No. 191 The quarter when David Klingler threw six touchdown passes

On August 31, 1991, Houston quarterback David Klingler threw six touchdown passes in the second quarter against Louisiana Tech. He threw nine touchdown passes in the game, and Houston won 73–3 in the Astrodome. Klingler's six in one quarter set an NCAA record. 12

The first quarter finished 3–3. Houston then turned the second quarter into a passing drill that lasted long enough to rewrite a record book. Klingler's six scoring throws went to four receivers: John Brown III caught three, Tracy Good caught two, and Freddie Gilbert and Verlond Brown caught one apiece. The throws covered 15, 16, 60, 6, 5, and 7 yards in the sequence reported after the game. 2

The six touchdowns made up most of Klingler's nine scoring passes that night. He completed 36 of 57 attempts for 510 yards without an interception, and he finished the third quarter before giving way to Houston's backups. 1

The record was narrower than the final score suggested: six passing touchdowns by one quarterback in one quarter. The previous NCAA mark was five, shared by Houston's Andre Ware and Florida State's Peter Tom Willis in 1989. Houston's own record book still lists Klingler's six in the second quarter against Louisiana Tech on August 31, 1991. 13

The game produced a second team-level oddity. Houston finished with 10 passing touchdowns, because a backup quarterback added one after Klingler left. UPI reported that total as a tie of the NCAA record for passing touchdowns against a Division I-A opponent. Klingler's personal quarter record and Houston's team total measure different things, even though both came from the same runaway night. 2

Houston's offense came from the run-and-shoot system that had already made Klingler one of college football's highest-volume passers. A contemporary Los Angeles Times profile described the system as a five-receiver attack in which Klingler read the defense and threw to the open area, repeating the process dozens of times a game. The same profile identified the Louisiana Tech opener as the game in which six of his nine touchdown passes arrived in one quarter. 4

The mismatch still had a hard statistical edge. Houston finished with 702 total yards to Louisiana Tech's 130, and the Bulldogs had already seen Houston score 60 points against them in 1988. The 73–3 result became Louisiana Tech's largest defeat by points and its highest-scoring game allowed, according to UPI's account. 2

Klingler did not need the fourth quarter to make the record permanent. The final score says Houston overwhelmed Louisiana Tech; the second-quarter line says something stranger: one quarterback threw six touchdown passes before the game had reached halftime.