2 (AP unranked) in the "small college poll." The 1961-62 season was their first in the NCAA University Division ("major" colleges).įresno State finished its season with a 9-0 record, as champions of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). However, for much of their existence up to this point, the Falcons (along with the rest of the MAC) were in the NCAA College Division ("small" colleges) the previous season (1960-61) had seen them finish ranked UPI No. With Perry as coach, Bowling Green would never lose more than two games in a season and had finished an undefeated 9-0 in 1959-60. The Falcons were in their seventh year with Doyt Perry as head coach.
#1962 tangerine bowl mac#
Interestingly, the Falcons and the Bulldogs would go on to meet in the California Bowl (which matched the champions of the MAC and the Big West) on three separate occasions: 1982, 19.īowling Green had finished its season with an 8-1 record and as Mid-American Conference (MAC) champions. Although there was another game by the same name played in 1971 for much the same reasons (to raise money after a tragic accident), the 1961 Mercy Bowl is seen essentially as a unique (one-off) event. The game is seen as a bowl game, although it was played before the 1961 regular season was officially over (on Dec. The AP would continue to do so until the 1968-69 season (with the exception of 1965-66) UPI would continue to do so until the 1974-75 season.įresno State (in dark in the above picture) met Bowling Green (in white) to help raise funds for the victims' families and the survivors of the 1960 Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) plane crash. The AP and UPI named their national champions before the bowl games, at the end of the regular season. Most schools played regular season schedules of 10 games, though the Big Ten, MAC, Ivy and some independents played nine-game regular season schedules. The Horned frogs also beat bowl-bound Kansas, and lost to four other bowl-bound teams: Rice, Baylor, Arkansas, and UCLA. TCU, though it finished with a losing record, played spoiler, tying Ohio State and beating Texas. Bear Bryant wins his first "national championship" at Alabama this was also the Crimson Tide's first consensus major poll (AP, 1936-present UPI/coaches, 1950-present) "national championship." Ohio State's faculty council turns down the Buckeyes' invitation to the Rose Bowl.ģ. Kennedy) becomes the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy.Ģ. Syracuse running back Ernie Davis (pictured above meeting President John F. It also planted the seeds for the proliferation of bowl games, for conference expansion and for the disappearance of independents.ġ961-62 was not a major threshold in that sense, but it still can be considered a watershed year for three reasons:ġ.
The 1986-87 season marked a major threshold in the college football postseason specifically, the beginnings of what was to become the BCS. In this article, I look to the college football postseason of 50 years ago-two generations (approximately)-when the grandfathers of today's undergraduates were of college age (or thereabouts).
#1962 tangerine bowl series#
In my previous article, I examined the bowl season of 1986-87 by doing so, I intended to convey to today's college undergraduates (few of whom have any memory of top-tier college football before the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), much less of a Big Ten with exactly 10 member schools) what the college football landscape-especially that of the the postseason-looked like when their fathers were undergraduates (or thereabouts). While the number of FBS (I-A) programs today is actually somewhat smaller than the number of eligible football programs 50 years ago, there are almost three times as many bowl games (12 in 1961-62 35 in 2011-12). The team jumped back to the ACFL in 1970 but were suspended by the league after the season.Fifty years ago, bowl games were more meaningful. However, while the team won the CoFL championship twice they were plagued by financial difficulties. The franchise moved from Newark, New Jersey to Orlando in 1966 and found success on the field as the Panthers. Founded in 1958 as the Franklin Miners, the team spent its first four years in the Eastern Football Conference, then three further years in the Atlantic Coast Football League before moving to the Continental Football League in 1965.
#1962 tangerine bowl professional#
The Orlando Panthers were a professional American football team based in Orlando, Florida.
Atlantic Coast Football League (1962-64, 70)
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