[5] Both were "Cinderella" teams, with Arizona State not having won a single in-conference game the season before and the Cardinals faced an "inauspicious preseason lineup.
[1] Pitts punted the ball 45 times during the season, and on 39 occasions the opposing team was not able to gain a single yard on the play.
[9][10] Coach Dixie Howell was credited for bringing his team "out of the so-so class and right into the Sun Bowl game at El Paso.
"[12] CUA had a "colorful outfit" with the Piro brothers, Carmen and Rocco, a "trio of flashy halfbacks" including a "full blooded Indian," and "a drop kicking tackle called—of all names—Casmir Ksycewski (pronounced "Sneeze.
[15] As early as October news reports were talking about the Cardinals returning to the Orange Bowl in Miami, where they won in 1936 and where the team was "tremendously popular.
[22] He polled the team, and they chose, among others, "South of the Border" due to El Paso's proximity to Mexico, Silent Night, Jingle Bells, and "Jumpin Jive.
"[22] Bergman "moaned" to The Washington Post that "you have got be a combined diplomat, coach, Toscanini and Shirley Povich these days to run a football team.
[23] After their practice in Ft. Worth they were hosted in a luncheon at the Hotel Texas in which a large group of civic leaders, including members of the Knights of Columbus, Mayor T. J. Harrell, the president of TCU, and Amon G.
[25] The CUA team made their way to El Paso where a welcoming committee of several hundred government and civic leaders met the train.
[24] The "gaily dressed"[26] delegation, a group of cowboy-garbed, pistol-toting rancheros—a cowboy organization devoted to fancy shirts and spotted ponies,"[27] was on hand when the train pulled in at 6:30 a.m.[26] Many wore 10-gallon hats and shot off six shooters, leaving the Cardinal team "open mouthed with astonishment.
[26] Later that day, the Optimist Club and 500 guests held a lunch in honor of Bergman, his assistant coaches, and co-captains Rocco Pirro and Al Calabrese.
[28] During the week before the game, El Paso celebrated the Sun Bowl Carnival with a theme of "Old Timers Day.
Catholic was favored going into the game by 7–5 odds, despite Arizona State having "edges over their visitors and weight, speed and condition.
"[1] Washington Post columnist Jack Munhall told readers that "as the technical side of the game shapes up it should be a battle of Notre Dame offenses between a pair of comparatively small and exceptionally speedy elevens.
[24] While both teams were at full strength[1] and it was predicted to be one of the highest scoring games of the year,[4] it ended up being the only scoreless tie in the Sun Bowl history.
[3] Early in the game the Bulldogs were able to get inside the Cardinals' 10, but a series of bad passes ended their chances of scoring.
"[34] After the game, Knights of Columbus in El Paso took the Cardinals over the border for lunch[23] in the "squalid but colorful Mexican town" of Ciudad Juárez.