1989 Holiday Bowl

1989 SeaWorld Holiday Bowl
Penn State Nittany Lions BYU Cougars (7–3–1) (10–2) 50 39 Head coach:  Joe Paterno Head coach:  LaVell Edwards AP Coaches 18 18 AP Coaches 19 16
1 2 3 4 Total Penn State 3 9 17 21 50 BYU 3 10 13 13 39
Date	December 30, 1989
Season	1989
Stadium	Jack Murphy Stadium
Location	San Diego, California
MVP	Co-Offensive: Ty Detmer (BYU) Co-Offensive: Blair Thomas (Penn State)
Halftime show	Marching bands
Attendance	61,113
Payout	US$1,109,038 per team
United States TV coverage
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Tim Brando, Vince Dooley and Jerry Punch
Holiday Bowl  < 1988  1990 >

The 1989 Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played December 30, 1989, at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. It was part of the 1989 NCAA Division I-A football season. It featured the Penn State Nittany Lions and BYU Cougars.

BYU quarterback Ty Detmer was marching the Cougars toward a game-winning touchdown in the closing seconds when he had the ball stripped by Penn State's Gary Brown, who returned it 53 yards for a touchdown to seal the Nittany Lions victory.

Stealing the ball before Detmer could throw it was the only way he could be stopped by the Penn State defense. Detmer completed 42 of 59 passes for 576 yards, all Holiday Bowl records, and shared Offensive MVP honors with Penn State running back Blair Thomas, who rushed for a Holiday Bowl record 35 times for 186 yards.

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