Last night the College Football Championship Game was played in Indianapolis. The Georgia Bulldogs won the game.
Yesterday I mentioned bowl games that used to dominate postseason college football games before there was a “playoff system.” I’ve often thought that the term “bowl” to describe a game was a bit strange, but I was pretty sure why these games were referred to a “bowl games.” Turns out I was right, but while checking, I discovered some interesting information about how “bowl” became part of football lingo….
Back in 1901, the Roses Association, in California, sponsored a college East-West football game between Michigan and Stanford. Turned out it wasn’t a particularly good game and Stanford quit in the third quarter with Michigan being ahead, 49-0.
For the next 15 years, this event was held annually, but stopped featuring football and turned to other evens like chariot racing. But in 1916, the Roses Association decided to sponsor a football game again — this time between WSU (then called The State College of Washington) and Brown University. The game was held at Tournament Park in Pasadena and every year for the next five years an annual “football tournament” game was held at that location. Each year the attendance at the game grew and it became apparent a stadium was needed to handle the crowds. A new stadium was completed in two years and named the Rose Bowl. The stadium was modeled after the design of Yale’s stadium, the Yale Bowl, that got its name from the fact that it resembled a bowl. So the tournament sponsored by the Roses Association was then named the “Rose Bowl,” after the stadium.
Soon, other cities and universities with football teams saw the money making opportunities and promotional value of these “tournament” games and began creating their own “bowl” games, even though many of these games were not played in bowl shaped stadiums.
Even the NFL picked up on the “bowl” nomenclature and eventually got around to naming their championship game the “Super Bowl.” Seems like a good topic for tomorrow….
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