The 1963 Gator Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game that featured the

Air Force Falcons The Air Force Falcons are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the United States Air Force Academy, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The athletics department has 17 men's and 10 women's NCAA-sanctioned teams. The current athl ...

and the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Background

This was the Falcons' first bowl game since

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

. The Tar Heels were co-champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which was their first conference title since the 1949

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly k ...

title. This was their first bowl game in

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

Game summary

*UNC – Willard 1 run (Kick failed), 2:34 remaining *UNC – Edge 6 run (Pass failed), 9:40 remaining *UNC – Robinson 5 pass from Black (Robinson pass from Black), 4:29 remaining *UNC – Kessler 1 run (Lacey pass from Edge), 4:44 remaining *UNC – Black 5 run (Chapman kick), 13:19 remaining Willard ran for 94 yards on 18 carries.

Aftermath

Air Force did not return to a bowl game until 1971, nor win one until 1982. North Carolina did not return to a bowl game until

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

. The morning after the game, there was a fire at the Hotel Roosevelt in downtown Jacksonville, with 22 dying.

Background

Game summary

Aftermath

Statistics

References

Further reading