1964 Liberty Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6th Liberty Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
Date | December 19, 1964 | ||||||||||||||||||
Season | 1964 | ||||||||||||||||||
Stadium | Atlantic City Convention Hall | ||||||||||||||||||
Location | Atlantic City, New Jersey | ||||||||||||||||||
MVP | Ernest "Pokey" Allen (QB, Utah) | ||||||||||||||||||
Referee | Gerald Hogan | ||||||||||||||||||
Attendance | 6,059 | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1964 Liberty Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 19, 1964, at the Atlantic City Convention Hall (now known as Boardwalk Hall) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was the sixth edition of the Liberty Bowl, and featured the Utah Redskins and the West Virginia Mountaineers.
This was the first major bowl game ever played indoors and the first indoor American football game broadcast nationwide in the United States. [1] [2] [3] It was played indoors at a temperature of 60 °F (16 °C), in a venue that in the previous year had already hosted the Boardwalk Bowl (a small college bowl game), the Miss America pageant, the 1964 Democratic National Convention that nominated Lyndon B. Johnson for President, and one of The Beatles' largest concerts during their first American tour.
The venue had been shifted to Atlantic City after the bowl was played for its initial five years outdoors in Philadelphia Municipal Stadium (later John F. Kennedy Stadium), often in temperatures below freezing. The inaugural Liberty Bowl in 1959 saw Penn State beat Alabama by a score of 7–0 in front of 38,000 fans. But it was downhill from there, and fewer than 10,000 were in attendance to watch the 1963 edition between Mississippi State and NC State, with the organizers taking a loss of $40,000. The frigid temperatures at year's end in the Northeast led to the game being called the "Deep Freeze Bowl". Bud Dudley, organizer of the Liberty Bowl, was ready for a change and he was receptive to an offer from a group of Atlantic City businessmen who were trying to help revive the then-fading Jersey Shore resort that included a $25,000 guarantee. [4]
The 1964 playing of the Liberty Bowl was the first major bowl game ever played indoors. [5] Artificial turf was not in use yet, and the playing surface was a 4-inch-thick (10 cm) grass surface with two inches of burlap underneath it on top of concrete. Artificial lights were installed and kept running all day long to keep the grass growing. The organizers spent $16,000 on all of the field preparations for the game. [4] To squeeze the game onto the floor of the convention hall, the end zones at each side of the field were shortened to eight yards in depth from the regulation ten. [6]
In the 1964 postseason, the Liberty Bowl was one of just eight major bowl games. [7] The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) agreed to broadcast the game nationally and brought Paul Christman, Curt Gowdy, and Jim McKay to announce the game, paying $95,000 for the rights to broadcast the first nationwide telecast of an indoor football game. [8]
The Utah Redskins (8–2) faced the West Virginia Mountaineers (7–3). West Virginia's regular season record included a 28–27 upset over the Sugar Bowl-bound Syracuse Orangemen in their final regular game of the season. West Virginia featured running back Dick Leftridge and Utah's offense featured All-American Roy Jefferson. [4] Utah used their speed and dominated West Virginia from start to finish and won 32–6. [9] Utah Halfback Ron Coleman gained 154 yards on 15 carries, scoring a touchdown on a 53-yard run. [5] Utah quarterback (and safety) Pokey Allen was named the game's outstanding player. [10] [11]
This was the last edition of the Liberty Bowl played in the Northeastern United States; it moved to Memphis, Tennessee, for the 1965 edition, where it has remained.
Scoring summary | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
The All-American Bowl was an annual postseason college football bowl game played at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama from 1977 to 1990. The game was known as the Hall of Fame Classic from 1977 to 1985.
The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City Convention Hall in 1964. Since 1965, the game has been held at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. Because of the scheduling of the bowl game near the end of the calendar year, no game was played during calendar years 2008 or 2015, while two games were played in calendar years 2010 and 2016.
Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller arena. It is distinct from traditional American or Canadian football played in larger domed or open-air stadiums, although several early college football games contested on full-sized or nearly full-sized fields at Chicago Coliseum (1890s) and Atlantic City Convention Center helped to show that football could be played as an indoor game.
The Boardwalk Bowl was a post-season college football game held at the former Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, from 1961 to 1973.
Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, formerly known as the Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall, is a multi-purpose arena in Atlantic City in Atlantic County, New Jersey. It was Atlantic City's primary convention center until the opening of the Atlantic City Convention Center in 1997. Boardwalk Hall was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1987 as one of the few surviving buildings from the city's early heyday as a seaside resort. The venue seats 10,500 people for ice hockey, and at maximum capacity can accommodate 14,770 for concerts. Boardwalk Hall is the home of the Miss America Pageant.
