The 1979 Garden State Bowl, played on December 15, 1979, was the second edition of the

Garden State Bowl The Garden State Bowl was an annual post-season college football bowl game played at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, from 1978 until 1981.Foldesy, Jody. "Bowls burgeon as big business", ''The Washington Times''. December 21, 1997. P ...

. The game featured the

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

, who played in their first bowl since the 1959 Rose Bowl, and the

Temple Owls The Temple Owls are the college athletics, athletic teams that represent Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The current athletic director is Arthur Johnson (athletic director), Arthur Johnson. The owl has been the symbol and masco ...

, who made their first bowl appearance since the

1935 Sugar Bowl The 1935 Sugar Bowl was the first Sugar Bowl game. Tulane (9–1) hosted unbeaten Temple (7–0–2) before a crowd of 22,206 in New Orleans with the kickoff at 1:30 pm CST. Temple took a 14–0 lead before Tulane came back to win the game, 20� ...

. 55,493 tickets were sold but only 40,207 fans showed on a cold 29°-day in the Meadowlands to see the Owls beat the Golden Bears, 28–17. The game was nationally televised on the

Mizlou Television Network Mizlou Television Network was a sports broadcast television network active from 1968-1991. In 1968, its predecessor, the Unisphere Broadcasting System (UBS) was re-established as Mizlou Television Network, which is now based in Tampa, Florida. Mi ...

Game summary

The Owls scored on their first three possessions and jumped ahead to a 21–0 lead in the first quarter on drives of 67 and 50 yards with scoring runs of 8 and 4 yards by running back Kevin Duckett and a seven-yard touchdown pass from quarterback

Brian Broomell Brian Broomell (born June 26, 1958) is an American former professional football quarterback who played one season with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at Temple University. He was also a memb ...

to receiver Wiley Pitts. The Golden Bears trimmed the lead to 21–14 at the half, after touchdown passes from Cal quarterback Rich Campbell to Matt Bouza and Joe Rose. After a Cal field goal by Mick Luckhurst early in the fourth quarter, the Bears closed to within four points, only to have Temple seal the game with a 78-yard drive ending with a five-yard touchdown pass from Broomell to Gerald (Sweet Feet) Lucear. The Owls rushed for 300 of their 381 yards total offense. Mark Bright, Temple's fullback, was named Most Valuable Player for gaining 112 yards on 19 carries. Campbell was the leading passer in the game with 241 yards, but Cal had just 23 yards rushing. The Temple defense was led by sophomore tackle Guy Peters, who recorded three sacks and recovered a fumble. The Bowl win was Temple's 10th win of the year, a team record, and earned

Wayne Hardin Irving Wayne Hardin (March 23, 1926 – April 12, 2017) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the United States Naval Academy from 1959 to 1964 and at Temple University from 1970 to 1982, compiling a ...

's team a spot in the AP and UPI Top 20. Temple was ranked 17th in both polls, the first time the Temple football team was nationally ranked in the final wire service polls. Cal wound up 6–6 and took its worst setback after suffering its five regular season defeats by a total of 24 points.

References

Garden State Bowl California Golden Bears football bowl games Temple Owls football bowl games

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