Wonder Boys Going to Bowl Game

Arkansas Tech University has been selected to send its football team to the 2015 C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl.

The Wonder Boys (8-3) will face the Eastern New Mexico University Greyhounds (6-5) at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5, at 10,000-seat Bulldawg Stadium in Copperas Cove, Texas.

Radio station KCJC 102.3 FM and www.arkansastechsports.com will have live play-by-play coverage.

The bowl selection marks the 10th time in the 101-season history of Arkansas Tech football that the Wonder Boys have earned a place in the postseason.

Arkansas Tech appeared in the Rice Bowl in 1957 and 1958, the Great Southwest Bowl in 1960 and the AIC Bowl in 1968. The Wonder Boys qualified for the NAIA National Playoffs in 1971 and 1994, and they earned a place in the NCAA Division II Playoffs in 1999, 2004 and 2009.

Tech has an all-time postseason football record of 4-8, and each of its last three postseason wins (1971 NAIA national semifinals, 2004 NCAA Division II Playoffs first round and 2009 NCAA Division II Playoffs first round) came at home.

If the Wonder Boys can defeat Eastern New Mexico on Dec. 5, it would be their first postseason win away from home since Dec. 6, 1957, when Arkansas Tech defeated what is now known as the University of Arkansas-Monticello 19-7 in the Rice Bowl at Stuttgart.

Head coach Raymond Monica and the Wonder Boys finished tied for second in the 2015 Great American Conference football standings. Tech has compiled just its fifth season with eight or more wins since 1971.