The 1978 Holiday Bowl was the inaugural

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 ...

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 Subdivis ...

of the

Holiday Bowl The Holiday Bowl is a post-season NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game that has been played in San Diego since 1978. San Diego County Credit Union has been the game's title sponsor since 2017, and the bowl has b ...

. It was played on December 22, 1978, at

San Diego Stadium San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium on the West Coast of the United States, west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. The stadium opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium and was known as Jack Murphy Stadium from 1981 to 199 ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. The game was part of the

1978 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1978 NCAA Division I-A football season was the first season of Division I-A college football; Division I-A was created in 1978 when Division I was subdivided into Division I-A and Division I-AA for football only. With the exception of seven ...

. It featured the

Navy Midshipmen The Navy Midshipmen are the athletic teams that represent the United States Naval Academy. The academy sponsors 33 varsity sports teams and 12 club sport teams.BYU Cougars The BYU Cougars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Brigham Young University (BYU), located in Provo, Utah. BYU fields 21 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) varsity athletic teams. They are a member of the West ...

. Navy won 23–16.

Background

Navy won their first seven games of the season, the most wins in a streak in years. A loss to Notre Dame sparked a losing streak that spanned to their games against Syracuse and Florida State, but the Midshipmen managed to rout Army 28–0 to win their eighth game, the most in a season since the nine win year in

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

. The Cougars had won their third straight

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 (state), Washington, and Texa ...

title (their fourth in five years), with a 5-1 conference record (their only loss being to Utah in the

Holy War A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...

). BYU was making their 3rd bowl appearance in four years, after skipping the previous year (and their invite to the

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 playe ...

) due to the game falling on a Sunday.

Scoring summary

*BYU – Brent Johnson 33 yard field goal *Navy – Bob Tata 40 yard field goal *BYU – Mike Chronister 10 yard touchdown pass from

Jim McMahon James Robert McMahon Jr. (born August 21, 1959) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, most notably with the Chicago Bears. McMahon played college football at BYU, where he wa ...

(kick fail) *BYU – McMahon 2 yard touchdown run (Johnson kick) *Navy – Kevin Tolbert 4 yard touchdown run (Tata kick) *Navy – Tata 28 yard field goal *Navy –

Phil McConkey Philip Joseph McConkey (born February 24, 1957) is a former American football wide receiver who played for the New York Giants (1984–1988), Green Bay Packers (1986), Phoenix Cardinals (1989), and San Diego Chargers (1989) of the National Footba ...

65 yard touchdown pass from Bob Leszczynski (Tata kick) *Navy – Tata 27 yard field goal For Navy, Bob Lesczynski threw 7-of-13 for 123 yards for one touchdown.

caught 4 passes for 88 yards and rushed for 42 yards on 2 carries, while being named MVP. For BYU, Jim McMahon threw 9-of-18 for 133 yards for one touchdown and one interception. Mike Chronister caught 3 passes for 60 yards and one touchdown.

Statistics

Aftermath

This was the first in seven consecutive Holiday Bowl appearances for the Cougars, who won four of the seven they played, including one against Michigan in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

that determined the national championship. Navy has not reached the Holiday bowl since this game, while they went on a bowl win drought of 18 years, not winning one until

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

References

Holiday Bowl BYU Cougars football bowl games Navy Midshipmen football bowl games December 1978 sports events in the United States

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