The 1959 Cotton Bowl Classic was the 23rd edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday, January 1. Part of the 1958–59 bowl game season, it matched the independent and sixth-ranked Air Force Falcons and the #10 TCU Horned Frogs of the Southwest Conference (SWC). This was the first tie in the game in eleven years, and the first scoreless game in twelve years.