The Aviation Bowl was a post-season college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 bowl game played at Welcome Stadium

Welcome Stadium

Welcome Stadium is a 11,000-seat multi-purpose stadium in Dayton, Ohio, United States, owned and operated by the Dayton Public Schools. It opened in 1949, and is home to all Dayton public high schools as well as the University of Dayton Flyers football team. It hosted the 1961 Aviation Bowl and the...

 in Dayton, Ohio

Dayton, Ohio

Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

, on December 9, 1961. The University of New Mexico

University of New Mexico

The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...

 and Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....

 met in front of just over 3,500 fans. It should also be noted that it was unusually cold and miserable in Dayton on that particular December day. Although the NCAA

National Collegiate Athletic Association

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

 approved a second edition for 1962, the bowl was never played again. It was a financial failure.

New Mexico did not win another bowl game until the 2007 New Mexico Bowl

2007 New Mexico Bowl

The 2007 New Mexico Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game held on December 22, 2007 at University Stadium on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque as part of the 2007-08 NCAA bowl season...

. The entire 1961 Lobo team was inducted into the University of New Mexico's Hall of Honor in 1990 as a result of this bowl win.

Game result

Date	| Winning team		| Losing team
December 9, 1961	New Mexico University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...	28	Western Michigan Western Michigan University Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....	12

Most valuable players

Date	| Offensive MVP			| Defensive MVP
	Player	Team	Pos.	Player	Team	Pos.
December 9, 1961	Bobby Santiago	New Mexico	RB Running back A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...	Chuck Cummings	New Mexico	G Guard (American football) In American and Canadian football, a guard is a player that lines up between the center and the tackles on the offensive line of a football team....