The 1969 Cotton Bowl Classic featured the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

versus the

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity college athletics, intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in NCAA Division I, ...

Background

In the

1951 Cotton Bowl Classic The 1951 Cotton Bowl Classic was the 15th annual game, and it featured the 1950 Tennessee Volunteers football team, Tennessee Volunteers and the 1950 Texas Longhorns football team, Texas Longhorns. Background Cherry led the Longhorns to a perfect ...

, the Volunteers upset the Longhorns 20–14. In the

1953 Cotton Bowl Classic The 1953 Cotton Bowl Classic featured the 1952 Tennessee Volunteers football team, Tennessee Volunteers and the 1952 Texas Longhorns football team, Texas Longhorns. This was the first Cotton Bowl Classic to be broadcast on television. Background ...

, Texas beat Tennessee 16–0. This was the third Cotton Bowl between the two teams. Texas was

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 an ...

co-champions due to losing to Texas Tech early in the season, thus they shared it with Arkansas. Tennessee finished 2nd in 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 of ...

to Georgia due to losing to Auburn late in the season.

Game summary

It may have been a matchup of top 10 teams, but Texas beat them like any ordinary team as they scored 28 points in the first half while allowing none.

Steve Worster Stephen Clark Worster (July 8, 1949 – August 13, 2022) was an American professional football player who was a fullback for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Following his prep career in Texas, he played college f ...

Ted Koy Ted Koy (born September 15, 1947 in Bellville, Texas) is an American football former tight end for the Buffalo Bills and Oakland Raiders of the National Football League. He was drafted out of the University of Texas by the Raiders in the 1970 N ...

, and Chris Gilbert each had touchdown runs, and

Cotton Speyrer Charles Wayne Speyrer (born April 29, 1949) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Baltimore Colts and the Miami Dolphins. He played college football at the University of Texas. Speyrer was a first- ...

caught two touchdown passes from James Street, the last one making it 36–6. In the second half, Tennessee scored on a Gary Kreis catch from Bobby Scott to make it 28–6 and

Mike Price Michael Bruce Price (born April 6, 1946) is a former American football coach. He was the head coach at Weber State College from 1981 to 1988, Washington State University from 1989 to 2002, and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) from 2004 ...

caught a touchdown pass to narrow it to 36–13, but by that point, there was only two minutes left in the game.

Aftermath

Texas went unbeaten the following season and returned to the Cotton Bowl Classic to face off against Notre Dame, winning that game, and with it, the National Championship.

Outstanding Players of the Game

;Texas *Tom Campbell, who helped Texas' defense limit Tennessee to just 275 yards offense. *Cotton Speyrer, who caught two touchdown passes on five catches for 161 yards. *James Street, who went 7–13 for ''200 yards'' and two touchdowns.

Statistics

References

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 ...

Cotton Bowl Classic Tennessee Volunteers football bowl games Texas Longhorns football bowl games Cotton Bowl January 1969 sports events in the United States {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub