the college football game with 77 punts
The Weirdest Game in College Football History
In the modern era of college football, offensive output is celebrated above all else. Fans tune in to watch high-flying passing attacks, lightning-fast hurry-up offenses, and scoreboard-busting, high-scoring shootouts. Yet, deep in the sport’s history sits a record that will almost certainly never be broken—a game defined not by explosive touchdowns or tactical brilliance, but by complete offensive paralysis, torrential rain, and an unprecedented reliance on the special teams unit. On November 11, 1939, the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Centenary College Gentlemen played to a 0–0 tie in Shreveport, Louisiana, in a contest that featured a staggering 77 total punts.
To understand how two college teams combined for more than a punt per minute, one must consider the extreme weather conditions of that rainy November afternoon. Heavy downpours had transformed the field at State Fair Stadium into a swampy, knee-deep trench of mud. The gridiron was in such deplorable condition that simply handling the football posed an immediate risk of a turnover. Realizing that attempting to run or pass near their own end zone was an invitation to disaster, both head coaches—Pete Cawthon of Texas Tech and Curtis Parker of Centenary—adopted the exact same radical strategy: execute a "quick kick" on first down and pray for an opponent's mistake.
The resulting gameplay was an absurd, repetitive spectacle. Time and time again, a team would receive a punt, lining up on first down only to kick the slippery leather ball right back downfield. The logic was simple: keep the ball as far away from your own end zone as possible and hope the receiving team would fumble the wet ball in the mud. Texas Tech punted 39 times, while Centenary booted the ball 38 times. A unbelievable 67 of those punts occurred on first down, and 22 punts were block-downs or downed immediately upon landing.
When the final whistle mercifully blew, the statistical box score looked less like a football game and more like a mathematical anomaly. The teams combined for a grand total of zero points and zero first downs. Texas Tech finished the entire 60-minute game with negative one yard of total offense, while Centenary managed just 31 yards. Individual players set individual records that defy modern comprehension; Centenary punter Charlie Boswell booted the ball 38 times for 1,248 yards, while Texas Tech's Charlie Dopehart punted 28 times himself.
While modern football rules, turf fields, and advanced ball-handling techniques ensure a game like this will never happen again, the 1939 "Rain Bowl" remains an iconic piece of gridiron lore. It stands as a hilarious, bizarre testament to an era of football defined by grit, terrible weather, and a relentless desire to avoid losing at all costs.
CFB