NavyCrimson wrote:Mustang1108: "Here is footage of the Bobby Wilson touchdown against TCU in 1935. The play starts at around 1:40"
Definitely this one! Without this TD, No national championship & the SMU legend!
Yep. The fact that it still gets mentioned over 75 years later tells you something. SMU got the Rose Bowl berth and a legit claim to the national title. While the AP poll didn't exist until the following year, all but one of the credible polls that did exist held their final votes before the two bowls. SMU and Minnesota both claim national titles based upon those polls.
SMU's subsequent loss to Stanford in the Rose Bowl and TCU's win over LSU in the Sugar Bowl (combined with TCU's #1 finish in the lone poll that bothered to vote after the two bowl games) resulted in TCU also staking a national title claim the same year, which I assume may still irk some residing 30 miles east of FW.
I guess such disputes fuel the passions that keep long standing rivalries alive. Anyway, 75 years later the Frogs finally got their Rose Bowl shot due to an unlikely twist in BCS rules and an unusually strong group of senior talent. The historical significance of this was not lost on me. While none of us are likely old enough to recall a game played in 1935, those of us who really know the history of both programs understood that this year's game helped close a large hole in TCU's football history. A touchdown scored by Bobby Wilson in 1935 has mattered to many TCU and SMU folks for more than three quarters of a century now. For SMU fans it will continue to be a major highlight in your program's long and rich history and for TCU fans it can now be just one of those big moments that colors the history of a rivalry that still matters to many of us. Let's keep those passions alive and continue filling our stadiums for this game each fall.
FYI - there was a very nice article about the 1/1/36 Rose Bowl game in this year's game program.