The 1981 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl was a 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 on December 31, 1981. It was the 23rd

Bluebonnet Bowl The Bluebonnet Bowl was an annual college football bowl game played in Houston, Texas. A civic group was appointed by the Houston Chamber of Commerce Athletics Committee in 1959 to organize the bowl game. It was held at Rice Stadium from 19 ...

game. The Michigan Wolverines defeated the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

by a score of 33–14. This was the first bowl game meeting of a Big Ten team and a Pac-10 team outside the Rose Bowl Game and was labeled the "mini Rose Bowl".Michigan Bowl History, 1981 Bluebonnet Bowl
University of Michigan Athletic Department Both teams were in the running to meet in the

1982 Rose Bowl The 1982 Rose Bowl was the 68th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Friday, January 1. The Washington Huskies of the Pacific-10 Conference shut out the Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Co ...

, but had their seasons spoiled on November 21, 1981, by their arch-rivals.

Teams

Michigan

The defending

1981 Rose Bowl The 1981 Rose Bowl was the 67th Rose Bowl game and was played on January 1, 1981, at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. The game featured the Michigan Wolverines beating the Washington Huskies by a score of 23–6. The game marked ...

champion Wolverines, who were the preseason #1, opened with a loss to Wisconsin. This led to the Badgers being ranked afterwards. Also, the #1 ranking led to the Clemson Tigers winning their first consensus national championship. The Wolverines responded the next week by beating Notre Dame 25-7. Wins over Navy and Indiana led to a cross state showdown at Michigan State, where the Wolverines downed the Spartans 38–20. The next week, Michigan hosted Iowa and lost 9–7. Michigan would win the next four games leading up to the Michigan–Ohio State rivalry football game on November 21. Michigan lost to Ohio State 14–9. Ohio State and Iowa were tied for the Big Ten conference championship. Iowa would go on to the

, as Iowa and Ohio State did not play each other, and Ohio State had been to the

1980 Rose Bowl The 1980 Rose Bowl was It was the 66th edition of the college football bowl game, played on Tuesday, January 1, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The USC Trojans, champions of the Pacific-10 Conference, defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes, c ...

UCLA

The Bruins opened the season with wins at Arizona and at #20 Wisconsin. They lost at Iowa, the eventual Big Ten champion 20–9. Even with a 26–23 loss at Stanford and a tie at Washington State, the Bruins were in position to win the Pacific-10 after four straight wins. Going into the

UCLA–USC rivalry The UCLA–USC rivalry is the American collegiate athletics rivalry between the UCLA Bruins sports teams of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and USC Trojans teams of the University of Southern California (USC). Both universit ...

football game, The Rose Bowl was on the line for the third time for Terry Donahue's UCLA Bruins teams against USC. UCLA lost to USC in a 21–20 nailbiter, which put Washington into the

. Washington had defeated USC just the week before in what would prove to be the other conference deciding game.

Game summary

Scoring

First quarter

*Michigan — Ali Haji-Sheikh, 24-yard field goal. *Michigan — Anthony Carter, 50-yard pass from Steve Smith. Haji-Sheikh converts.

Second quarter

no scoring

Third quarter

*UCLA — Jojo Townsell, 17-yard pass from

Tom Ramsey Tom Ramsey (born July 9, 1961) is a former professional American football quarterback, who played five seasons in the NFL for the New England Patriots and one season for the Indianapolis Colts. Earlier he played for the Los Angeles Express a ...

. Norm Johnson converts. *Michigan —Haji-Sheikh, 47-yard field goal.

Fourth quarter

*Michigan — Butch Woolfolk, one-yard run. Run failed. *UCLA—

Tim Wrightman Timothy John Wrightman (born March 27, 1960) is an American former professional football player who was a tight end. He played for two seasons for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). Wrightman played college football fo ...

, nine-yard pass from Ramsey. Johnson converts. *Michigan—Smith, nine-yard run. Haji-Sheikh converts. *Michigan—B.J. Dickey, five-yard run. Haji-Sheikh converts.

Aftermath

The Bluebonnet Bowl was the first of three meetings between the schools in 367 days. They met during the

1982 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1982 NCAA Division I-A football season was the last for Paul "Bear" Bryant as head coach at Alabama, retiring with in The Penn State Nittany Lions won their first consensus national championship, closing out an season by defeating Georgi ...

twice: at

Michigan Stadium Michigan Stadium, nicknamed "The Big House," is the football stadium for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the largest stadium in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, the third largest stadium in the world, and the ...

, where UCLA won 31–27, and in the

1983 Rose Bowl The 1983 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game, played on January 1, 1983. It was the 69th Rose Bowl Game. The UCLA Bruins defeated the Michigan Wolverines by a score of 24–14, in a bowl rematch of a regular season game, also won by UCLA. ...

, where UCLA earned a 24–14 victory.

References

External links

Summary at Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan Athletics History
{{UCLA Bruins bowl game navbox

UCLA Bruins football bowl games Michigan Wolverines football bowl games Bluebonnet Bowl 1981 in sports in Texas December 1981 sports events in the United States 1981 in Houston