The 1957 Sun Bowl was a college football postseason

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 ...

between the

George Washington Colonials The George Washington Colonials are the athletic teams of George Washington University of Washington, D.C. The Colonials compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference for m ...

and the Texas Western Miners.

Background

The Miners were in their fourth Sun Bowl of the 1950s in the final year for coach Mike Brumbelow. Don Maynard was part of the Miner backfield. The Miners won 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 ...

championship with a 5-0 conference record, their first ever conference title. The Colonials had just one loss on the season (to

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

) and one tie (to

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) while finishing second in the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly k ...

, but the Colonials were 17th ranked going into their first ever bowl game, though the Miners were favored due to the game being played at the Miners' home field.

Game summary

Defense proved to be the key ingredient for victory, as the Colonials forced six turnovers and scored a few points of their own in the process. While the Miners stopped the Colonials twice in the first quarter near the endzone, they could not stop them the third time as Ray Looney threw a pass to Paul Thompson, who ran into the end zone for the touchdown. Only 28% of the passes in the game combined were caught (7 out of 25), with three being intercepted. Ted Colna intercepted a pass and Pete Spera ran in for a touchdown to seal the game for the Colonials in the fourth. Claude Austin ran for 98 yards on 18 carries to earn MVP honors. This was the first shutout since Southwestern did it against Mexico in 1945.

Aftermath

The Colonials would not return to a bowl game before they disbanded in 1967. The Miners would return to the Sun Bowl eight years later.

Statistics

References

Sun Bowl Sun Bowl George Washington Colonials football bowl games UTEP Miners football bowl games January 1957 sports events in the United States Sun Bowl {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub