A Historic Cotton Bowl Journey for the CU Buffs

In 1938, the CU Buffaloes played in their first bowl game — the Cotton Bowl — on New Year’s Day in Dallas after an undefeated season.

In the weeks leading to the game, a sense of glee hit the state of Colorado. “Fans who have spent years yelling for DU, Mines and Colorado Aggies to beat Boulder transferred their allegiance temporarily to the CU Buffaloes,” said the Denver Post on Dec. 31, 1937.

Buffs fans purchased souvenir Cotton Bowl scarves for 65 cents from major department stores to wear to the game, and anywhere from 6,000 to 7,000 people took one of the five special trains from Colorado to Dallas for the game. (The train ride from Denver to Dallas took 21 hours.) 

An estimated 10,000 CU fans attended the bowl, which resulted in a 14–28 loss to Houston’s Rice University despite an exceptional performance by Buffs halfback Byron “Whizzer” White (Econ’38). 

“It was a sensational game and had the fans in a frenzy,” declared the Colorado Alumnus in January 1938. 

In 1987, White’s teammate Francis Stevens (ElEngr’40), who played left guard during the game, donated his Cotton Bowl team jacket to the CU Heritage Center.