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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/Undertalefanboy43 on 2025-01-04 14:47:50+00:00.
This is Part 3 of my bowl series
These last 4 bowls are the oldest ones thus I’ll be covering the games of Post-WW2 so it won’t be the whole history but most of it anyways, I’ll still be talking about the bowls creation and beginnings however
Pre-1945 After the Cities of Pasadena and Miami created festivals/parades with an accompanying football game around the new year. New Orleans was wanting to get in on this action, 2 New Orleans sports Writers were banging the drum for this new years Football Game James M Thompson and Fred Digby who for years after 1935 kept Campaigning for NOLA to get its own bowl and even came up with the name the “Sugar Bowl” coming from the fact that at the time Louisiana was the only state that produced sugar and due to the Fact that Tulane Stadium (the original site of the Sugar Bowl) was built on the grounds of a former Sugar Plantation. In 1934 the Sugar Bowl finally got the green light it was waiting for and the first annual Sugar Bowl was held on January 1st 1935 with the Hometown Tulane taking down Temple 20-14 in front of 22K fans in Tulane Stadium. In 1939 the Sugar Bowl had its first ranked matchup when #1 TCU took down #6 Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon). The Sugar Bowl would have an unofficial bowl tie in with the SEC with most Sugar bowls featuring an SEC team and usually the SEC champion as the Sugar Bowl gained more prestige, however not all of them featured an SEC team and this tie in wouldn’t be official until the 1970’s
1946-1955 Not much to really write home about this decade as the sugar bowl didn’t have any historically significant changes during this time Notable Game: 1952 (note: doesn’t have sound) In 1952 the Sugar Bowl saw 10-0 #1 Tennessee take on #3 10-1 Maryland, Due to the fact that at this time the final ap and coaches polls were before the bowl games were played Tennessee was declared the consensus National Champions, Maryland didn’t like this and decided to beat Tennessee 28-13. The Sugar Bowl Website has a Great Article That goes more in depth on this game as well as an article on every Sugar Bowl, if you want to read into more detail than what’s in these posts it’s a great visit.
1956-1965 The Sugar Bowl had a big change this decade. As you see they mostly chose southern teams, that’s part SEC tie in and wanting fans who can travel easier but also because of everyone’s favorite topic: Segregation! Which leads me to Notable Game: 1956 All eyes were on New Orleans as the 8-1-1 #7 Georgia Tech took on 7-3 #11 Pittsburgh, Why were all eyes on New Orleans? Well Pittsburgh had a black Fullback named Bobby Grier. Considering how Jim Crow was still active in the south and thus a Team from the north playing an All-White Southern Team like Georgia Tech in the Sugar Bowl was a big deal. Now Southern and Northern teams did play but there was an agreement where the integrated teams would bench their Black Players. Georgia Tech in 1956 had a progressive president in Blake Van Leer and he was committed to playing the Intergrated Pittsburgh in the Sugar Bowl quoted as saying “Either we’re going to the Sugar Bowl or you can find yourself another damn president of Georgia Tech.” This was in contrast to many Georgia Tech students who protested and Segregationist Georgia Governor Marvin Griffin who demanded Georgia Tech pull out of the game. Ultimately the demands fell on deaf ears and the Game between the Panthers and Yellow Jackets took place. As for the Game itself? It was a defensive slog as was expected as these 2 teams were some of the top defenses in the country that season. A pass interference call on Bobby Grier who also played linebacker was the key play of the game as it gave Tech the ball on the 1, Tech rushed it in for the only Score of the game as they would win 7-0. The call was made by Rusty Coles who later admitted the call was wrong but denied foul play and he was a Pittsburgh native so there was no reason to suspect any. Grier after the game of course disputed the key PI but praised Georgia Tech saying they were the best Sportsmen he played all season, showing that even when they were trying to be separated Football could bring people together. Bobby Grier died last June at the age of 91 May he rest in peace, his legacy forever impacted not just the Sugar Bowl and CFB but hell it was a big part of the civil rights movement in Atlanta specifically though I won’t go into bigger detail of that as that’s way beyond the scale of this simple Reddit post on a sports subreddit but the history of it as it pertained to the sugar bowl I felt was important and I wouldn’t be doing a good job If I didn’t cover it
