touchdown run, to seal the game. Ultimately, it was Georgia's rushing attack that won the game for the Bulldogs, who had 244 more rushing yards than the Mustangs, who could only muster forty.

Scoring

First quarter *Georgia – Kent Lawrence 74-yard run (

Bob Etter Robert Glenn Etter (born August 8, 1945) is a former American college and professional football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) and World Football League (WFL) for four seasons during the 1960s and 1970s. He p ...

kick) *SMU –

Dennis Partee Dennis Franklin Partee (born September 2, 1946) is a former American football kicker and punter who played professionally for the San Diego Chargers in the American Football League and later in the National Football League. In 1975, he co-fou ...

22-yard field goal *Georgia – Etter 28-yard field goal Second quarter *Georgia –

20-yard pass from Kirby Moore (Etter kick) *SMU – Mike Richardson 1-yard run (kick blocked) Third quarter :''No scoring'' Fourth quarter *Georgia – Ron Jenkins 4-yard run (Etter kick) :

Statistics

: :

Notes

References

External links

YouTube
- home movie {{DEFAULTSORT:1966 Cotton Bowl Classic (12) 1966–67 NCAA football bowl games 1966 1966 1966 Cotton Bowl Classic (December)

Cotton Bowl Classic The Cotton Bowl Classic (also known as the Cotton Bowl) is an American college football bowl game that has been held annually in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex since January 1, 1937. The game was originally played at its namesake stadium i ...