The 1996 Aloha Bowl was a

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 December 25, 1996, in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

. It was part of the

1996 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1996 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with the Florida Gators being crowned National Champions after defeating rival Florida State in the Sugar Bowl, which was the season's designated Bowl Alliance national championship game. Florida ha ...

. 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.California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

. The game started with California cornerback

Deltha O'Neal Deltha Lee O'Neal, III (born January 30, 1977) is a former American college and professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons. He played college football for the University of Califor ...

taking the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown, giving the Golden Bears a 6-0 lead, but the extra point was blocked. Navy answered with a 7-yard touchdown run from tailback Tim Canada taking a 7-6 lead with 6:21 remaining in the 1st quarter. The Golden Bears retook the lead just 3 minutes later with a 6-yard touchdown pass from

Pat Barnes Pat Barnes (born February 23, 1975 in Arlington Heights, Illinois) is a retired National Football League quarterback. He played from 1997 to 2003 in the NFL, XFL, and CFL. Barnes played as a quarterback at University of California, where he st ...

Bobby Shaw Bobby T. Shaw II (born April 23, 1975 in San Francisco, California) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League. Shaw has played for five NFL teams: Seattle Seahawks, Pittsburgh Steelers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Bu ...

giving Cal a 13-7 lead. The Midshipmen answered with two scores in the opening 5 minutes of the second stanza giving the Midshipmen a 21-13 lead. Navy had scored on touchdown drives of 76 and 95 yards. With 6 minutes to play in the first half, Cal quarterback Pat Barnes found wide receiver

Sean Bullard Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...

for a 20-yard touchdown pass, and found Na'il Benjamin for the two-point conversion tying the game at 21. The Cal defense than forced a 3 and out, and Deltha O'Neal scored on a 31 yard wide receiver reverse giving the Golden Bears a 28-21 lead. With just 39 seconds in the first half, Navy quarterback Chris McCoy threw a 2-yard touchdown pass tying the game at 28, but Cal answered with a 20-yard Pat Barnes strike to Bobby Shaw, giving Cal a 35-28 lead going into halftime. The second half featured less scoring. In the third quarter,

Ryan Longwell Ryan Walker Longwell (born August 16, 1974Ryan Longwell
NFLPA.com. Retrieved November 22, 2014.

kicked a 41-yard field goal to give Cal a 38-28 lead. In the fourth quarter, with 8 minutes remaining, back up quarterback

Ben Fay Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( ...

forever became a part of Navy Football lore as he came off the bench and led the first of 2 Navy 4th quarter drives first scored on a 3-yard touchdown run making the score 38-35. Cal drove deep into Navy territory, but turned it over at the Navy 16-yard line with 3 minutes left. Then with just 1:41 remaining in the game, Fay scored on the game winning 10-yard touchdown run, making the final 42-38 Navy. The game was notable for its offensive output, with both teams putting up 1080 combined yards, an Aloha Bowl record. Navy rolled up 646 yards of total offense in the game. The first half featured 63 points being scored. Wide receiver Cory Schemm broke the bowl game record for receiving yards with 193 in the game.

References

Aloha Bowl The Aloha Bowl was a National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Subdivision (then known as Division I-A) college football bowl game played in Honolulu, Hawaii at Aloha Stadium. History The Aloha Bowl was established in 1982 by Mackay ...

Aloha Bowl California Golden Bears football bowl games Navy Midshipmen football bowl games December 1996 sports events in the United States 1996 in sports in Hawaii {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub