The 1992 Las Vegas Bowl was an American

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

played at

Sam Boyd Stadium Sam Boyd Stadium (formerly the Las Vegas Silver Bowl) is a closed American football, football stadium in Whitney, Nevada, an unincorporated community in the Las Vegas Valley. It honors Sam Boyd (1910–1993), a major figure in the hotel and casin ...

Whitney, Nevada Whitney (formerly East Las Vegas) is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in Clark County, Nevada, United States. The population was 38,585 at the 2010 census. Background Stowell E. Whitney, a dairy farmer from Bunkerville, Nev ...

, on December 18, 1992. It was inaugural

Las Vegas Bowl The Las Vegas Bowl is an NCAA Division I FBS annual post-season college football bowl game held in the Las Vegas area. First played in 1992, the bowl was originally held at the 40,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney, Nevada, before moving t ...

and the first game of the bowl season that concluded the

1992 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1992 NCAA Division I-A football season was the first year of the Bowl Coalition and concluded with Alabama's first national championship in thirteen years—their first since the departure of Bear Bryant. One of Bryant's former players, Gen ...

. The game featured the

Bowling Green Falcons The Bowling Green Falcons are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Bowling Green State University (BGSU), in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. The Falcons compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Divi ...

, champions of the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

(MAC), and the

Nevada Wolf Pack The Nevada Wolf Pack are the athletic teams that represent the University of Nevada, Reno. They are part of NCAA's Division I's Mountain West Conference. It was founded on October 24, 1896 with football as the Sagebrushers in Reno, Nevada. H ...

, champions of the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...

. Bowling Green won the game by a score of 35–34.

Background

Both teams were champions of their respective conferences. Nevada won the

for the first time in their first season in Division I-A. This was their first bowl game appearance since 1949. Bowling Green was champion of the

for the second straight year. This was their fourth bowl game appearance in ten years.

Game summary

The first half and the second half were two very different halves for both teams. Bowling Green scored on their first four possessions with two rushing touchdowns by Jackson, a touchdown pass by

Erik White Erik White is an American music video director. In 2010, he made his feature film directorial debut with the comedy film ''Lottery Ticket'', starring rappers Bow Wow and Ice Cube. He appeared on the reality show competition '' The Glee Project' ...

and a touchdown pass from Smith. Nevada could only respond with a field goal as they trailed 28–3 at halftime. But the second half is when Nevada came alive, as Chris Vargas threw two touchdowns and Holmes ran in for a touchdown to trail only 28–24 as the fourth quarter began. Reeves ran for a touchdown to give the Wolf Pack a 31–28 lead and Terelak made a short field goal to increase their lead to 34–28 with 7:13 remaining. Bowling Green drove to Nevada's six after failing to convert on 4th down. Nevada had to punt the ball after only gaining one first down, but Steve Lester's punt went errant and the Falcons recovered at the Wolf Pack 15 with 1:45 to go. After a pass play got them to the three yard line, the Falcons were stifled twice to set up fourth down with less than 30 seconds to go. White scrambled and found Dave Hankins with 22 seconds remaining in the back of the endzone for a touchdown. Brian Leaver kicked in the extra point to give the Falcons their second straight bowl win. White was the first MVP of the Las Vegas Bowl, having gone 24 of 40 for 245 yards.

Aftermath

This remains Bowling Green's only Las Vegas Bowl appearance. They did not return to a bowl game again until 2003. Nevada returned two more times in the decade, 1995 and 1996.

Statistics

References

{{Nevada Wolf Pack bowl game navbox

Las Vegas Bowl Bowling Green Falcons football bowl games Nevada Wolf Pack football bowl games Las