The Will Rogers Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game held in

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

on January 1, 1947. It was intended to be an annual event, but was discontinued after the first edition. The game featured

Pepperdine Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and ...

, a first-year football program, and Nebraska Wesleyan. Pepperdine, a school based in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, was then known as George Pepperdine College (GPC), and the football team finished its first-ever season of play with an 8–1 record. After 1950, the Pepperdine football program struggled, and was eventually discontinued in 1961. In the last two years of the team's existence, it compiled a 1–17 record. Nebraska-Wesleyan's football program started in 1896. The program was discontinued in 1897 but resumed in 1908. The football program had never been to a bowl game as well and went 7-0-3 and was coached by George "Bus" Knight in his first year as a college coach. The mascot names for Nebraska-Wesleyan have changed from Coyotes to Sun Flowers to Plainsmen to Prairie Wolves and the program has won 22 conference titles. The football program continues to this day. The game was played on January 1, 1947 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was named in honor of Will Rogers, a famous Oklahoma native and self-proclaimed "Cowboy Philosopher," who had died in a plane crash the previous decade. A snow storm hit Oklahoma City just before the game and the game was only attended by 800 people. Nebraska-Wesleyan led 7-0 at halftime but Pepperdine came back to win the game 38-13. The bowl game remains Nebraska-Wesleyan and Pepperdine's only college bowl appearance.

References

1946–47 NCAA football bowl games Defunct college football bowls Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves football bowl games Pepperdine Waves football bowl games January 1947 sports events in the United States 1947 in sports in Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-sport-stub