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The Roots of College Football
The College Bowl Game System has been a fixture in the United States for over one hundred years. Starting in 1902 with the "Tournament East-West Game" between the University of Michigan and Stanford University, the first bowl game was an extension of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena California. The Tournament of Roses was an annual New Year's Day tradition that began in 1890 to boost tourism, and the head of the Tournament of Roses Association guaranteed $3,500.00 to pay for the expenses of bringing the two teams to an exhibition game. The Tournament East-West Game was played in Tournament Park, about three miles from the current location of the Rose Bowl. At that time, admission prices ranged from 50 cents to 1 dollar; with an additional $1 charged for each family's horse and buggy. The Tournament of Roses Association built temporary stands for attendees of the Game, which Michigan won over Stanford 49 - 0.
Stanford University was considered the champions of the "West", while the University of Michigan was chosen to represent the "East", and was coached by Fielding Yost, who had been the coach for Stanford the previous year. The University of Michigan was crowned the first "National Champions" after ending the 1901-1902 season 11-0-0.
Starting in 1916, the Tournament of Roses Association made the game an annual event, calling the competition the "Tournament of Roses" Football Game. The annual event became known as the "Rose Bowl" in 1923, when it was played in the just completed Rose Bowl Stadium. The term "bowl" came into use because of the bowl-shape of the Rose Bowl Football stadium. All post-season college games are now called "Bowls", even if the game stadium is not bowl-shaped.
Very soon after the first Rose Bowl game, other cities began to see the financial and tourism promotional value that the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game brought to Pasadena, and began to initiate their own versions of bowls. The Rose Bowl continued to be the only major college bowl game until 1940, when the Cotton Bowl, the Orange Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl joined the Rose Bowl. By 1950, the number of college bowl games had increased to eight, and by 1970, there were eleven major bowl games in the United States. In the last forty years, the number of bowl games has increased exponentially: in 1980, there were fifteen college bowl games, and nineteen in 1990. In 2010, there will be thirty-seven college bowl games.
Until 1950, all bowl games were played on New Year's Day. Originally, all college bowl games were played in the warmer climates of Southern California, Texas, and Florida because the primary purpose of the bowl game system was, and still is, to promote tourism and boost business in the host cities. Additionally, because commercial air travel was not common until the 1960s, time was needed for travel to the game sites. Starting in the 1960s, some bowl games began to be played in December as well as in cities that were not usually thought of as tourism destinations.
Now college bowl games are played from mid-December through mid-January. The college bowl experience in the United States and Canada now includes an estimated 7,000 student athletes, 15,000 college band members, 1,500 cheerleaders, 125,000 additional game entertainment performers, and 2 million fans. More Division I-A teams will participate; more than any other NCAA sport.
For more information on the College Bowl System in America, and for a fun and exciting way for the whole family to experience college football in America right in the living room, log onto www.bowlgamer.com, the Knowledge of Champions.
