Gotham Bowl
The Gotham Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game that was played in New York City, United States, in 1961 and 1962.[1] The game was initially created as a fund raising attempt for the March of Dimes.
The game was not a success financially: the two games that were played both lost money as few fans were willing to sit through the cold December New York weather. Plus, as it was essentially a charity game, it had little financial capital on which it could survive.
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[edit] 1960
The first game was scheduled for December 1960. The game was to be between Syracuse and Alabama but both backed out. Notre Dame, Oregon State, Colorado and Holy Cross all turned down the invitation. As a last resort the Bowl invited Air Force to play Army on December 10. Air Force accepted if Army would play, but like Notre Dame, Army did not go to bowls. The 1960 game was then cancelled.
[edit] 1961
The following year, the Gotham Bowl managed to find two teams to play, Baylor and Utah State, for the game at the Polo Grounds. Baylor won, 24-9, in front of a sparse crowd of some 15,000 fans.
[edit] 1962
The 1962 edition of the Gotham Bowl, played in Yankee Stadium, was particularly tormented with poor planning and bad luck: the Miami Hurricanes were invited, but no opponent could be found. Finally, on December 4, 1962, just eleven days before the game, the Gotham Bowl invited Nebraska, which had just finished an 8-2 season. However, the day before the contest, the Cornhuskers' team plane refused to leave the Lincoln airport until the bowl's check for expenditures cleared, which it did. (Miami made a similar demand and received their $30,000 expense check up front.)
In addition, the 1962 New York City newspaper strike ensured that the Gotham Bowl would receive virtually no coverage in its own city. The contest was, however, aired on national television by ABC's Wide World of Sports.
The weather didn't cooperate, either: a damp, 14-degree day limited the official attendance to just 6,166 (plus 5,000 tickets given away). Perhaps a few thousand stalwarts were actually in the stands at kickoff.
The game itself was a thriller: Nebraska edged Miami, 36-34, despite an MVP performance by Miami (and future professional) quarterback George Mira, who passed for 321 yards and a pair of touchdowns. [2] (It was the Cornhuskers' first trip to the Big Apple in four decades, after beating Rutgers at the Polo Grounds 28-0 in 1920. Nebraska hasn't played a game in New York since.)
The poor attendance ensured the 1962 Gotham Bowl would be the last one played.
[edit] Game results
| Date | Winning Team | Losing Team | Location | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Oregon State was invited to play, but no opponent was found.[3] | ||||
| December 9, 1961 | Baylor | 24 | Utah State | 9 | New York, New York |
| December 15, 1962 | Nebraska | 36 | Miami | 34 | The Bronx, New York |
[edit] Pinstripe Bowl in 2010
On September 30, 2009, a new bowl game to be played in Yankee Stadium in 2010 was announced at a press conference in New York. The game will feature the third- or fourth-place finisher in the Big East against the seventh-place team in the Big 12, according to BCS rules. If the Big 12 team does not meet those guidelines, Notre Dame has agreed to step in. The game will be played between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. [4]
The name for the contest was revealed on March 9, 2010 as the Pinstripe Bowl. The leagues and the New York Yankees have a four-year agreement in place, running through the 2013 season. The payout to each team will be about two million dollars. [5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- General
- Fitzgerald, Francis and Tagge, Jerry. "Devaney--A Dynasty Remembered" (1994). New York; Athlon.
- In-line citations
- ^ Foldesy, Jody. "Bowls burgeon as big business", The Washington Times. December 21, 1997. Page A1.
- ^ http://www.mmbolding.com/bowls/Gotham_1962.htm
- ^ "Oregon State Bowl History". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_State_Beavers_bowl_game_history. Retrieved 2007-08-16.
- ^ Ackert, Kristie (September 30, 2009). "Yankees announce four-year deal to host bowl game at Yankee Stadium". Daily News (New York). http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2009/09/30/2009-09-30_bowl_game_at_yankee_stadium.html.
- ^ http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2009/10/02/sports/doc4ac4b647ddf53752368041.txt
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