Cotton Bowl -- Dallas, Texas
The 1946 Cotton Bowl pitted two teams with totally
opposite histories: the Texas Longhorns who had never lost a
bowl game and the Missouri Tigers who had never won one.
The result was not the expected rout, but a record-breaking
shoot-out which Texas won, 40-27.
The game featured 980 yards of total offense (514 for
Missouri, 466 for Texas) and a Cotton Bowl-record 67 points.
Missouri rolled up a stunning 408 yards rushing in the game
and had two men over 100. Leonard Brown had 121 yards on
18 carries, and Robert Hopkins led the team with 125 yards
and a touchdown on 16 attempts.
All this offense could not deter the Longhorns though,
whom Missouri must have wanted to rename "The Bobby Layne
Show." Layne, Texas' legendary quarterback, had a hand in
each of the Longhorns' six touchdowns. He ran for three scores
(1, 1, and 2 yards), threw for two (15 and 48), and caught
one (50). Layne also made four of five PATs.
While Texas used a one-man demolition crew to win,
Missouri had four players score touchdowns on the day, all
finishing drives of 62 yards or more. But it wasn't enough
to beat Layne and the Longhorns who had six drives of 60
or more yards and walked away victorious from yet another
bowl game.
| MISSOURI | 7 | 7 | 0 | 13 | -- | 27 |
| TEXAS | 14 | 7 | 6 | 13 | -- | 40 |
| T -- Baumgardner 48 pass from Layne (Layne kick) |
| M -- Oakes 40 pass from Dellastatious (Kekeris kick) |
| T -- Layne 1 run (Layne kick) |
| M -- Dellastatious 3 run (Kekeris kick) |
| T -- Layne 1 run (Layne kick) |
| T -- Baumgardner 15 pass from Layne (kick failed) |
| M -- Bonnett 21 run (Kekeris kick) |
| T -- Layne 50 pass from Ellsworth (pass failed) |
| M -- Hopkins 1 run (kick failed) |
| T -- Layne 2 run (Layne kick) |
| Att. -- 46,000 |
| MU | Texas |
|---|
| First Downs | 22 | 19 |
| Rushing Yards | 408 | 202 |
| Passing Yards | 106 | 264 |
| Passes | 4-17-1 | 13-14-0 |
| Punting Avg. | 37 | 41.5 |
| Fumbles | 1 | 1 |
| Penalty Yards | 30 | 35 |
