Pima College's football players were scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday to return their equipment.
Instead, the Aztecs received a bowl bid — and, well, a reprieve.
Pima will play Kilgore (Texas) College in the Dec. 1 C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl in Waco, Texas. The 11 a.m. game will be televised nationally on DirecTV.
The game will be the last in program history. The Pima Community College Governing Board announced in June that it would cut the football program, a decision brought on by budget cuts and Maricopa County's own decision to cut the football programs at its four schools.
Almost immediately, coach Jim Monaco set out for one final Cinderella season. His three goals: win the Western States Football League, play in a bowl game and earn a spot in the national championship game. The Aztecs finished 6-3, losing their final two games to Snow College and Arizona Western. While Pima had qualified for the postseason, it was unclear if it would be picked.
Monaco and Pima accepted the bowl invitation Monday. Monaco had hoped to spring the news on his team before Tuesday's meeting, but was scooped by the bowl game's own announcement.
He didn't seem to mind.
"We wanted to go to a bowl game," he said. "And that happened.”
The matchup between the No. 20 Aztecs and No. 4 Kilgore will be a rematch of a 2004 game, when the then-Pima Storm beat Kilgore 10-7 in the Pilgrim’s Pride Bowl Classic. The season — and the bowl win — became the basis for a book, "One Game One Time," written by former Pima coach Jeff Scurran.
The Aztecs' bowl appearance means Monaco will continue to do double-duty as the outgoing football coach and brand-new athletic director. While the workload sounds daunting, Monaco said chancellor Lee Lambert and college president Morgan Phillips have been extra helpful.
The moment they heard about the bowl bid, Lambert and Phillips both said they would help get the team to Texas.
“I’m really grateful to them because they didn’t have to do that,” Monaco said.
