Colorado State University Athletics
The 1949 Raisin Bowl Team
10/31/2004 12:00:00 AM | General
In 1949, the Colorado State football team, then Colorado A&M, made its first ever bowl appearance. For the next 41 years, the team would be shut out of bowl competition. The Colorado A&M Aggies went to the Raisin Bowl in Fresno, Calif. to take on the Occidental Tigers. The Aggies brought an 8-2 record to the game and rode into the contest with a 4-1 conference record, their best ever in the Skyline Six Conference. Meanwhile the Tigers were undefeated and only allowed their opponents to score a total of 32 points during the entire season.
Colorado A&M boarded the plane to Fresno feeling confident after scoring 224 points while holding its opposition to just 117. The Aggies? top players included: halfback Eddie Hanna, third-team All-American tackle Thurman ?Fum? McGraw, quarterback Robert Hainlen, end Albert Reigel, halfbacks Frank Faucett and Keith Thompson, and head coach Bob Davis. They were ready to show the world what they were made of at their first ever bowl appearance.
The Aggies scored first on a touchdown thrown by Hainlen to Thompson after the Tigers defense threatened to hold them to a field goal. Faucett missed the extra point that would prove to be what the Aggies would need later in the game. With less than 10 seconds remaining in the first half, Hainlen handed the ball to Hanna, who found an opening in the Tigers defensive line and ran 71 yards for the Aggies? second touchdown. Going into halftime Colorado A&M was up 13-0.
The third quarter was pivotal for the Tigers, as they started to get the ball down the field and scored their first touchdown. The game got intense when Occidental took the lead after another touchdown by quarterback Don Ross to Bull Pearson, but only one minute later the Aggies reclaimed the lead 20-14 with a spectacular 79-yard run by Hanna. The Tigers? fight, however, was far from over. It took them four plays to score their third touchdown and Steve Smith kicked the extra point to bring the final score to 21-20, Occidental.
Even though Colorado A&M lost their first bowl game appearance at the Raisin Bowl, they had a greater loss to endure after the first game of the 1949 season. On Sept. 17, 1949 at the season opener against Colorado Springs, Hanna came out of the line-up complaining of chest pains. While entering the dining car of the train that was taking the team back to Fort Collins, 24-year-old Eddie Hanna collapsed and died. His number 21 was the first number ever retired for the Aggies.
Today, the Colorado State Rams have been to nine bowl games since 1949 and hold a bowl record of 4-5 in postseason play. Last year when the Rams traveled to San Francisco for the Diamond Walnut Bowl, it marked their fifth straight bowl appearance.
