The Great Lakes Bowl was a college football bowl game that was played only once, on December 6, 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio between the University of Kentucky and Villanova University.
The Kentucky Wildcats of the Southeastern Conference was in its second season under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. Kentucky brought a 7-3 record into the game, their only losses coming to Mississippi (ranked #13 in the final AP poll of the season), Alabama (ranked #6 in the final AP poll of the season) and Tennessee.
The Villanova Wildcats, coached by Jordan Olivar, brought a 6-2-1 record into the game, having lost to Army and Boston College. It was the first bowl appearance for Kentucky and the second for Villanova, which in 1936 tied Auburn 7-7 in the Bacardi Bowl in Havana, Cuba. Neither team was ranked entering the game, though Kentucky had spent three weeks in the AP top twenty in October, rising as high as #13.
The game was played at Cleveland Stadium with attendance of 14,908.
In the first quarter Kentucky's George Blanda kicked a 27 yard field goal. At halftime Kentucky led 3-0. In the third quarter Kentucky's Jim Howe had a 29 yard touchdown run; Blanda's point after kick gave Kentucky a 10-0 lead. In the fourth quarter, Kentucky's Bill Boller had a 15 yard touchdown run on offense and on defense returned an interception 49 yards for a touchdown. Blanda hit both extra point attempts to give Kentucky a 24-0 lead. Villanova also scored two late touchdowns late in the fourth quarter. Andy Gordon threw a 9 yard touchdown pass to John Sheehan to make it Kentucky 24, Villanova 7. Ralph Pasquariello had a 10 yard touchdown run for the game's last score. The final score was Kentucky 24, Villanova 14.
The Great Lakes Bowl was never played again. Oddly, Villanova's first two bowl appearances were in bowl games that were only played once, and in cities that never again hosted a college bowl game. Kentucky and Villanova met again in the regular season the following year. They tied 13-13 in Lexington, Kentucky, on November 6, 1948.
Famous quotes containing the words lakes and/or bowl:
“What is most striking in the Maine wilderness is the continuousness of the forest, with fewer open intervals or glades than you had imagined. Except the few burnt lands, the narrow intervals on the rivers, the bare tops of the high mountains, and the lakes and streams, the forest is uninterrupted.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It all ended with the circuslike whump of a monstrous box on the ear with which I knocked down the traitress who rolled up in a ball where she had collapsed, her eyes glistening at me through her spread fingers—all in all quite flattered, I think. Automatically, I searched for something to throw at her, saw the china sugar bowl I had given her for Easter, took the thing under my arm and went out, slamming the door.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)