1964 Cotton Bowl Classic
| 1964 Cotton Bowl Classic | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 1, 1964 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1963 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Cotton Bowl | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Dallas, Texas | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP |
Scott Appleton (DL Texas) Duke Carlisle (QB Texas) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 75,300 | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | CBS | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1964 Cotton Bowl Classic was a postseason college football bowl game held on January 1, 1964, in Dallas, Texas. The game was a de facto national championship game featuring the Navy Midshipmen and the Texas Longhorns although neither major poll (API or UPI) published polls after bowl games at this time, so Texas would remain the national champion, regardless of the outcome.
Background
Texas was the Southwest Conference champion and #1 in the polls. Navy was an Independent and #2 in the polls. It is the second #1 versus #2 bowl game, after the 1963 Rose Bowl, and featured 1963 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Roger Staubach (Navy). The game was played just weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a US Navy veteran and avid football fan, in the same city.
Game summary
Two touchdown catches by Phil Harris from Duke Carlisle, a Carlislie touchdown run, and a Harold Philipp touchdown run lead the Longhorns to a devastating win over the Midshipmen, who could only muster a Staubach (who went 22 for 34 for 228 yards), touchdown run after the game was already 28-0. While the two teams had near even passing yards and near even first downs (18-16), Navy had 29 rushes go for -14 yards while Texas' 43 rushes for 168 yards led to two touchdowns as the Longhorns clinched an undisputed national championship, their first ever.[1]
The next time the Longhorns would go to the Cotton Bowl would be 1969, which started a five-year streak of appearances. Navy has not reached the Cotton Bowl since this game and would not play in a bowl game again until 1978.