After Larry Rose III skipped across the goal line for the winning touchdown, his New Mexico State teammates jubilantly sprinted onto the field at Arizona Stadium. Scores of NMSU fans jumped the fence to join the celebration.
It was a party 57 years in the making.
Nomadic New Mexico State, which had played in multiple conferences but no bowl games since 1960, had just won the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl in heart-stopping fashion. Rose’s 21-yard touchdown run gave NMSU a 26-20 overtime victory over Utah State in front of a record crowd of 39,132.
Most of them had made the four-hour drive from Las Cruces, filling the west-side stands with maroon and white.