With the Arizona schools coming to the Big 12 I looked up some of the history back in the Border conference. It looks like we dominated that conference when we were there from 1932 - 1957, but there are some oddities I'm wondering if anyone knows about.
First, both UA and ASU were in the Border conference when we were there but we only played ASU once during that period (a 6-0 win in 1937). Our record against UA, however is 26-5-2 including a 15 game win streak between 1937 and 1958. Anyone know why we only played ASU once?
Also, even though we were in that conference a shorter amount of time than most of the other members we won the most titles. Wikipedia says we won it 7 times, but Winsipedia (sports site) and a couple of other sites say we have 9 Border titles. The odd thing a lot of our conference records only had 2 or 3 games. In 1938 we were the best team at 10-1 and played in the Cotton Bowl (a huge deal at the time because the Border was mid-major about like the Sunbelt is now), but we didn't win the Border title because we only had a 2-0 conference record and the bylaws required a minimum of 3 games to be played to win the title (New Mexico and New Mexico State tied for the title at 4-2 and 4-1 with New Mexico getting the automatic Sun Bowl bid).
We won the 1937 Border title with a 3-0 record and New Mexico St. came in second with a 4-1 record. How is it that other schools played more conference games than we did and there are teams in that league we never or rarely played?
Anyone know how things worked back then? The conference records really don't seem to make much sense.
First, both UA and ASU were in the Border conference when we were there but we only played ASU once during that period (a 6-0 win in 1937). Our record against UA, however is 26-5-2 including a 15 game win streak between 1937 and 1958. Anyone know why we only played ASU once?
Also, even though we were in that conference a shorter amount of time than most of the other members we won the most titles. Wikipedia says we won it 7 times, but Winsipedia (sports site) and a couple of other sites say we have 9 Border titles. The odd thing a lot of our conference records only had 2 or 3 games. In 1938 we were the best team at 10-1 and played in the Cotton Bowl (a huge deal at the time because the Border was mid-major about like the Sunbelt is now), but we didn't win the Border title because we only had a 2-0 conference record and the bylaws required a minimum of 3 games to be played to win the title (New Mexico and New Mexico State tied for the title at 4-2 and 4-1 with New Mexico getting the automatic Sun Bowl bid).
We won the 1937 Border title with a 3-0 record and New Mexico St. came in second with a 4-1 record. How is it that other schools played more conference games than we did and there are teams in that league we never or rarely played?
Anyone know how things worked back then? The conference records really don't seem to make much sense.
