The 1988 California Bowl was an American

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 ...

played on December 10, 1988 at

Bulldog Stadium Valley Children's Stadium, also known as Jim Sweeney Field at Bulldog Stadium, is an outdoor college football stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of California State University, Fresno in Fresno, California. It is the home ...

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...

. The game pitted the

Fresno State Bulldogs The Fresno State Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent California State University, Fresno (commonly referred to as Fresno State). The university is a member of NCAA Division I's Mountain West Conference (MW). It was a ...

and the

Western Michigan Broncos The Western Michigan Broncos are a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I program representing Western Michigan University (WMU) in college athletics. They compete in the Mid-American Conference in men's baseball, basketball ...

Background

The Broncos started the season with a non-conference win over Wisconsin, and they promptly won the next four games (including three conference games) before a loss to Kent State. It was their only conference loss (though they did lose to independent and future MAC member Northern Illinois), closing out the season with a 23–16 win over Ohio. This was their first

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

title since

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, though it was their first non shared titled since

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. It was also their first bowl game since

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. Fresno State had a perfect conference record once again en route to their third

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

title (and third California Bowl) in seven seasons.

Game summary

*Fresno State - Andre Alexander, 55 yard touchdown pass from Mark Barsotti (Loop kick) *Fresno State - Andre Alexander, 38 yard touchdown pass from Mark Barsotti (Loop kick) *Western Michigan - Robert Oliver, 31 yard touchdown pass from Tony Kimbrough (Creek kick) *Western Michigan - Robert Davis, 51 yard touchdown run (Creek kick) *Western Michigan - John Creek, 29 yard field goal *Fresno State - Darrell Rosette, 65 yard touchdown run (Loop kick) *Western Michigan - Robert Davis, 15 yard touchdown pass from Kimbrough (Creek kick) *Fresno State - Darrell Rosette, 4 yard touchdown run (Loop kick) *Fresno State - Myron Jones, 26 yard touchdown run (Loop kick) *Western Michigan - Tony Kimbrough, 6 yard touchdown run (pass failed) Darrell Rosette rushed for 149 yards as the Bulldogs scored 21 points in the third quarter to outplay the Broncos.

Aftermath

Western Michigan, despite having numerous seasons over .500 in the next few years (and two losses in the

MAC Championship Game The MAC Football Championship Game is a football game between the winners of the East and West divisions of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) to determine the conference champion. History The game has been played since 1997, when the conferenc ...

in 1999 and 2000), they were not invited to a bowl game until

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. They did not win a bowl game until

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, nor win the conference again until

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

. Fresno State won the conference the following year and faced off in the California Bowl, winning once again.

References

{{Western Michigan Broncos bowl game navbox

California Bowl The California Bowl (later the California Raisin Bowl) was a post-season college football bowl game played annually at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno, California, from 1981 to 1991. The game featured the champions of the Big West Conference (known p ...

California Bowl Fresno State Bulldogs football bowl games Western Michigan Broncos football bowl games