Well, it looks like we’re going to have to wait at least another week before NU football becomes bowl eligible. But to ease some of the pain from this weekend’s loss (or maybe rub some salt in the wounds, depending on your perspective) it helps to remember that Northwestern doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to bowl games, anyway. Remember two years ago, when we took a decent team to El Paso only to hand the game to UCLA? And our current coach surely remembers the ’97 Citrus Bowl, when even a Big Ten co-championship couldn’t get us any better than a 20-point loss to Tennessee. (Alright, we did get beat by Peyton Manning in that one, but we could have at least made it a two-score game.) The list goes on, but one question remains: Have we ever actually won a bowl game?

The year was 1948. Fresh off a disappointing 3-6 season, little was expected from second-year coach Bob Voights and Northwestern’s football team. But the Wildcats marched through the season, losing only to perennial powerhouses Michigan and Notre Dame. (And remember, this is long before Appalachian State or Charlie Weis, so that was to be expected.) Their 7-2 regular season record was enough to be first runner-up in the Big Nine (This was after the University of Chicago dropped their football program, but just before Michigan State was admitted to the conference, so the Big Ten was short a member), with the Wolverines taking the conference championship. Thanks to a technicality in the Big Nine rules that didn’t allow the same team to represent the conference twice in a row, the defending Rose Bowl champions stayed home, and the ‘Cats booked flights for Pasadena.

Even before the game, there was plenty of drama built up on Northwestern’s side. They would have to face an undefeated California team who had outscored its opponents 276-80 in its ten victories. And Cal’s coach at the time was Lynn “Pappy” Waldorf, Northwestern’s coach from 1935-1946. It was Waldorf who first convinced Hall of Famer Otto Graham to play football, and he had even coached Voights himself ten years earlier. But Northwestern came out swinging, taking an early 7-0 lead on a then-Rose Bowl-record 73-yard touchdown run by senior tailback Frank Aschenbrenner. Yet after blowing a 13-7 lead at halftime, NU found itself down 14-13 on its own 12-yard line with under three minutes left in the fourth quarter. But after moving their way to Cal’s 43-yard line, the ‘Cats took the lead on a direct snap to running back Ed Tunnicliff, who took advantage of a confused Bears defense and some solid downfield blocks to swing the score to 20-14. The play wasn’t exactly Boise State material, but the trick play combined with an interception by Loran “Pee Wee” Day on Cal’s final drive, it gave the Wildcats their first (and so far only) bowl win. So if, come late December, you’re hurting from our loss to God-knows-who in the Motor City Bowl, take comfort in the fact that one day, almost sixty years ago, Northwestern football was awesome.

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