The Optimist Bowl was a postseason 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 in 1946. It was held at Public School Stadium (later known as

Robertson Stadium John O'Quinn Field at Corbin J. Robertson Stadium (often referred to as simply Robertson Stadium) was a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, located on the campus of the University of Houston. It was the home of the Houston Cougars football and wom ...

), 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 i ...

. The game was sponsored by the Houston Optimist Club, through agreement reached with the

Lone Star Conference The Lone Star Conference (LSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the southwestern United States, with schools in T ...

in April 1946; the game was to be contested annually for five years, matching the conference champion against a nationally-rated team. Proceeds from the game would be used to benefit homeless boys in Texas. The 1946 conference champion was

North Texas State The University of North Texas (UNT) is a Public university, public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private Normal school, teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 y ...

(now the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School, ...

) coached by

Odus Mitchell James Odus Mitchell (June 26, 1899 – July 5, 1989) was an American football player and coach. As a coach, he was successful both at the high school and collegiate levels. In 42 years of coaching, at all levels, he compiled a 289–129–17 rec ...

, and organizers extended an invitation to coach

Amos Alonzo Stagg Amos Alonzo Stagg (August 16, 1862 – March 17, 1965) was an American athlete and college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He served as the head football coach at the International YMCA Training School (now called Springfiel ...

and his College of the Pacific team (now the University of the Pacific), who accepted. It was the last game of Stagg's incredible 57 year college football coaching career. Like some other postseason match-ups of the era, such as the

Grape Bowl The Grape Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game played in 1947 and 1948. It was held at the Grape Bowl stadium, in Lodi, California. Both games featured the College of the Pacific (now University of the Pacific), who defeated Utah Sta ...

and the

Glass Bowl The Glass Bowl is a stadium in Toledo, Ohio. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the American football team of the University of Toledo Rockets. It is located on the school's Bancroft campus, just south of the ba ...

, results are listed in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

records, but the games were not considered NCAA-sanctioned bowls.

Game results

1946: North Texas 14, Pacific 13

References

{{Pacific Tigers bowl game navbox 1946–47 NCAA football bowl games Defunct college football bowls North Texas Mean Green football bowl games Pacific Tigers football bowl games American football in Houston Sports competitions in Houston December 1946 sports events in the United States 1946 in sports in Texas

Game results

1946: North Texas 14, Pacific 13

See also

References