The Optimist Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game played in 1946.[1] It was held at Public School Stadium (later known as Robertson Stadium), in Houston.[2]
The game was sponsored by the Houston Optimist Club, through agreement reached with the Lone Star Conference in April 1946; the game was to be contested annually for five years, matching the conference champion against a nationally-rated team.[3] Proceeds from the game would be used to benefit homeless boys in Texas. The 1946 conference champion was North Texas State (now the University of North Texas) coached by Odus Mitchell, and organizers extended an invitation to coach Amos Alonzo Stagg and his College of the Pacific team (now the University of the Pacific), who accepted.[4] It was the last game of Stagg's incredible 57-year college football coaching career.
| Season | Date ! | Winner | Loser | Attendance (est.) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 21, 1946 | North Texas | 14 | 13 | 5,000 | |||
The game itself went right down to the wire. With 2:40 to go in the fourth quarter, Pacific quarterback Bud Klein broke a 7-7 tie with a 22-yard strike to Bob Heck. But the extra point failed, which turned out to be the difference in the game: North Texas QB Billy Dinkle then drove his team down the field, and with just nine seconds left, fired a nine-yard touchdown pass to Louis Rienzi. Dinkle himself booted the extra point, and the Eagles won their first-ever bowl game.
Although the Optimist Bowl was originally planned to be played annually through at least 1950, a poor crowd of about 5,000 ensured the game would not be played again. Like some other postseason match-ups of the era, such as the Grape Bowl and the Glass Bowl, results are listed in NCAA records, but the games were not considered NCAA-sanctioned bowls.