1965 Gator Bowl (January)


The 1965 Gator Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on January 2, 1965, at Gator Bowl Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. The game pitted the Florida State Seminoles and the Oklahoma Sooners.

Background

Oklahoma started the season ranked at #2, but went 1-3 to start the season, with losses to USC, #1 Texas, and Kansas. They went 5-0-1 the rest of the season, to finish in second place in the Big Eight Conference to qualify for their sixth bowl game in 11 years.
Florida State started the season with five straight wins to get to #10 in the rankings before a loss to Virginia Tech dropped them out. They went 3-0-1 the rest of the way, while being invited to a bowl game for the first time since 1958.

Game summary

For Florida State, Steve Tensi threw 23-of-36 for 303 yards and five touchdowns. Fred Biletnikoff caught four of those passes for touchdowns, along with nine more for a total of 192 yards. Florida State outrushed Oklahoma 217 to 71, outthrew them 303 to 209 while only punting once in the game.

Aftermath

Florida State would reach three more bowl games in the decade; Oklahoma would reach two more in the decade.