1965 Cotton Bowl Classic

Teams

Nebraska

Under third-year head coach Bob Devaney, Nebraska won its first nine games and ascended to fourth in the AP poll, the highest ranking in school history. NU won the Big Eight outright for the second consecutive year, but a 17–7 loss at rival Oklahoma on November 21 snapped a sixteen-game win streak and eliminated the Cornhuskers from national championship contention.

Arkansas

No. 2 Arkansas entered the Cotton Bowl 10–0, including a victory over top-ranked Texas in Austin, to earn the Southwest Conference title. All-American two-way lineman Ronnie Caveness led the Razorbacks' top-ranked scoring defense that allowed just 5.7 points per game. Head coach Frank Broyles made liberal use of the NCAA's new unlimited-substitution rule, which was adopted at the beginning of the 1964 season but was still a rarity among elite teams.

Arkansas had lost three consecutive major bowl games, but entered its 1965 meeting with Nebraska as a slight favorite.

Game

A standing-room only crowd watched as Arkansas opened the scoring on a Tom McKnelly field goal minutes into the game. Nebraska responded midway through the second quarter, using a pair of Fred Marshall fumbles and a long pass to Harry Wilson to score the first points against Arkansas in six games. The Cornhuskers took a 7–3 lead into halftime, Arkansas's first deficit since October 3.

Nebraska's aggressive defensive gameplan frustrated Arkansas for much of the afternoon, and the Razorbacks made a switch at quarterback after a scoreless third quarter. With time winding down, Marshall completed five passes while engineering an eighty-yard Arkansas drive, capped by a three-yard touchdown by running back Bobby Burnett with 4:41 remaining.

Nebraska was unable to mount a threat and Arkansas held on to win 10–7, the program's first victory in a major bowl and its twelfth consecutive win. Marshall and Cavenass, who finished with fifteen tackles, were named the game's most valuable players.

Scoring summary

Team statistics

Aftermath

Broyles rushed his team through postgame festivities so they could watch the Orange Bowl between top-ranked Alabama and Texas. Arkansas was named champion by the FWAA and the Helms Athletic Foundation, the school's only national title claim. Partially due to the results of the Cotton and Orange Bowls in 1964, the AP waited until after bowl season to select a champion in 1965.

Arkansas co-captain Jerry Jones later purchased the Dallas Cowboys and facilitated the construction of Cowboys Stadium in suburban Arlington, where the Cotton Bowl Classic has been played since 2010.

The 1965 Cotton Bowl Classic is the only time Arkansas and Nebraska have met.

References

References

1. (January 1, 1965). "Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, LSU favored in bowl contests". [[Lewiston Morning Tribune]].
2. (November 22, 1964). "Midwest: Oklahoma, 17–7". [[The Register-Guard]].
3. [[Dan Jenkins]]. (January 11, 1965). "Arkansas takes over at the top".
4. (January 2, 1965). "Arkansas rises, 10-7, to win Cotton Bowl". [[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
5. Wally Provost. (January 2, 1965). "Late Arkansas Pass Nip Cotton Bowl Huskers, 10-7". [[Omaha World-Herald]].
6. (January 2, 1965). "Arkansas grabs first Cotton Bowl triumph". [[The Register-Guard]].
7. "Razorbacks win defensive battle with late drive".
8. Bob Kirlin. "Coaches' polls (UPI 1950-1990, CNN/USA Today 1991-present)".
9. (October 9, 2019). "CFB150 Stories: Post Bowl National Champion Voting".
10. Michael Minshew. (January 9, 2020). "Jerry Jones Named to Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame".