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72-638: The contest is one of 14 bowls produced by ESPN Events (previously ESPN Regional Television) and has been televised annually on ESPN since its inception. Armed Forces Insurance is the official Insurance Partner of the Armed Forces Bowl and has sponsored the Great American Patriot Award, presented at halftime at the bowl, since 2006. The bowl was first played in December 2003, featuring two ranked teams, No. 18 Boise State and No. 19 TCU . It

144-648: A 13–13 tie. Walker threw a 53-yard touchdown pass and scored on a two-yard run in this game. Walker earned the Maxwell Award during this season. During the 1948 season, the Mustangs won their seventh conference title, posting a 9–1–1 record. The team played in the Cotton Bowl Classic once more, defeating the Oregon Webfoots , who were led by quarterback Norm Van Brocklin , 21–13, making it their first victory in

216-528: A 14–13 victory over Texas Christian University . The team continued to have winning seasons until the 1932 season. The Mustangs won their second conference title in 1926, compiling an 8–0–1 record, and a third conference title in 1931, compiling a 9–0–1 record. In 1928, guard Choc Sanders became SMU's first All-American , as well the first All-American from the Southwest Conference. In 1929, tackle Marion Hammon became SMU's second All-American. After

288-514: A 19–20–1 record in his four seasons as head coach for SMU, resigning after two consecutive losing seasons. During the 1954 season, wide receiver Raymond Berry was elected as a co-captain, despite only catching 11 passes for 144 yards, winning All-Southwest Conference and Academic All-American honors, and later played in the NFL for the Baltimore Colts . Woodard was replaced by Bill Meek in 1957, who

360-523: A 1–11 season. The Mustangs won the last game of the season against the University of Connecticut on December 6, 2014. SMU hired Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris as head coach and announced his placement on December 1, 2014. His first season resulted in a 2–10 record, a slight improvement from the 2014 season. SMU continued to improve in Morris' second season, finishing 5–7. In his 3rd season, Morris

432-495: A 39.4 average and kicked field goals and extra points. He is also the Mustangs' all-time leader in punt return yards with 750—that was during an "era" of NCAA single-platoon substitution rules . Bell left the head coaching position at SMU with a 79–40–8 record, including three Southwest Conference titles, a bowl game victory, and a national championship. Bell was replaced by Rusty Russell in 1950. Russell previously served as quarterbacks and running backs coach from 1945 to 1949, and

504-543: A 4-7 record. In three seasons with SMU, Smith compiled a 16–15–2 record. Smith was replaced by Ron Meyer in 1976. Coach Ron Meyer came to SMU in 1976 from the Dallas Cowboys in the 1970s (including a Super Bowl win) and a stint with UNLV . Coach Meyer was notable for his recruiting tactics, including visits each year to the homes of 70 or more of the top recruits per year. His most notable recruits were future NFL running backs Eric Dickerson and Craig James before

576-829: A bowl game in school history. Doak Walker, winning All-American honors, also won the Heisman Trophy , the only Mustang ever to do so. Additionally, the Mustangs permanently moved to the Cotton Bowl for their home games this season, after playing only limited numbers of games in that stadium in years previous. In their final game at Ownby Stadium , the Mustangs defeated Texas Tech 41–6. Due to Doak Walker's popularity and gate draw—also as an allusion to 1923 Yankee Stadium's "House that Ruth Built″ moniker referring to that stadium's likewise excess of capacity—the Cotton Bowl became regionally known as "The House that Doak Built". The 1949 season

648-651: A college marketing division, which provides colleges all-in-one services for selling sponsorships, local media rights and other marketing campaigns. The University of South Florida , the University of Kansas and the University of Oregon are some of the clients that the division began representing in 2000. SMU Mustangs football The SMU Mustangs football team is a college football team representing Southern Methodist University (SMU) in University Park in Dallas County, Texas . The Mustangs compete in

720-470: A conference title in 26 years, securing a berth in the Conference USA Championship game. SMU lost the conference title game, 17–7, against UCF . Once again unranked in the 2010 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings , SMU was invited to its second consecutive bowl game, the 2010 Armed Forces Bowl , where it lost against the unranked Army Black Knights . Following Texas A&M 's move to

792-443: A regular season record of 7–5. Despite finishing unranked in the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings , SMU was invited to its first bowl game in 25 years, and defeated the unranked Nevada Wolf Pack with a final score of 45–10 in the 2009 Hawai'i Bowl , the team's first bowl win since 1984. In 2010, the Mustangs again compiled a regular season record of 7–5, with a 6–2 in-conference record to earn their first chance at winning

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864-578: A source of live content for ESPN during the early weeks of bowl season, prior to the larger, traditional games in proximity to New Year's Day (such as the New Year's Six games of the College Football Playoff , which are also broadcast by ESPN). This strategy has been successful for ESPN, although it has in recent years contributed to an oversaturation of bowl games that have prevented them from all being populated by bowl-eligible teams. ESPN also runs

936-564: A span of two seasons, Morrison left SMU for service in the United States Army upon the United States’ entry into World War I. On October 17, 1917, the name "Mustangs" was selected as the school's mascot. For the 1917 season, Morrison was replaced by J. Burton Rix , who led the Mustangs to a 3–2–3 record in their final season in the TIAA . The 1918 season was the first of many seasons for

1008-542: A winning 1934 season, Morrison left SMU to take over the Vanderbilt Commodores football team after the retirement of Dan McGugin . Morrison was replaced by Matty Bell in 1935. In his first season, Bell led the Mustangs to a 12–1 record. During this season, the Mustangs were crowned national champions by Frank Dickinson and Deke Houlgate , two of seven contemporaneous selectors, all math systems, that chose five different national champions that year. To play in

1080-626: Is based in nearby Grand Prairie . In December 2018, Lockheed Martin extended its sponsorship though 2025. The bowl's partnership with the Big 12 Conference ended with the 2005 season. From 2006 to 2009, the Mountain West Conference was signed to provide a team to face either a team from the Pac-10 or Conference USA (C-USA), depending on the year; Pac-10 teams would play in odd number years while C-USA teams would play in even numbered years). As such,

1152-408: Is credited with luring Doak Walker away from the University of Texas . In three seasons as head coach, Russell compiled a 13–15–2 record. After a strong first season, in which the Mustangs were ranked number one in the nation, the team suffered two losing seasons. Increasingly under fire, Russell resigned as head coach after the 1952 season. Kyle Rote , who filled Doak Walker's place on the team, led

1224-683: The SEC Network brand. The original business of ESPN Regional Television began to grow obsolete with the launch of dedicated networks dedicated to specific conferences, including the Big Ten Network , Pac-12 Network , and the ESPN-operated SEC Network , since they largely assumed rights to the game packages that ESPN had previously syndicated. As such, the division pivoted to focusing solely on organizing events, particularly within college football and basketball. ESPN Plus used to hold

1296-503: The 1968 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl , giving SMU its first bowl victory since the 1949 Cotton Bowl. SMU and Oklahoma combined to score 35 points in the fourth quarter. SMU stopped Oklahoma short of a potential game-winning two-point conversion with 1:16 left to play. LeVias was selected as an all-conference player as a senior for the third time. Fry's Mustangs had a 12-20 record over the next three years, from 1969 to 1971. That led to uncertainty about his leadership, and rumors began to swirl after

1368-539: The 2013 football season , the Armed Forces Bowl signed multi-year agreements with the American Athletic Conference (The American), Big Ten Conference , Big 12 Conference , Mountain West Conference, Army and Navy to set bowl match-ups for the next six seasons (Navy later joined The American, and Army committed to do so beginning with the 2024 football season). In December 2020, it was announced that

1440-777: The Camping World Kickoff , Advocare Texas Kickoff , and FCS Kickoff . ESPN Events is also involved in college basketball, operating early-season events such as the AdvoCare Invitational , the Champions Classic , the Jimmy V Classic , the NIT Season Tip-Off , and the Phil Knight Invitational . The company's success with college tournament operation and broadcasting led ESPN Regional Television to form

1512-662: The Celebration Bowl in Division I FCS , which is played between the champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) — the two prominent conferences of historically black colleges and universities . ESPN Events operates the following 17 bowl games, which ESPN televises: ESPN Events also organizes several opening weekend games, such as

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1584-722: The East–West Shrine Game in San Francisco. Walker did not play for the 1946 season due to serving in the United States Army , yet re-enrolled at SMU and rejoined the football team for the 1947 season. The Mustangs posted a 9–0–2 record in 1947, winning their sixth Southwest Conference title. In the same season, the team played against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Cotton Bowl Classic , resulting in

1656-577: The Helms Athletic Foundation as his last ever selection, in addition to consensus champion Penn State ; the Mustangs did, however, finish second in both the AP and coaches' polls. SMU posted a 49-9-1 record from 1980 to 1984, which was the highest win percentage (.839) in Division I-A over that span. In 1987, SMU became the first and only football program in collegiate athletic history to receive

1728-609: The Las Vegas Bowl from Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority . ESPN Regional did so to help partner conferences that had bowl qualified teams but no bowl available. The company bought four more bowls and started two others. In August 2008, ESPN reached a 15-year, $ 2.25 billion broadcast rights agreement with the SEC . As part of the deal, ESPN also assumed the syndicated package of games previously held by Raycom Sports ; beginning in 2009, ERT syndicated SEC football and basketball under

1800-797: The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). SMU joined the ACC in July 2024 after eleven years as a member of the American Athletic Conference (AAC). In June 1915, Ray Morrison became SMU 's football, baseball, basketball, and track coach, in addition to being a math instructor. The football team was initially a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association and played at Armstrong Field . Due to rules of

1872-663: The Rose Bowl against the Stanford Indians football team for the unofficial national championship, SMU faced off against the TCU Horned Frogs , who featured star quarterback Sammy Baugh . The Mustangs had three more winning seasons from 1936 to 1939. SMU failed to win the Southwest Conference title in 1940, despite having the same conference record as the Texas A&;M Aggies . After a 5–5 season in 1941, Bell left SMU to serve in

1944-563: The SEC in August and September 2011, SMU made it known that they would like to replace Texas A&M in the Big 12 . SMU's interest in the Big 12 was never reciprocated, and the Big 12 instead added TCU and West Virginia University . SMU went on to win back-to-back bowl games in the 2012 BBVA Compass Bowl (for the 2011 season) and 2012 Hawaii Bowl . SMU ended the Jones era in 2014 the way it began: with

2016-450: The Sun Bowl , their first since the 1948 season, against the Oregon Webfoots , losing 14–21. When Fry took the job at SMU, he was promised that he would be allowed to recruit black athletes. Jerry LeVias became the first black player signed to a football scholarship in the Southwest Conference, and played his first game for SMU in 1966, one week after John Hill Westbrook of Baylor became

2088-541: The United States Navy during World War II. With Bell in the Navy, Jimmy Stewart took his place as head coach. In his three seasons as head coach, Stewart compiled an overall record of 10–18–2. Bell returned as head coach for the 1945 season. Upon Bell's return as SMU's head coach, the team also gained halfback and placekicker Doak Walker . Walker won All-Southwest Conference honors his freshman year in 1945 and played in

2160-428: The " death penalty " for repeated serious violations of NCAA rules. The NCAA forced SMU to cancel its football program for the 1987 season because the university had been paying some of the players—approximately $ 61,000 was paid from 1985 until 1986. It later emerged that SMU had been keeping a slush fund to pay players since as early as the mid-1970s and that athletic officials had known about it as early as 1981. SMU

2232-436: The "Aerial Circus" by sportswriters due to the team's use of passing on first and second downs, instead of as a play of last resort. At the time, most teams utilized the forward pass five to six times in one game, while SMU did so between 30 and 40 times. In the 1922 season, the Mustangs compiled a 6–3–1 record. Furthermore, end Gene Bedford and back Logan Stollenwerck were named first-team All-Southwest Conference, becoming

Armed Forces Bowl - Misplaced Pages Continue

2304-603: The 1979 season, as both their high school teams went 15-0 and won state championships. Combined with blue chip running back Charles Waggoner, the three backs were nicknamed the "Pony Express" running attack and shredded opposing defenses in the option offense led by quarterback Lance McIlhenny . In 1981, the Mustangs' performance earned them recognition by the National Championship Foundation as one of its five co-national champions. The final Associated Press poll ranked SMU No. 5, placing Clemson at No. 1. The team

2376-513: The 2006 and 2008 games featured C-USA teams Tulsa and Houston , respectively, whereas California represented the Pac-10 in 2007. The Pac-10 was unable to send a representative to the game in 2009, so C-USA sent Houston to the game for a second consecutive year. In 2010, since the Mountain West did not have enough eligible teams and Army was bowl eligible, Army played SMU in the bowl. Following

2448-510: The 2013 edition. During this time, the 2010 and 2011 Armed Forces Bowl were held at Gerald J. Ford Stadium on the campus of Southern Methodist University in the Dallas enclave of University Park , while Amon G. Carter Stadium was undergoing a major renovation. The game returned to Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth in 2012, after construction on that stadium was completed. Alltel was to assume

2520-693: The 2020 game would be played between teams from the Pac-12 and SEC , following cancellation of the ESPN Events -owned Las Vegas Bowl (which would have been featuring those tie-ins for the first time) due to complications relating to the COVID-19 pandemic . However, due to a lack of available teams from the Pac-12, Tulsa of the American Athletic Conference was ultimately selected to face Mississippi State of

2592-464: The DXL Frisco Bowl . In the 2019 season, the Mustangs got off to an 8–0 start. On September 21, they defeated cross-town rival TCU. On September 29, the Mustangs were ranked in the AP top 25 for the first time since October 25, 1986. Rhett Lashlee returned to SMU as Head Football Coach on November 29th, 2021. Lashlee previously served as offensive coordinator for the Mustangs, including during

2664-592: The December 2023 edition (21 games, 42 total appearances). Source: The bowl has been televised on ESPN since its inception. Radio coverage was initially on ESPN Radio, and is currently carried nationally via Bowl Season Radio. ESPN Events#Events ESPN Events is an American multinational sporting event promoter owned by ESPN Inc. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina , and shares its operations with SEC Network and formerly with ESPNU . The corporation organizes sporting events for broadcast across

2736-458: The ESPN family of networks, including, most prominently, a group of college football bowl games and in-season college basketball tournaments. ESPN Events previously operated primarily as a syndicator of college sports broadcasts; the company was founded as Creative Sports, a sports programming syndicator that merged with Don Ohlmeyer 's OCC Sports in 1996. After ESPN purchased the merged company,

2808-579: The Midshipmen. Little-known sophomore John Roderick rushed for 146 yards on 11 carries and scored on touchdown runs of 45 yards and two yards for the Mustangs. The SMU defense, led by Bob Oyler , Martin Cude , Bill Harlan , Harold Magers and Doug January , sent Staubach to the bench twice with a dislocated left shoulder. Trailing 28–26 with 2:52 remaining in the game, SMU had a chance to pull off an upset. Quarterback Danny Thomas threw to Billy Gannon , who ran to

2880-518: The Mustangs beat the Fighting Irish in what was one of the highlights in a 3–6–1 season. Furthermore, Forrest Gregg became part of the team in 1952, and became a two-time All-Southwest Conference player by 1955, later moving on to the NFL . Moreover, David Powell became SMU's first Academic All-American winner in the 1952 season. Woody Woodard took Russell's place as head coach in 1953. Woodard compiled

2952-513: The Mustangs started the 1972 season with a 4–4 record. The three-game winning streak that followed was not enough to save Fry's job. After a 7-4 season in 1972, Fry was fired, which robbed the Mustangs of a bowl berth. In his 11 seasons at SMU, Fry compiled a 49-66-1 record. After Fry's departure, Dave Smith , a former assistant coach under Fry, took his place as head coach. Coming off a 7-4 season with Oklahoma State , Smith had two consecutive 6-4-1 seasons with SMU, with his final season resulting in

Armed Forces Bowl - Misplaced Pages Continue

3024-421: The Mustangs, as they went 0–9–1, losing every game by more than 10 points with the exception of a game against Texas A&M in which neither team scored. In 1962, Hayden Fry became SMU's eighth head coach. The Mustangs hosted the fourth-ranked Navy Midshipmen (including quarterback Roger Staubach ) on October 11, 1963, at the Cotton Bowl . SMU, on its way to a 4–7 season, was given little chance of beating

3096-416: The Navy 46. On the next play, Roderick took a pitchout 23 yards to the 23. After a pass interference penalty against Navy put the ball on the one-yard line, Gannon plowed over the right tackle for the winning touchdown with 2:05 left. The SMU defense held off Staubach's effort to rally his team for one last score, as the Mustangs pulled off the 32–28 upset. Despite a losing record in 1963, the Mustangs played in

3168-864: The SEC. Games marked with an asterisk (*) were played in January of the following calendar year. Rankings are based on the AP Poll prior to the game being played. Source: From inception through the 2022 edition, an MVP was named for each team. The 2023 game summary published on the bowl's official website only mentions a single MVP. Source: Updated through the December 2023 edition (21 games, 42 total appearances). Won (9): Boise State , BYU , Cincinnati , Kansas , Louisiana Tech , Mississippi State , Rice , Tulane , Utah Lost (10): Baylor , James Madison , Marshall , Middle Tennessee , Missouri , Pittsburgh , San Diego State , SMU , Southern Miss , TCU Updated through

3240-581: The SMU Mustangs as a member of the Southwest Conference , joining Baylor University , Rice University , the University of Texas , Texas A&M University , the University of Arkansas , and Oklahoma A&M University . The Mustangs’ first season in the conference ended with a 4–2 record. J. Burton Rix continued to coach the team in the 1921 season, but after two games, Rix resigned and E. William (Bill) Cunningham took over as interim head coach for

3312-464: The Southwest Conference with 777 yards rushing in 1949, and was named an All-American following the 1950 season. Quarterback Fred Benners led the Mustangs to perhaps their greatest win of the decade when he completed 22 of 42 passes for 336 yards to beat Notre Dame, 27–20, in Notre Dame, Indiana on October 13, 1951. Benners connected on TD passes of 57, 37, 31 and four yards to four different receivers as

3384-579: The TIAA that prohibited graduate and transfer students from playing, the first season was played with only freshmen. During this time, the football team was known as "the Parsons", due to the large number of theology students on the team. SMU's first football game was a 43-0 loss against future rival TCU on October 9, 1915. SMU won their first game on October 14, 1914 with a 13–2 victory over Hendrix College . SMU finished its first season 2-5. After winning two games in

3456-513: The Year. SMU lost in the Cotton Bowl to the Georgia Bulldogs 9–24. John LaGrone , who earned conference honors from 1964 to 1966, was the first Mustang player to be selected as both an All-American and Academic All-American when he was honored following the 1966 season. During the 1968 season, combined with quarterback Chuck Hixson , Levias helped lead the Mustangs to a 28–27 win over Oklahoma in

3528-414: The completion of the 2007 season. In 2008 SMU hired Steve Orsini away from the University of Central Florida (UCF) to be SMU's athletic director. Orsini then hired June Jones from the University of Hawai'i as head football coach – the team's fifth coach since 1989. In Jones' first season at SMU, they had a 1–11 record. In 2009, Coach Jones' second season at SMU, the Mustangs made a turnaround, with

3600-530: The conference rights and overflow formerly held by the company. The company traces its history to Creative Sports, Inc., a North Carolina -based sports syndicator owned and founded by Bray Cary . ESPN Inc. purchased Creative Sports, Inc. and OCC Sports, Inc. in the mid-1990s. On July 22, 1994, ESPN Regional Television was incorporated in Delaware . ESPN Regional Television was formed in 1996, through ESPN Inc.'s combination of Creative Sports and OCC Sports, under

3672-606: The direction of Chuck Gerber and Loren Matthews. In January 2000, Loren Matthews left ESPN Regional Television for an executive position at sister division ABC Sports . By February 2000, ERT acquired the production rights to the Arena Football League ; this included responsibilities for AFL broadcasts on The Nashville Network , which had ESPN retain duties for the events in lieu of its own unit, World Sports Enterprises. In 2001, ESPN Regional Television moved beyond broadcasting college football bowl games , when it purchased

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3744-493: The division was renamed ESPN Regional Television ( ERT ), which distributed telecasts for syndication on broadcast stations and regional sports networks ; these telecasts were also available on the ESPN GamePlan and ESPN Full Court out-of-market sports packages . Most of ERT's broadcasts were presented under the on-air branding ESPN Plus (not to be confused with ESPN+ , the current subscription service), but this name

3816-459: The duration of their time at SMU. There was also the potential of disgruntled football players "blowing the whistle" on SMU should the payments be discontinued. When the sanctions were handed down, SMU had three players – all seniors about to graduate – receiving payments. Not long afterward, SMU announced that football was canceled for the 1988 season as well, after school officials received indications that there would be too few experienced players at

3888-530: The effects of the penalty and the scandal. Coach Gregg compiled a 3–19 record in his two seasons. He moved on to be SMU's athletic director from 1990 through 1994. The program's chances of ever recovering were likely ruined by the collapse of the Southwest Conference after the 1995 season; SMU wound up in the WAC and later in Conference USA . The Mustangs had three more head coaches, and only one winning season, through

3960-447: The first SMU football players to receive that honor. Bedford was the first player to play in the National Football League , for the Rochester Jeffersons . In the 1923 season, the SMU Mustangs achieved a perfect 9–0 record, winning their first conference football title in school history. After this season, Freeland left the SMU football team, later becoming head coach for the Texas Technological College football team, leaving Morrison as

4032-492: The first black player to play for a conference team. Fry received abuse for recruiting a black player to SMU in the form of hate mail and threatening phone calls, but he downplayed the treatment because of the much, much worse harassment LeVias himself was subjected to. During the 1966 season, Hayden Fry lifted SMU back to national prominence; SMU was ranked ninth in the nation and won its first conference championship in 18 years, its seventh overall. Fry also won Conference Coach of

4104-418: The game ten times. Contractual tie-ins with the American Athletic Conference (home of Navy), the Mountain West Conference (home of Air Force) and the independent Army assures that one of those schools could appear in the game every year, if bowl-eligible and not already committed to another bowl. The 2018 game, between Army and Houston , was the first sellout in the bowl's 16-year history. The bowl game

4176-521: The record-setting 2019 season. Years listed here are football seasons. Conference changes take effect in the summer after a school's last football season in a conference. SMU has won three National Championships from NCAA-designated major selectors. SMU claims all three Championships. SMU has won twelve conference championships, winning ten outright and two being shared. † Co-champions SMU has won two division championships. † Co-champions SMU has participated in 21 bowl games. The Mustangs have

4248-406: The remainder of the season. The team went on to finish with a 1-6-1 record. Ray Morrison returned to SMU in 1920 to work in the department of physical education before co-coaching the team starting in 1922 with former Vanderbilt teammate Ewing Y. Freeland . For the 1922 and 1923 seasons, Morrison focused on the backfield and ends while Freeland focused on the linemen. The team became known as

4320-604: The rights to Conference USA football and basketball, Mountain West Conference football and basketball, and Big Ten Conference football and basketball, but has lost them as detailed below: ERT acquired its first bowl game in 2001, with its purchase of the Las Vegas Bowl from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority . The company moved into the area as it saw that some of their conference partners had teams that were bowl-eligible , but with no bowl available to take them. By 2013, ERT had founded two new bowl games and purchased four additional games. The games primarily serve as

4392-409: The school to field a viable team, as most of the team had left the university and transferred to other institutions. Forrest Gregg , an SMU alumnus who had been the head coach of the Green Bay Packers , was hired in 1988 to help rebuild the team. The two-year gap in the program meant that Gregg had to begin with an undersized and underweight lineup. The Mustangs struggled for 20 years to recover from

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4464-453: The season-opening Camping World Kickoff and Texas Kickoff football games. All ESPN Events are broadcast by ESPN's networks. ESPN Regional Television began to wind down its syndication operations in the 2010s, as the proliferation of competing outlets (including other sports channels, conference-specific networks such as ESPN's own SEC Network, as well as digital services such as ESPN's own ESPN3 and WatchESPN platforms) took over most of

4536-435: The sole head coach for SMU. SMU played in their first bowl game in 1924, in the Dixie Classic against West Virginia Wesleyan College , but lost that game 7–9. By 1926, the team began playing their home games at Ownby Stadium . In their first game at Ownby Stadium, the Mustangs defeated North Texas State Teachers College 42–0, led by quarterback Gerald Mann . The first Homecoming game was also played in 1926, resulting in

4608-447: The title sponsorship and naming rights to the game beginning in 2014, which would have been titled the Alltel Wireless Bowl to promote its mobile division, but the deal fell through. Instead, Lockheed Martin became the game's sponsor. The company has a major presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex : the company's Lockheed Martin Aeronautics division is based in Fort Worth while its Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control division

4680-419: Was able to lead the Mustangs to bowl eligibility and a 7–5 record in 2017. However, Morris accepted the head coaching position at Arkansas in the weeks prior to the bowl game, and SMU was forced to move quickly to hire a new football coach in light of the approaching bowl game. Sonny Dykes was hired as the new football coach of SMU on December 11, 2017. The Mustangs were defeated by Louisiana Tech 51–10 in

4752-461: Was both Doak Walker's and coach Matty Bell 's last as part of SMU's varsity football team and program. The team posted a 5–4–1 record. Walker won All-American honors a third time, the most for any football player in SMU's history. Bell continued to serve SMU as the athletic director; Walker played in the NFL for the Detroit Lions . Over the course of his career at SMU, Walker rushed for 1,954 yards, passed for 1,638 yards, scored 288 points, punted for

4824-464: Was coming off a Missouri Valley Conference title-winning season with the Houston Cougars . In five seasons with SMU, Meek compiled a 17–29–4 record. During Meek's time as head coach, quarterback Don Meredith earned All-American honors in 1958 and 1959, his .610 career completion percentage the best in SMU history, along with a tremendous running ability that increased the pressure on opposing defenses. The 1960 season, though, proved particularly bad for

4896-529: Was eligible for the "death penalty" because it had already violated recruiting rules, and as a result had been placed on probation in 1985. Since many potential student-athletes were poor, boosters had been inducing them to sign with SMU by offering them payments and expense coverage. Several key boosters and SMU officials had determined that it would be unethical to cut off those payments after having started them, but also potentially problematic, as some boosters had signed contracts agreeing to pay certain athletes for

4968-421: Was inaugurated in 2003 as the PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl, reflecting the sponsorship of PlainsCapital Bank . The bank's sponsorship ended after the 2004 edition, and the 2005 game was staged without corporate sponsorship. In 2006, Fort Worth based Bell Helicopter Textron took over sponsorship, and thus the game became officially known as the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. The Bell sponsorship ended after

5040-594: Was later phased out in favor of dedicated on-air brands for each package, such as SEC Network (later renamed SEC TV as to not be confused with the then-upcoming SEC Network cable channel). Following its acquisition of the Las Vegas Bowl in 2001, ERT began to double as an organizer of sporting events. The subdivision, which later began to operate under the name ESPN Events, would acquire and establish other bowl games to provide additional post-season opportunities for bowl-eligible teams. ESPN Events also organizes several pre-season tournaments in college basketball, as well as

5112-464: Was not ranked in the coaches' poll at all due to a rule forbidding teams on probation from consideration. Coach Meyer left to become the head coach of the New England Patriots in 1982, and SMU hired Coach Bobby Collins , then head coach at the University of Southern Mississippi . Dickerson finished 3rd in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1982, and the team claimed a share of its second consecutive national championship, being selected by Bill Schroeder of

5184-412: Was the only edition to include a ranked team (per the AP Poll ) until No. 22 Army played in December 2018. In 2010 and 2011 when Amon G. Carter Stadium underwent a reconstruction project, the bowl was moved to Gerald J. Ford Stadium in nearby University Park, Texas . Through the December 2018 playing, one of the three FBS-playing service academies ( Army , Navy , and Air Force ) has appeared in

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