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My Favorite Bowls |
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As a child, my earliest
memory of watching the New Year’s Day bowl games was 1968. I can
remember playing in and out of the house and neighborhood in Kansas and hearing
the older kids and adults discussing a game that was being played in the
background on the tube. That game was the 1968 Sugar Bowl between LSU
and Wyoming. I remember a personal connection being mentioned between
Charlie McClendon and my Dad. Two years later, at the age of nine, I cried
when KU lost to Penn State in the Orange Bowl in Pepper’s great blunder.
My brother would watch the classic Notre Dame-Texas match ups in the
Cotton Bowl in 1970 and 1971 and be inspired to apply to Notre Dame, he
went to school there and the
rest is history. We, as a family, got the thrill of a lifetime when we
were part of ND’s national championship in 1973 with the Sugar Bowl
victory over Bear Bryant and Alabama. Ara's retirement at the Orange
Bowl two years later is a beautiful, but sad memory. These events would
make bowl day very special to me.
At the risk of offending some, I am going to state my mind here. Since the advent of the BCS system for trying to match-up a #1 and #2 each year, the splendor and mystery of New Years Day has been lost. The games are now spread out over a few days and the New Years games seem meaningless. The smaller bowls do not add into the equation anymore. Gone are the days of a Fiesta Bowl or Holiday Bowl surprise national champion like in 1975 and 1984. Gone are the days that a Colorado can shoot up to #3 on the basis of a commanding performance in the Bluebonnet Bowl, coupled with routs by fellow league teams in other, more significant bowls, like in 1971. There is no possibility of a #4 or #5 team winning it all on New Years Day.
Priceless. Mark Bolding
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Before the BCS, It Was Often Confusing
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As big a bowl fan as I am, I must admit that rampant confusion often followed the New Year's Bowls. The mythical championship seemed to always be in question. Sometimes, the old system lucked out and there was only one undefeated team. But, about every ten years, the domino upset effect left everyone begging for a playoff. Before 1968, the national champion was the team that finished number one in the the regular season. Although this was anti-climatic, it avoided a good deal of controversy. When that changed, all hell broke loose. The 70's became a decade of controversy. I remember how refreshing it was in that rare, "no doubt" season of 1987, when Miami and Penn State squared off as #1 and #2 to settle things. But, because of conference alignments with bowls, that was unusual. Here are few articles from seasons that left the fans scratching their heads or arguing the vote for the next 8 months: |
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SOME HISTORY:
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THE BOWLS |
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| Alamo Bowl | All American Bowl | Aloha Bowl | Armed Forces Bowl | ||||||||
| Bacardi Bowl | BCS Championship | Bluebonnet Bowl | California Bowl | ||||||||
| Camellia Bowl | Capital One Bowl | Champs Sports Bowl | Cherry Bowl | ||||||||
| Christmas Festival | Citrus Bowl | Copper Bowl | Cotton Bowl | ||||||||
| Emerald Bowl | Fiesta Bowl | Fort Worth Bowl | Gallery Furniture Bowl | ||||||||
| Garden State Bowl | Gator Bowl | GMAC Bowl | Gotham Bowl | ||||||||
| Hall of Fame Bowl | Harbor Bowl | Hawaii Bowl | Holiday Bowl | ||||||||
| Houston Bowl | Humanitarian Bowl | Ice Bowl | Independence Bowl | ||||||||
| Insight.com Bowl | International Bowl | Las Vegas Bowl | Liberty Bowl | ||||||||
| Lodi Grape Bowl | Meineke Car Care Bowl | Motor City Bowl | MPC Computers Bowl | ||||||||
| Music City Bowl | New Orleans Bowl | Oahu Bowl | Oil Bowl | ||||||||
| Orange Bowl | Outback Bowl | Peach Bowl | Pineapple Bowl | ||||||||
| Poinsettia Bowl | Raisin Bowl | Rose Bowl | Salad Bowl | ||||||||
| San Francisco Bowl | Seattle Bowl | Spaghetti Bowl | Sugar Bowl | ||||||||
| Small College Classics | |||||||||||
| Grantland Rice Bowl | Boardwalk Bowl | ||||||||||
| Tangerine Bowl | Pecan Bowl | ||||||||||
| National Junior College Championship | |||||||||||
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THE GAMES |
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1997 Alamo
Bowl
1992 Aloha Bowl
1965 Bluebonnet Bowl
2004 Capital One Bowl
2007 Champs Sports Bowl
1924 Christmas Festival
1946 Cotton Bowl
1959 Cotton Bowl
1962 Cotton Bowl
1969 Cotton Bowl
2008 Cotton Bowl
1979 Fiesta Bowl
1999 Fiesta Bowl
2004 Fort Worth Bowl 2000 Galleryfurniture.com Bowl
2001 Galleryfurniture.com Bowl
1979 Garden
State Bowl
1976 Gator Bowl
1980 Gator Bowl
2004 GMAC Bowl
1980 Hall of Fame Bowl
2007 Hawaii Bowl
2003 Houston Bowl
2000 Humanitarian Bowl
1978 Independence Bowl
1993 Independence Bowl
2004 Independence Bowl
1998 Insight.com Bowl
2008 International Bowl
2002 Las Vegas Bowl
1969 Liberty Bowl
1972
Liberty Bowl
1980 Liberty Bowl
2003 Liberty Bowl
1999 Mobile Alabama Bowl
2007 New Orleans Bowl
1947 Oil Bowl
1962 Orange Bowl
1967 Orange Bowl
1970 Orange Bowl
1997 Outback Bowl
1948 Pineapple Bowl
1916 Rose Bowl
1965 Rose Bowl
2002 San Francisco Bowl
1966 Sugar Bowl
1970 Sugar Bowl
2002 Sugar Bowl
1974 Sun Bowl |
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DISCLAIMER
This sight is in no way commercial and is not intended as a for profit mechanism. The data in this section has been collected, digitalized and stored over the years since my childhood. My sources are too numerous to be listed. The photos were obtained and captured from newspapers, periodicals and the Internet. The videos are recorded from television and saved from the Internet. They are the property of their respective owners and not intended for reproduction, distribution or resale. For the most part, the text stories of each game are taken from newspaper articles , although some I wrote myself. Certainly, the information in all summaries originate from press sources and Internet sources such as Hickock Sports and Wikipedia. The fact is, I cannot remember some of the sources for many of the materials contained herein because I clipped and saved them so long ago. The materials in this site are a promotion for the college game and the spirit of bowl season. Helmet images contained within these pages are taken from The Helmet Project and Helmets to Infinity. Both pages are wonderful and highly recommended for football history. I had to modify some helmet images and create some. I apologize if there are not of a quality consistent with those two websites. |
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I
recognize that the old system often left us confused as to who was
really #1. But, so does the current system. Ask LSU, USC or
Auburn. Today, a computer decides the national champion in the
name of advertising bucks and big business. The
