Dear Dawg Nation,
I know you’re disappointed. But a trip to the Orange Bowl isn’t such a bad thing. Average temperatures in Miami this time of year range from a high of 76 degrees to a low of 65 degrees at night. So, get yourself a beach ball.
The Georgia State Panthers, the team representing my alma mater, is going to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, where the average temperature is somewhere between that of a Siberian well digger’s behind and a witch’s [unmentionable body part] in a brass brassiere.
They might need mittens.
But when you are a school with a 6-6 record – including four-straight losses to finish the season – you take whatever bowl game you’re offered, even if it’s played in an outdoor stadium north of the Arctic Circle.
The great Matt Ryan once had to settle for a postseason trip to Bronco Stadium, despite Boston College finishing its season 9-3 and ranked No. 18 in the 2005 AP poll.
But 23 new bowl games have been created since then, including the Famous Toastery Bowl to be played Dec. 18 in Charlotte.
Bowls didn’t start multiplying like rabbits until the late 1980s when we started to see a new game almost every year. We’ve even had the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl. Gimme a break!
The granddaddy of all bowl games is, of course, the Rose Bowl.
The “Tournament East-West football game” played in 1902 saw the Michigan Wolverines beat Stanford 49-0 to complete a season in which Michigan scored 555 points and gave up none.
The first game in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Stadium was played in 1923 when USC beat Penn State 14-3. Georgia made its first Rose Bowl appearance in 1943, defeating UCLA 9-0. The Bulldogs returned in 2018 and beat Oklahoma 54-48.
The Orange, Sun, Sugar, and Cotton Bowls all started in the 1930s. Georgia made its first trip to the Orange Bowl in 1942, defeating TCU 40-26. Future Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich played in that game with a broken jaw and still managed to run for 139 yards on 22 carries.
The Gator Bowl debuted in 1945 and the Tangerine Bowl – which later became the Citrus Bowl – came along the next year. The Peach Bowl declared its independence from the citrus fruits in 1968.
Pretty soon, Bowls began to proliferate across the south with Memphis, Houston, Atlanta, Shreveport and Tampa getting in on the act. I believe Orlando now has more bowl games than theme parks, including this year’s Pop-Tarts Bowl, known as the Cheez-It Bowl last year. Both products are made by Kellogg’s, and they sponsor the game, so they could call it the Snap, Crackle, and Pop Bowl if they wanted to. Although that sounds a bit gruesome for a football game.
Other Bowls named after unhealthy foods include the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, also played in Charlotte, the aforementioned Potato Bowl, the upcoming Chili Bowl (to be played in Cincinnati because of that Skyline meat water they put on hotdogs I suppose), and the Chocolate Bowl earmarked for Hershey, Pennsylvania, of course.
Speaking of food, the Famous Toastery Bowl named for the restaurant chain where you can get a Blah-Blah-Blah Omelet will be played as a replacement for the Bahamas Bowl in Charlotte this year only. Next year, the Bahamas Bowl will then return to the island where average high temperatures are 81 degrees in December. Renovations to Tom Robinson Stadium in Nassau should be completed by then.
The name of that stadium made me wonder about something. Suppose Harper Lee lied to us in her novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” In the book, Tom Robinson – who was falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell – was shot when he fled from his captors while being taken back to jail. But perhaps his captors lied. Perhaps they were too ashamed to admit they missed.
So, maybe Tom got away. Maybe he kept running until he made it to the Bahamas where he became the premier Bahamian athlete of the 20th Century and had a stadium named after him. Hey, it could happen.
Well, at least it’s kinda fun to imagine such things. Anyway, have fun in Miami. And be decent to the FSU fans.
They’re disappointed, too.