The 1978 Cotton Bowl Classic was the 42nd

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of the college football

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 ...

, played at the Cotton Bowl in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, on Monday, January 2. Part of the 1977–78 bowl game season, it matched the top-ranked and undefeated

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

of the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma ...

(SWC) and the #5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, an

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. A record crowd of 76,701 turned up to see the coronation of the Longhorns championship season, but Notre Dame surprisingly won as they dominated the Longhorns 38–10. New Year's Day was on Sunday in 1978, and the major college bowl games were played the following day.

Teams

Notre Dame

Fifth-ranked Notre Dame entered the game at 10–1. In September, they were upset by

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

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, but had won all nine games since.

Texas

Texas had won all eleven games; the closest margins were in October against Oklahoma and

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

Game summary

Televised by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, the game kicked off at around 1 p.m. CST, as did the Sugar Bowl on

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. Heisman Trophy

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Earl Campbell Earl Christian Campbell (born March 29, 1955), nicknamed "the Tyler Rose", is an American former professional football player who played as a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints. K ...

of Texas gained 116 yards on 29 carries, but was kept out of the end zone. Tied at three after the first quarter, the Irish scored three touchdowns in eight minutes to lead 24–3; Texas finally got in the end zone late in the second quarter to narrow the lead to fourteen points at halftime. Notre Dame then shut out the Longhorns in the second half while scoring two more touchdowns. The 28-point loss by the Longhorns resulted in complete chaos in the final polls, with Notre Dame vaulting past #3

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

to win the

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

Scoring

First quarter *Notre Dame – Dave Reeve 47-yard field goal, 11:35 remaining (after fumble recovery by

Ross Browner Ross Dean Browner (March 22, 1954 – January 4, 2022) was an American professional football player who was a defensive end for ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL), mainly for the Cincinnati Bengals. Browner was named to the Bengal ...

) ND 3–0 *Texas –

Russell Erxleben Russell Erxleben (born January 13, 1957) is a former American football player and currency investor. He shares the record for the longest successful field goal in NCAA history at 67 yards (with tee), which he set in 1977 while playing for the Uni ...

42-yard field goal, 6:07. Tie 3–3 Second quarter *Notre Dame – Terry Eurick 6-yard run (Reeve kick), 14:56 (after fumble recovery by Jim Browner) ND 10–3 *Notre Dame – Eurick 10-yard run (Reeve kick), 11:37 (after fumble recovery by Willie Fry) ND 17–3 *Notre Dame –

Vagas Ferguson Vasquero Diaz "Vagas" Ferguson (born March 6, 1957) is a former American college and professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons during the 1980s. Ferguson played college football ...

17-yard pass from

Joe Montana Joseph Clifford Montana Jr. (born June 11, 1956) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. Nicknamed "Joe Cool" and "the Comeback Kid", ...

(Reeve kick), 7:28 (after interception by Doug Becker) ND 24–3 *Texas – Mike Lockett 13-yard pass from

Randy McEachern Randy McEachern (born October 5, 1955) is a former American football player. He started as quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. He started the 1977 season as the 4th string quarterback on an unranked team and finished as the starter of the #1 te ...

(Erxleben kick), 0:01 ND 24–10 Third quarter *Notre Dame – Ferguson 3-yard run (Reeve kick), 6:49 (after interception by

Steve Heimkreiter Steven Heimkreiter (June 9, 1957 – December 3, 2020) was an American football linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) who played for the Baltimore Colts. He played college football at the University of Notre Dame. Heimkreiter died of ...

) ND 31–10 Fourth quarter *Notre Dame – Ferguson 26-yard run (Reeve kick), 9:41 (after fake punt attempt) ND 38–10 :

Statistics

: :

Aftermath

Texas' loss opened the door to the

for several teams: second-ranked Oklahoma was soundly beaten 31–6 by #6

in the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game ...

nightcap, and in between, fourth-ranked

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fell 27–20 to #13

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in the Rose Bowl. That left third-ranked Alabama and #5 Notre Dame as the primary teams for the title. Alabama felt that with their convincing 35–6 win over #9

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

in the Sugar Bowl, they would be champions due to the losses by Texas and Oklahoma, but the pollsters saw it differently. Notre Dame was voted number one in every poll. Perhaps the rout by fellow SWC member Arkansas in the Orange Bowl made the difference as it made Notre Dame's victory over Texas (who had won at Arkansas in mid-October) even more impressive.

References

{{Texas Longhorns bowl game navbox

Cotton Bowl Classic The Cotton Bowl Classic (also known as the Cotton Bowl) is an American college football bowl game that has been held annually in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex since January 1, 1937. The game was originally played at its namesake stadium i ...

Cotton Bowl Classic Notre Dame Fighting Irish football bowl games Texas Longhorns football bowl games

January 1978 sports events in the United States