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1946 Virginia Tech Hokies football team

1946 VPI Gobblers football
Sun Bowl, L 6–18 vs. Cincinnati
Conference Southern Conference
1946 record 3–4–3 (3–3–2 SoCon)
Head coach James Kitts (2nd year)
Captain William Elmer Wilson
Home stadium Miles Stadium
Seasons
← 1945
1947 →
1946 Southern Conference football standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
#9 North Carolina $ 4 0 1     8 2 1
William & Mary 7 1 0     8 2 0
#18 NC State 6 1 0     8 3 0
South Carolina 4 2 0     5 3 0
Duke 3 2 0     4 5 0
Richmond 3 2 2     6 2 2
VPI 3 3 2     3 4 3
VMI 2 3 1     4 5 1
George Washington 1 1 0     4 3 0
Clemson 2 3 0     4 5 0
Wake Forest 2 3 0     6 3 0
Maryland 2 5 0     3 6 0
Furman 1 4 0     2 8 0
Washington and Lee 1 4 0     2 6 0
The Citadel 1 5 0     3 5 0
Davidson 1 5 0     4 5 0
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll
VPI vs. Cincinnati
1 2 3 4 Total
VPI 0 0 0 6 6
Cincinnati 0 0 12 6 18
  • Source:

The 1946 VPI Gobblers football team represented Virginia Polytechnic Institute in the 1946 college football season. The team was led by their head coach Herbert McEver and finished with a record of three wins, four losses and three ties (3–4–3).

During the 1946 season, VPI defeated the No. 12 NC State Wolfpack for the first win over an Associated Press Top 25 team in school history, the Washington and Lee Generals, and the Gobblers' traditional rivals, the VMI Keydets.

The 1946 season also included VPI's first post-season bowl appearance, in the 1947 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas against the Cincinnati Bearcats. VPI was the third choice after Border Conference champions, Hardin–Simmons, and runner-up, Texas Tech, both declined the bowl invitation. VPI lost the game, 18–6.

The following players were members of the 1946 football team according to the roster published in the 1947 edition of The Bugle, the Virginia Tech yearbook.

During VPI's preparations before its departure for El Paso, heavy snow fell on Blacksburg, Virginia, forcing the team to use snowplows and construction equipment to clear a space for the team to practice. The Gobblers traveled to El Paso without star punter and rusher Bobby Smith, who had been injured in Virginia Tech's final regular-season game.

The game was played in extremely cold and icy conditions, still the worst in Sun Bowl history. Three inches of snow fell on top of a layer of frozen rain the day before the game, and at kickoff the teams took the field under cloudy skies and in below-freezing temperatures. Despite the inclement weather, 15,000-seat Kidd Field was approximately half full, and bowl officials estimated the crowd at around 10,000 people.


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