The 1972 Fiesta Bowl was the second

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of the college football

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, played at Sun Devil Stadium in

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on Saturday, December 23. Part of the 1972–73 bowl game season, it matched the unranked

Missouri Tigers The Missouri Tigers intercollegiate athletics programs represent the University of Missouri, located in Columbia. The name comes from a band of armed Union Home Guards called the Fighting Tigers of Columbia who, in 1864, protected Columbia fro ...

of the Big Eight Conference and #15

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member ...

of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to mos ...

(WAC). Arizona State never trailed, gained over 700 yards on offense, and won again on its home field, 49–35. This was the first of two consecutive Fiesta Bowls played at night.

Teams

Missouri

The Tigers finished the regular season with a 6–5 overall record, 3-=–4 in the Big Eight Conference, with upset wins over Notre Dame,

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, and Iowa State. This was Missouri's first bowl

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in three years.

Arizona State

The Sun Devils were champions of the WAC for the fourth straight year, the only conference loss was by two points at

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the 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 southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

in late September. The other blemish was a home loss to

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. ASU had won the previous year's

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Fiesta Bowl.

Game summary

Televised by

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, the kickoff on Saturday night was shortly after 6 p.m. MST. It was the only bowl game of the day, played after the first two NFL divisional playoff games. Arizona State took the lead early with two touchdown runs by All-American halfback Woody Green, taking a 14–0 lead at the end of the first. Missouri fullback Don Johnson scored from a yard out to narrow the lead, but ASU responded with fullback Brent McClanahan's one-yard run, followed by

Danny White Wilford Daniel White (born February 9, 1952) is a former quarterback and Punter (football), punter for the Dallas Cowboys and an American football coach in the Arena Football League. He has been the color commentator for Cowboys games on Compas ...

's 34-yard touchdown pass to split end Ed Beverly to increase the lead to 28–7 at halftime. Missouri's Chuck Link caught a touchdown pass from quarterback John Cherry to narrow the lead, but the extra point missed, making it only 28–13. Not to be deterred, Link caught another touchdown pass and converted the conversion to make it 28–21 as the third quarter came to a close. The Sun Devils struck back, as Green scored his third touchdown of the day to make it 35–21. But on the kickoff return,

Mike Fink Mike Fink (also spelled Miche Phinck)O'Neil, Paul. ''The Old West: The Rivermen''. Time-Life Books, New York. 1975 p. 71 (c. 1770/1780 – c. 1823), called "king of the keelboaters", was a semi-legendary brawler and river boatman who exempli ...

returned it 100 yards to cut the lead back to seven. Beverly caught his second touchdown of the day from White to make it 42–28, and after a failed Missouri drive, Green scored his fourth touchdown to give ASU a commanding 49–28 lead. Tiger halfback

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had 31-yard touchdown run to make the final score 49–35, as ASU won its second straight Fiesta Bowl. ASU set two records that still stand for most total yards (718) and first downs (33), which helped them win despite four turnovers compared to Missouri's three, which hurt them more. Green ran for 202 yards on 25 carries (8.1 avg.) for four touchdowns and was named Offensive MVP; in addition, backfield mate McClanahan had 171 yards on 26 carries (6.6 avg.) with a touchdown.

Scoring

;First quarter: * Arizona State – Woody Green 2-yard run (Juan Cruz kick) * Arizona State – Green 12-yard run (Cruz kick) ;Second quarter: * Missouri – Don Johnson 1-yard run (Greg Hill kick) * Arizona State – Brent McClanahan 1-yard run (Cruz kick) * Arizona State – Ed Beverly 34-yard pass from

(Cruz kick) ;Third quarter: * Missouri – Chuck Link 48-yard pass from John Cherry (kick failed) * Missouri – Link 4-yard pass from Cherry (Link pass from Cherry) ;Fourth quarter: * Arizona State – Green 2-yard run (Cruz kick) * Missouri –

100-yard kickoff return (Hill kick) * Arizona State – Beverly 53-yard pass from White (Cruz kick) * Arizona State – Green 21-yard run (Cruz kick) * Missouri –

31-yard run (Hill kick) :

Statistics

: :

Aftermath

While in the WAC, Arizona State appeared in three more Fiesta Bowls, winning its next two (

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

). Through , Missouri has yet to return to the Fiesta Bowl.

References

External links

Fiesta Bowl
– December 23, 1972 {{Missouri Tigers bowl game navbox

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been pla ...

Fiesta Bowl Arizona State Sun Devils football bowl games Missouri Tigers football bowl games December 1972 sports events in the United States