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Dallas Bids Goodbye To Cotton Bowl Game

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Jan 2, 2009 5:46 pm US/Central

Dallas Bids Goodbye To Cotton Bowl Game

Reporting
Steve Pickett
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― A big part of Dallas' football history came to an end today.

The Cotton Bowl game was played in its namesake stadium for the last time.

This 73rd Cotton Bowl game featured Texas Tech and Ole Miss.  The Red Raiders were favored by four, but Ole Miss controlled the game on both sides of the ball and won, 47-34.

But the real star of today's game was the stadium itself.

The Cotton Bowl – the stadium, not the game – was upgraded during the off-season, and now holds 88,000 people.  The City of Dallas, which owns the building, made the renovations primarily to keep the annual OU-Texas game.  The board of directors of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association voted in February, 2007 to move the game to the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington beginning in 2010.

But today was about the past and present, not the future.

It was a packed house today.  Before the game, many fans stopped and took pictures of the historic stadium, which was built in 1930 as Fair Park Stadium and renamed the Cotton Bowl in 1936.  The bowl founder's widow handled the pregame coin toss and the dates 1937 and 2009 were painted on the field between the words, "Celebrating 73 years."

Despite the loss, Tech quarterback Graham Harrell set two NCAA records today.  The Ennis native threw 134 touchdown passes in his career and became the first player with consecutive 5,000-yard passing seasons.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

© MMIX, CBS Stations Group of Texas L.P. All Rights Reserved.