1947 Great Lakes Bowl
| 1947 Great Lakes Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | December 6, 1947 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1947 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Cleveland Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Cleveland, Ohio | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 14,908 | ||||||||||||||||||
The Great Lakes Bowl was an American college football bowl game that was played only once, on December 6, 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Villanova Wildcats. The game was played at Cleveland Stadium with attendance of 14,908.
Kentucky of the Southeastern Conference was in its second season under coach Bear Bryant. They brought a 7–3 record into the game, their losses coming to Ole Miss (ranked #13 in the final AP Poll of the season), Alabama (ranked #6 in the final AP Poll of the season) and Tennessee.
The Villanova Wildcats, coached by Jordan Olivar, brought a 6–2–1 record into the game, having lost to Army and Boston College. It was the first bowl appearance for Kentucky and the second for Villanova, which in 1936 tied Auburn, 7–7, in the Bacardi Bowl in Havana, Cuba. Neither team was ranked entering the game, though Kentucky had spent three weeks in the AP top twenty in October, rising as high as #13.
In the first quarter Kentucky's George Blanda kicked a 27-yard field goal. At halftime Kentucky led 3–0. In the third quarter Kentucky's Jim Howe had a 29-yard touchdown run; Blanda's point after kick gave Kentucky a 10–0 lead.
Yet Villanova, behind the accurate throws of highly-touted quarterback Andy Gordon, marched back. Two plays into the fourth period, Villanova’s Ralph Pasquariello, carrying several Kentucky defenders on his back, rambled 11-yards into the endzone. John Siano’s conversion pulled Villanova within a field goal, 10–7.
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