1969 College Football Recap
In college football's centennial year, the seventh and final No1. vs No.2 duel of the 1960s was waged on Dec.6.
Both top-ranked Texas and Arkansas came in at 9–0. The Longhorns were averaging 44 points a game and had won 18 in a row, but the Razorbacks had a 14–0 lead after three quarters. In the fourth, though, Texas rallied behind quarterback James Street and pulled out a 15–14 victory.
President Nixon was one of the 44,000 fans squeezed into tiny Razorback Stadium and after the game he declared Texas the national champion and gave Darrell Royal a plaque that said so.
The Longhorns clinched the title by coming from behind again in the Cotton Bowl to beat Notre Dame, 21–17. It was the first bowl appearance by the Irish since Knute Rockne and the Four Horseman defeated Pop Warner's Stanford Indians in the 1925 Rose Bowl.
Arkansas, meanwhile, went to the Sugar Bowl and lost to Mississippi. It was a frustrating decade for coach Frank Broyles. His Hogs won 80 regular season games, went 10–0 twice and 9–1 three times, yet the national championship escaped them.
Penn State, a 10–3 winner over Missouri in the Orange Bowl, was unbeaten and untied again and finished second again in both polls. Southern Cal placed third at 10–0–1. USC was tied by Stanford during the regular season but won the Rose Bowl for the second time in four consecutive appearances.
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