Raymond Robert Nagel was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He was the head football coach at the University of Utah from 1958 to 1965 and the University of Iowa from 1966 to 1970, compiling a career college football coaching record of 58–71–3 (.455). After coaching, Nagel was the athletic director at Washington State University from 1971 to 1976 and the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1976 to 1983. From 1990 to 1995, he was the executive director of the Hula Bowl, a college football invitational all-star game in Hawaii.
The Utah Utes football program is a college football team that competes in the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12) of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I and represents the University of Utah. The Utah college football program began in 1892 and has played home games at the current site of Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City since 1927. They have won 28 conference championships in five conferences during their history, and, as of the end of the 2022 season, they have a cumulative record of 711 wins, 476 losses, and 31 ties (.596).
Roy Lee Jefferson is a former American football player, a wide receiver in the National Football League for twelve seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Colts, and Washington Redskins. During 162 regular season games, he had 451 receptions for 7,539 yards and 52 touchdowns.
Marvin Lawrence Fleming is a former professional American football player, a tight end in the National Football League for 12 seasons, seven with the Green Bay Packers and five with the Miami Dolphins. He was a member of five NFL championship teams.
Ernest Duncan "Pokey" Allen Jr. was a gridiron football player and coach in the United States and Canada. He played college football for the Utah Utes before going on to play professionally for the BC Lions and the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League (CFL) in the 1960s.
The Utah State Aggies are a college football team that competes in the Mountain West Conference (MWC) of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, representing Utah State University. The Utah State college football program began in 1892 and has played home games at Merlin Olsen Field at Maverik Stadium since 1968. They have won thirteen conference championships in four different conferences during their history, most recently in 2021.
The 1966 Liberty Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game between the VPI Gobblers and the Miami Hurricanes, both independent programs. The eighth edition of the Liberty Bowl, it was played on December 10, 1966, at Memphis Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. The game was the final contest of the 1966 NCAA University Division football season for both teams, and ended in a 14–7 victory for Miami. A then-record 39,101 tickets were sold for the game, but due to 36 °F (2 °C) temperatures at game time, only 25,012 spectators attended.
The 1963 Liberty Bowl was a college football bowl game played at Philadelphia Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 21, 1963. The fifth edition of the Liberty Bowl was played between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the North Carolina State Wolfpack before a crowd of 8,309 fans in brutally cold weather. Coach Paul E. Davis led Mississippi State to victory, but the significant dropoff in attendance from prior games led organizers to relocate the 1964 edition of the bowl to the Atlantic City Convention Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as the first college bowl game ever played indoors.
The Orlando Panthers were a professional American football team based in Orlando, Florida. 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. The franchise moved from Newark, New Jersey to Orlando in 1966 and found success on the field as the Panthers. However, while the team won the COFL championship twice they were plagued by financial difficulties. The team jumped back to the ACFL in 1970 but were suspended by the league after the season.
The 1964 Utah Redskins football team was an American football team that represented the University of Utah as a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) during the 1964 NCAA University Division football season. In their seventh season under head coach Ray Nagel, the Redskins compiled an overall record of 9–2 with a mark of 3–1 against conference opponents, sharing the WAC title with Arizona New Mexico. Led by quarterback Pokey Allen, running back Ron Coleman, and receiver Roy Jefferson, Utah defeated West Virginia 32–6 in the Liberty Bowl, played indoors in at the Atlantic City Convention Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Home games were played on campus at Ute Stadium in Salt Lake City.
The Denver Pioneers football team formerly represented the University of Denver in college football.
The 1964 West Virginia Mountaineers football team represented West Virginia University during the 1964 NCAA University Division football season.
The 2017 Heart of Dallas Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on December 26, 2017, at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. It was one of the 2017–18 bowl games concluding the 2017 FBS football season. The 8th edition of the Heart of Dallas Bowl, it was sponsored by fast food chicken restaurant Zaxby's, and was officially known as the Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl.
The 1971 NCAA College Division football season was the 16th season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the NCAA College Division level.
The 2020 Liberty Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 31, 2020, with kickoff at 4:00 p.m. EST on ESPN. It was the 62nd edition of the Liberty Bowl, and was one of the 2020–21 bowl games concluding the 2020 FBS football season. Sponsored by automotive retailer AutoZone, the game was officially known as the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.