Kevin Sumlin inherited the nearly three-decade postseason winless drought when he became Houston’s coach after last season.

“That bugged me. I made a big deal of it to the seniors,” Sumlin said.

Houston earned its first bowl victory since 1980, beating Air Force, 34-28, in the Armed Forces Bowl on Wednesday to end an eight-game postseason losing streak.

“That wasn’t a streak we were happy with,” said senior linebacker Phillip Hunt, who in his fourth consecutive bowl finally got to celebrate. “It is good to set a winning tradition here. Hopefully our young guys will come along and keep it up.”

Sophomore quarterback Case Kennum ran for two touchdowns, threw for another and became only the second Houston quarterback to pass for more than 5,000 yards in a season. Bryce Beall, a freshman, ran for 135 yards and a score.

“We wanted to be the team that broke that record,” Beall said.

A month after being denied a trip to the C-USA title game with a loss to crosstown rival Rice in the regular season finale, Houston (8-5) avoided a record it didn’t want to share with Notre Dame. The Irish won the Hawaii Bowl last week to end their NCAA-record bowl losing streak at nine.

In a rematch of a hurricane-disrupted game 31/2 months ago that Air Force won, Houston never trailed after the Falcons (8-5) fumbled the opening kickoff and Beall scored on a one-yard run only 93 seconds into the game.

But the Cougars had to overcome two fourth-quarter turnovers, including a fumble at the goal line by Beall.