El Paso man did not let discrimination stop him from helping UT win 1953 Cotton Bowl
*I love this story! Richard Ochoa won the 1953 Cotton Bowl MVP award. He was a University of Texas running back who ran for 108 yards in the game. Here’s what I hate about it: despite his achievement on the playing field he was not invited to a UT alumni victory party because he was Mexican-American. VL
By Darren Hunt, KVIA (3.5 minute read) 
EL PASO, Texas – El Pasoans who watched Wisconsin beat Western Michigan Monday in the 81st Annual Cotton Bowl game in Dallas may not realize the Borderland has a living connection to the classic bowl game.
85-year-old Laredo native, Richard Ochoa, who has made El paso his home for the past 50 years, was MVP for Texas in the 17th edition of the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day 1953.
“It was quite an honor to be in the Cotton Bowl and representing Texas,” Ochoa told ABC-7.
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Before Ricky Williams, Priest Holmes and Earl Campbell, Ochoa was the running back at Texas. The retired pharmaceutical rep, who lives in East El Paso with wife Marilyn, finished his career with an MVP performance 64 years ago in the Cotton Bowl, helping the Longhorns avenge an earlier loss to Tennessee with a 16-0 shutout of the powerful Volunteers.
[Screenshot courtesy of KVIA]
