The Aviation Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game played at

Welcome Stadium Welcome Stadium is an 11,000-seat multi-purpose stadium in Dayton, Ohio, United States, owned and operated by Dayton Public Schools. Primary tenants of the facility include University of Dayton Flyers football team and the Dayton Dynamo of the ...

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...

, on December 9, 1961, between the

New Mexico Lobos The New Mexico Lobos are the athletic teams that represent the University of New Mexico, located in Albuquerque. The university participates in the NCAA Division I in the Mountain West Conference (MW) since 1999, after leaving the Western Athlet ...

and the

Western Michigan Broncos The Western Michigan Broncos are a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I program representing Western Michigan University (WMU) in college athletics. They compete in the Mid-American Conference in men's baseball, basketball ...

. New Mexico won by a score of 28 to 12. Attendance for the game was 3,694.

Background

The Lobos finished tied for third for

Mountain States Conference A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

in their final season in the conference. The Broncos had finished tied for second in the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

. This was New Mexico's first bowl game since the 1947 Harbor Bowl and Western Michigan's first ever bowl game. Rutgers and The Citadel were asked to play in the game, but they both declined. Bowling Green was considered to play, but they instead played in the

Mercy Bowl The Mercy Bowl was the name to two one-off charity bowl games played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The first was played between Fresno State University and Bowling Green State University on November 23, 1961, as a ...

, a fundraiser in memory of the members of the Cal Poly team members that died the year before, after playing Bowling Green. Ohio was in the running as well, but they tied their last game against Western Michigan, 20–20. The two inch snowfall that fell prior to the game turned to sleet during the game, making the field wet.

Game summary

* New Mexico - Cromartie 3 yard touchdown run (kick blocked) * New Mexico - Santiago 10 yard touchdown run (Morgan run) * Western Michigan - White 4 yard touchdown run (run failed) * New Mexico - Morgan 10 yard touchdown run (run failed) * New Mexico - Cummings 43 yard interception for touchdown (Bradford run) * Western Michigan - Cooke 5 yard touchdown pass from Chlebek (pass failed)

Statistics

Aftermath

New Mexico did not win another bowl game until the

2007 New Mexico Bowl The 2007 New Mexico Bowl was a post–season American college football bowl game held on December 22, 2007 at University Stadium on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico as part of the 2007–08 NCAA bowl season. The gam ...

Game officials

References