The Oil 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 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 three times at

Rice Field Wendel D. Ley Track and Holloway Field is a stadium in Houston, Texas. It is primarily used for track and field and soccer for the Rice University Owls. It is bounded by Main Street (southeast), University Boulevard (southwest), Reckling Par ...

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

in the 1940s. Muddy conditions for the first game, and freezing temperatures for the third game, doomed future contests. In 1949, a

junior college A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in su ...

bowl game of the same name was played.

Game results

Game summaries

1944 Oil Bowl

Some consider the New Year's Day bowl game of 1944 (after the 1943 season) to have been a college division/minor bowl game. Both rosters were made up of varsity players from ranked teams in the 1942 season. This was possible because both schools were participants in the World War II V-12 program. The Southwestern Louisiana Institute (SLI; now the

University of Louisiana at Lafayette The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette, University of Louisiana, ULL, or UL) is a public research university in Lafayette, Louisiana. It has the largest enrollment within the nine-campus University of Louisiana System and the s ...

) team, for example, was composed of over 175 varsity players from other colleges. These numbers included 18 players from 19th-ranked

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

, nine players from 13th-ranked

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

, and eight players from the eighth-ranked

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

teams of 1942. These players were not all starters for the team; varsity players from other schools made up the majority of the team.

Alvin Dark Alvin Ralph Dark (January 7, 1922 – November 13, 2014), nicknamed "Blackie" and "The Swamp Fox", was an American professional baseball shortstop and manager. He played fourteen years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston/Milwaukee Bra ...

of LSU, playing for SLI, passed for a touchdown, ran for a touchdown, and kicked three

extra point The conversion, try (American football, also known as a point(s) after touchdown, PAT, or (depending on the number of points) extra point/2-point conversion), or convert (Canadian football) occurs immediately after a touchdown during which the sc ...

s; he also punted and returned punts for the Bulldogs. Dark later recalled that the game was played in "ankle-deep mud."

1946 Oil Bowl

A three-yard touchdown rush was the opening score in the first ever Oil Bowl, held in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

on January 1, 1946. Georgia took a 7–0 lead after this touchdown rush and the first quarter ended as such. Tulsa countered with a touchdown rush of their own, though it was only from one yard out. The PAT failed, making the score 7–6 Georgia at halftime. No scoring happened in the third quarter, and Georgia lengthened their lead in the fourth, scoring twice: a 54-yard pass and a 69-yard punt return, each by

Charley Trippi Charles Louis Trippi (December 14, 1921 – October 19, 2022) was an American professional football player for the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) from 1947 to 1955. Although primarily a running back, his versatility al ...

. The PAT on the punt return was no good, and the game finished 20–6. Georgia finished with 288 total yards, and Tulsa finished with only 148.

1947 Oil Bowl

The second and last Oil Bowl saw No. 11 Georgia Tech take on St. Mary's in front of 23,000 spectators in

. The Yellow Jackets scored the first touchdown of the game in the first quarter and held a 7–0 lead. The second quarter saw Georgia Tech turn the offense on, outscoring St. Mary's 20–7 and taking a 27–7 lead into halftime. The third and fourth quarters were identical in score, with Georgia Tech outscoring St. Mary's 7–6 in both, making the second half score 14–12. The Yellow Jackets became the 1947 Oil Bowl champions, defeating St. Mary's 41–19.

References