1966-1974 I think it’s time I point out some quirks with the Sugar Bowl or rather it’s selection process, as you can tell not every year featured an SEC team yet some years they featured 2. As I mentioned previously the SEC did not have an official bowl tie in with the Sugar till 1976. With the way SEC scheduling was a lot of teams didn’t actually play each other for a bit and so sometimes they’d get matched up in the Sugar Bowl despite being conference mates. In 1967 a peculiar situation happened when Army got invited to the Sugar Bowl but declined because of the focus on the ongoing Vietnam War Notable Game: 1973 1973 saw a game labeled the National Championship Game as #2 Oklahoma was put on probation by the Big 8 and thus couldn’t play in a bowl game, The game Featured #1 11-0 Alabama take on #3 10-0 Notre Dame facing off against each other for the first time in their history. It was a very cold and rainy night that day in NOLA and it led to some kicking struggles as there would be several missed extra points. Notre Dame would kick a field goal with 4 minutes Bama would have to punt their next possession but Notre Dame got a running into the kicker Penalty, However the Automatic first down was not apart of that penalty yet so Alabama declined pinning ND at the 1 hoping for a safety to win it. Notre Dame converted on 3rd and 10 to Ice the Game and win the 1973 National Championship.
1975-1985 By 1975 the Sugar Bowl had themselves a problem. Tulane Stadium was getting old and dangerous, Luckily for them the Saints had Just moved into the new Superdome and the Sugar Bowl decided to follow suit. They’ve played in the Superdome ever since Notable Games: There were so many in this time I’m so just gonna list them all 1979 De Facto National Title Game between #2 Alabama and #1 Penn State, Saw Arguably the greatest goal line stand of all time. 1981 The only other UGA-ND Sugar Bowl saw #1 Georgia take on #7 Notre Dame, Herschel Walker would run all over the Irish as the Bulldogs would secure the national title that season. 1982 Saw #2 Georgia Take on #8 Pitt, In a Matchup of Dan Marino vs Herschel Walker the Panthers would come out on top to leave a bittersweet taste in the dawgs mouths. 1983 Saw Another De Facto National Title game with #2 Penn State returning to NOLA to take on the three-peat SEC Champ #1 Georgia, The Game saw JoePa’s Penn State finally get over the hump and become national champs a landmark win for a Penn State program that so close many times. 1984 1984 saw another dogfight with National Title implications (due to a #2 Texas loss earlier that day) as #3 Auburn took on #8 Michigan, Auburn led by Bo Jackson would win a Grinder 9-7 but unfortunately for the Tigers they got Jumped by #5 Miami (FL) after they beat #1 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.
1986-1995 This Era saw the birth of the Bowl Coalition after split titles in 1991 and 1992. The Sugar was an Obvious bowl to get on board and they would, They would host the First Ever Bowl Coalition National Title Game due to SEC Champ Alabama being #2 and they ended up getting matched against #1 Miami (FL). Bowls were starting to get Sponsors at this time because Sponsors would give them more money they could use for payouts so they could get better matchups and thus more money. This lead to a rush of bowls getting Sponsors, the Sugar Bowl decided to join in on this with their 1st sponsor with Insurance company USF&G (who dissolved a decade later in 1998 after being bought out) Notable Game: 1993 Speakimg of which this being the first ever official National Championship Game it holds a special place in CFB History. Miami was heavily favored as they had won 29 straight games last losing to Notre Dame in 1990! Unfortunately for the Canes it was a big win 34-13 for the Tide as they would win their 12th National Title and first since the death of Bear Bryant. It was a rough night for QB Gino Toretta as he threw 3 interceptions in a game th…
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