whodem,
I was around. Pretty young but my dad and I watched a lot of the games in the late 50s and early 60s. Couple of things....Multiple unbeaten teams. For example
1950 OU and Army and Army was not the Army of today
1951 Tennessee, Michigan State, Maryland, Georgia Tech, Illinois and Princeton all unbeaten
1952 Michigan State, Georgia Tech and Ole Miss
1953 Maryland and Notre Dame
1954 Ohio State, UCLA and Oklahoma
1955 Oklahoma and Maryland
1956 Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Miami Fla
1957 Auburn
1958 LSU, Army, Auburn and Air Force
1959 Syracuse
Maryland, Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Michigan State and Notre Dame were powers throughout the 50s.
There were not nearly as many bowls. I don't know why OU did not go to a bowl every year, but it is possible that the Big VIII had a rule that you could not go two years in a row. The Big Ten had this rule until I believe the mid or late 60s. Notre Dame had a policy against going to bowls for years and years.
Remember, bowls were for fun. They were purely a reward for having a great season. The first coach to take bowl games real seriously was Bear Bryant. I think the AP finally started including the bowl game in their National Championship consideration following that incredible 1973 Notre Dame 24-23 win over Bama in the Sugar Bowl. Bama had already been awarded the title. That was the way it used to be.
Hope that helps.
