The 1973 Fiesta Bowl was the third edition 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 Sun Devil Stadium in

Tempe, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...

on Friday, December 21. Part of the 1973–74 bowl game season, it matched the unranked

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Pittsburgh Panthers The Pittsburgh Panthers, commonly also referred to as the Pitt Panthers, are the athletic teams representing the University of Pittsburgh, although the term is colloquially used to refer to other aspects of the university such as alumni, facu ...

and #10

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). After falling behind early, favored Arizona State pulled away in the fourth quarter and won again on its home field, 28–7.

Teams

Pittsburgh

In their first year under head coach

Johnny Majors John Terrill Majors (May 21, 1935June 3, 2020) was an American professional football player and college coach. A standout halfback at the University of Tennessee, he was an All-American in 1956 and a two-time winner of the Southeastern Confe ...

, the Panthers were ranked twice in the

AP poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broad ...

in November (at #20), but lost the next game ( Notre Dame, Penn State). This was Pittsburgh's first bowl

appearance Appearance may refer to: * Visual appearance, the way in which objects reflect and transmit light * Human physical appearance, what someone looks like * ''Appearances'' (film), a 1921 film directed by Donald Crisp * Appearance (philosophy), or p ...

in seventeen years.

Arizona State

The Sun Devils were co-champions of the WAC, the sole loss was an upset at

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

; ASU defeated

rival 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 o ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

in the late November to clinch the share. This was their fifth straight WAC title and third consecutive Fiesta Bowl

; they had won the first two editions ( 1971,

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

Game summary

Televised by

Mizlou Mizlou Television Network, Inc. or Mizlou Communications, Inc., is a former sports broadcast television network. It was active from 1962 to 1991, and in 1992 it was re-established as Mizlou Television Network, Inc., which is now based in Tampa, ...

, the kickoff on Friday night was shortly after 6 p.m. MST. It was the Fiesta Bowl's second night game, and the last until January

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

. All-American freshman halfback

Tony Dorsett Anthony Drew Dorsett Sr. (born April 7, 1954) is a former American football running back who played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos. From Western Pennsylvania, Dorsett attended the ...

gave Pittsburgh an early lead on his three-yard touchdown run. Arizona State responded, as its All-American halfback Woody Green ran it in from three yards to make it 7–7 at the end of the first quarter; the second quarter was scoreless. A field goal by Danny Kush gave Arizona State a 10–7 lead after three quarters. Split end

Greg Hudson Gregory William Hudson (born February 4, 1967) is an American college football coach and former player. He is a former defensive coordinator for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. He has also served as a defensive assistant at Minnesota ...

increased the lead with a 38-yard touchdown reception from quarterback

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 ...

, and Green (who had 25 rushes for 131 yards) added two more touchdown runs. The game had thirteen punts and fourteen turnovers, with eight each by Pittsburgh. Hudson had eight receptions for 186 yards and was the offensive player of the game; cornerback Mike Haynes had two interceptions and took the defensive honor.

Scoring

;First quarter: * Pittsburgh –

3-yard run (Carson Long kick) * Arizona State – Woody Green 3-yard run (Danny Kush kick) ;Second quarter: :''No scoring'' ;Third quarter: * Arizona State – Kush 30-yard field goal ;Fourth quarter: * Arizona State – Greg Hudson 38-yard pass from

(kick failed) * Arizona State – Green 23-yard run (kick failed) * Arizona State – Green 1-yard run (kick failed) :

Statistics

: :

Aftermath

While in the WAC, Arizona State returned to the Fiesta Bowl twice more, in

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. ...

and

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

, their sole defeat. Pittsburgh came back in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

with another heralded freshman, quarterback Dan Marino, and won.

References

External links

Fiesta Bowl
– December 21, 1973 {{Pittsburgh Panthers 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 Pittsburgh Panthers football bowl games December 1973 sports events in the United States