The 1949 Raisin Bowl (December) 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 31, 1949 at

Ratcliffe Stadium Ratcliffe Stadium is a collegiate athletic venue in the western United States, located on the campus of Fresno City College in Fresno, California. Opened in 1926, it was renamed in 1941 after their first football coach, Emory Ratcliffe. The sta ...

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

San Jose State Spartans The San Jose State Spartans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent San José State University. SJSU sports teams compete in the Mountain West Conference (MW) at the NCAA Division I level, with football competing in the Football B ...

and the

Texas Tech Red Raiders The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Lady Raiders are the athletic teams that represent Texas Tech University, located in Lubbock, Texas. The women's basketball team uses the name Lady Raiders, while the school's other women's teams use the "Red Raider ...

. This was the fifth and final

Raisin Bowl The Raisin Bowl was an annual post-season American college football bowl game played at Ratcliffe Stadium in Fresno, California, from 1946 to 1949. The first four games were played on January 1, the last on December 31. The games pitted a Cali ...

played.

Background

San Jose State won eight games in the regular season, though they were invited to their second bowl game in four seasons. Texas Tech finished as champion of the

Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Border Conference, officially known as the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association, was an NCAA-affiliated college athletic conference founded in 1931 that disbanded following the 1961–62 season. Centered in the southwestern United State ...

for the third straight year and fourth in seven years (with no champion awarded from 1943–45). This was their fifth bowl game in 11 years.

Game summary

*Texas Tech - Hatch 1 yard run *San Jose State - Wilson 30 yard pass from Menges *San Jose State - Donaldson 11 yard run *San Jose State - Donaldson 5 yard run *Texas Tech - Stuver 76 yard run In a game that started and ended with fog, San Jose State pulled through with quick scoring to win their second ever bowl game.file:///C:/Users/ref15p/Downloads/05mediaguide-bowlhistory.pdf

Aftermath

With the win, San Jose State had won nine games for the fourth straight season. They did not win 9 games again until 1975. Incidentally, they did not reach a bowl game until the

Pasadena Bowl The Pasadena Bowl, known as the Junior Rose Bowl from 1946 to 1966 and again in 1976 and 1977, was a college football bowl game. Between 1946 and 1966 and again in 1976 and 1977, the game pitted the California Junior College football champions aga ...

in 1971 and a major bowl game until

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

. Texas Tech returned to a bowl game in 1952, which they won for their first ever win in school history.

References

Raisin Bowl San Jose State Spartans football bowl games Texas Tech Red Raiders football bowl games December 1949 sports events in the United States

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