1948 Cotton Bowl Classic

The 1948 Cotton Bowl Classic was a post-season game between the SMU Mustangs and the Penn State Nittany Lions. The game was a struggle of yardage with the final score being decided on a missed extra point.

1948 Cotton Bowl Classic
12th Cotton Bowl Classic
Penn State Nittany Lions SMU Mustangs (9–0) (9–0–1) Independent SWC 13 13 Head coach:  Bob Higgins Head coach:  Matty Bell AP 5 AP 4
1 2 3 4 Total Penn State 0 7 6 0 13 SMU 7 6 0 0 13
Date	January 1, 1948
Season	1947
Stadium	Cotton Bowl
Location	Dallas, Texas
MVP	G Steve Suhey (Penn State) RB Doak Walker (SMU)
Attendance	43,000

Background

SMU was coached by Matty Bell and led by Doak Walker, who was named All-American. SMU went unbeaten and had won the Southwest Conference championship.

Penn State was coached by Bob Higgins, who would retire after next season. They also went unbeaten as an Independent. Coincidentally, Higgins was the coach who had handed SMU their first bowl loss back in 1925.

Game summary

Doak Walker scored the first seven points of the game on a 53-yard touchdown pass to Paul Page. Later in the second quarter, Walker scored again, this time on a two-yard touchdown run as the extra point was missed. Penn State roared back with Larry Cooney's 38 yard touchdown catch from Elwood Petchel as the game was 13-7 at half time.

Wallace Triplett caught a touchdown pass from Petchel in the third quarter, but the extra point missed as the game was tied, 13-13. The game had no further points as Walker was limited to 75 yards combined and Penn State lost two fumbles.[1]

Statistics

Statistics	SMU	Penn State
First Downs	12	12
Yards Rushing	92	165
Yards Passing	114	93
Total Yards	206	258
Punts-Average	7-33.1	4-33.4
Fumbles-Lost	1-1	2-2
Interceptions	1	1
Penalties-Yards	1-5	3-15

References

1. "26-37.pmd" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-01-05. Retrieved 2014-12-28.