January 1, 1937: The 1st Cotton Bowl

Slingin' Sammy Baugh

January 1, 1937: The 1st Cotton Bowl -- or, as it's officially known, the Cotton Bowl Classic -- is played at Fair Park Stadium on the Texas State Fair Grounds in Dallas. Texas Christian University (TCU) defeat Marquette University, 10-6.

This was the last collegiate game for Sammy Baugh, the greatest quarterback that football had yet seen, who threw a 55-yard pass for the Horned Frogs' only touchdown.

Before the Cotton Bowl, Fair Park had hosted the Dixie Classic 3 times: In 1922, 1925 and 1934. That game never caught on, but the dream of a New Year's Day bowl game in Dallas, like the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, wouldn't go away. And on New Year's Day 1935, the sunny cities of Miami and New Orleans began hosting the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, respectively.

So oil executive J. Curtis Sanford financed the game out of his own pocket. The Fair Grounds stadium was subsequently expanded to 37,000 seats, and renamed the Cotton Bowl, after the South's most famous agricultural product.

TCU had won its 1st title in the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1920, and won SWC titles in 1929, 1932, 1938, 1944, 1951, 1955, 1958 and 1959, before going into a decline. They won one last SWC title in 1994, before the league split up in 1996. They won titles in the Western Athletic Conference in 1999 and 2000; in Conference USA in 2002; in the Mountain West Conference in 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011; and in the Big 12 Conference in 2014.

The inaugural Cotton Bowl would be the only bowl appearance for Marquette, a Catholic school in Milwaukee. They dropped their program in 1960, and have never reinstated it. Known as the Golden Avalanche until then, they became the Warriors, before the appeal to drop Native American mascots took hold there in 1994. They have been the Golden Eagles ever since, and basketball has been their most successful sport, winning the National Championship in 1977 after reaching the Final in 1974.

Southern Methodist University (SMU), based in Dallas, used the Cotton Bowl stadium as their home field. The success of star running back Doak Walker, who led them to victory in the 1948 and 1949 Cotton Bowls, led to the stadium receiving an upper deck, and the nickname "The House That Doak Built." Walker won the Heisman Trophy in 1948, and finished 2nd in the voting in 1949.

The Cotton Bowl stadium

In 2010, the Cotton Bowl Classic was moved to the Dallas Cowboys' new AT&T Stadium in suburban Arlington, about halfway between the downtowns of Dallas and Fort Worth. It was never held at the Cowboys' previous home, Texas Stadium in suburban Irving, although SMU did play their home games there from 1979 to 1986. Today, the Cotton Bowl stadium's main purpose is soccer games and the annual Texas vs. Oklahoma game on the 2nd Saturday in October, the week of the State Fair.

The game, officially "The Cotton Bowl Classic," would have an affiliation with the Southwest Conference. Every year from its start in 1937 until 1995, the last year of the SWC, a team from that league would be in it, usually the league Champion. The breakup of the SWC ended the official relationship, but it still featured a former SWC team in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015.

The Cotton Bowl has hosted teams that won the National Championships for the calendar years of 1950, Tennessee; 1959, Syracuse; 1963 and 1969, Texas; 1964, Arkansas; 1977, Notre Dame; 2015, Alabama; and 2018, Clemson.

*

January 1, 1937 was a Friday. Also on this day, the Rose Bowl was played in the stadium of the same name, outside Los Angeles in Pasadena, California. The University of Pittsburgh beat the University of Washington, 21-0.

In the Orange Bowl, at Miami Field in Miami, Duquesne beat Mississippi State, 13-12.

In the Sugar Bowl, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Santa Clara University beat Louisiana State University (LSU), 21-14.

And in the Sun Bowl, at Jones Stadium in El Paso, Texas, Hardin-Simmons University beat Texas Mines, 34-6. Texas College of Mines was renamed Texas Western University in 1948, and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 1966.

One game was played in the NHL: The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2 at the Chicago Stadium.