Weeks prior to the game, SMU’s Student Council proposed the idea of presenting a trophy to the winning team.

TCU accepted the idea, and the two schools' governing bodies met in Dallas to set up the rules of the traveling trophy, which became the Iron Skillet.

Grantland Rice of the New York Sun called it the "Game of the Century" and reported the following: In a TCU Stadium that seated 30,000 spectators, over 36,000 wildly excited Texans and visitors from every corner of the map packed, jammed, and fought their way into every square foot of standing and seating space to see one of the greatest football games ever played…this tense, keyed up crowd even leaped the wire fences from the top of automobiles…"[5] SMU scored the first 14 points.

TCU, led by All-American quarterback Sammy Baugh, tied the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Quarterback Bob Finley threw a 50-yard pass to running back Bobby Wilson who made what is described as a "jumping, twisting catch that swept him over the line for the touchdown.