The 1999 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 in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

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, 1999, 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 ...

. It was part of the

1999 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1999 NCAA Division I-A football season saw Florida State named national champions, defeating Virginia Tech in the BCS Sugar Bowl. Florida State became the first team in history to start out preseason No. 1 and remain there through the entire ...

. It featured the

Wake Forest Demon Deacons The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Wake Forest University, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a ...

, who finished 5th in the ACC, and the

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member o ...

, who had finished 4th in the

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Divisio ...

conference.

Game summary

The game was a defensive struggle in the first half, with the two teams combining for 6 first half points, and 26 total points for the game. Wake Forest started the game with a great drive deep into Sun Devils territory, but had to settle for a 22-yard Matthew Burdick field goal, as Wake took a 3-0 lead. In the second quarter, Arizona State's Mike Barth kicked a 46-yard field goal to tie the game at 3. The defenses held for the rest of the half, sending the game into halftime tied at 3. In the third quarter, Wake Forest put together another long drive, but again had to settle for a field goal, a 24 yarder from Burdick to put Wake Forest ahead 6-3. Arizona State's Mike Barth missed a 42-yard field goal attempt, and Wake Forest made them pay. Wake Forest took full command of the game after Ben Sankey threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Caldwell giving Wake Forest a 13-3 lead. Early in the fourth quarter, running back Morgan Kane scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to increase the lead to 20-3. Matthew Burdick capped the scoring with a 43-yard field goal making the final score 23-3. This was Wake Forest's first bowl win since the 1992 season. Arizona State was playing without its starting quarterback, who missed the game with a torn ACL. The team had many of its starters sick, which severely affected their performance, and the Sun Devils were held to just 164 yards of total offense. In a slightly humorous note, the game was played on

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

yet it pitted teams nicknamed the Sun Devils and

Demon Deacons A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ...

Aftermath

Caldwell would leave the Deacons the following season, though the Deacons would play in the Seattle Bowl two years later. One year later, the Sun Devils would go to the Aloha Bowl and once again lose, this time to Boston College in Snyder's final season with the Sun Devils.

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 Ma ...

Aloha Bowl Arizona State Sun Devils football bowl games Wake Forest Demon Deacons football bowl games

December 1999 sports events in the United States {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub