Mineral Water Bowl
| Mineral Water Bowl | |
|---|---|
| Excelsior Springs Mineral Water Bowl | |
 | |
| Stadium | Tiger Stadium (2003–2019) |
| Location | Excelsior Springs, Missouri |
| Previous stadiums | Roosevelt Field |
| Operated | 1948–1951, 1954–1975, 1992–2019 |
| Conference tie-ins | NSIC (2000–2019) At-large (2018–2019) |
| Previous conference tie-ins | MIAA (2000–2017) |
| Sponsors | |
Quarterback Club of Excelsior Springs | |
The Mineral Water Bowl was an annual American NCAA Division II college football bowl game held in Excelsior Springs, Missouri at Tiger Stadium. Throughout its long history (1948 to 2019), the game was sponsored by the Quarterback Club, a civic organization in Excelsior Springs. At the time of its demise, it was one of four Division II sanctioned bowl games, along with the Live United Texarkana Bowl, the Heritage Bowl, and the America's Crossroads Bowl.
History
The first Mineral Water Bowl was played on Thanksgiving Day in 1948.[1] The game was established to showcase the Excelsior Springs High School team against another Missouri high school squad, but the Missouri High School Athletic Association never officially sanctioned it and forbade Excelsior Springs from playing in the game after 1950. (It remains unclear why Excelsior Springs was singled out while the association continued to sanction other Thanksgiving football games in the state, such as Kirkwood vs. Webster Groves, still played to this day). After the 1951 contest, which featured two opponents from outside the area, the high school Mineral Water Bowl was no more.
An attempt to continue the bowl in 1952 as a small-college contest failed after Northeast Missouri State (today Truman State), that year's co-champions of the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Association (today the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association), turned down an invitation to participate.[2] Undeterred by this setback, local organizers succeeded in reviving the game as a small-college bowl two years later, in 1954.[3] The game was eventually moved from Thanksgiving Day to the Saturday before or after the holiday. As of 1957, it was one of 11 sanctioned NCAA bowl games. The bowl continued in the small-college format, hosting teams from as far away as Michigan and Colorado, but the pool of potential quality opponents dwindled after the onset of football playoffs for NCAA Division II and Division III, in 1973. Despite featuring a Missouri school in 11 of 22 contests, the bowl suffered from declining interest and was discontinued for a second time after the 1975 game. Crowds had dwindled from a peak of 7,000 in the 1960s to just 1,500 in 1974.[4]
After a gap of seventeen years, the bowl was revived as a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) postseason game, held annually on the first Saturday in December starting in 1992.[5] In the 1996 contest, Blinn (TX) defeated Coffeyville (KS) for the NJCAA championship. The junior college bowl typically featured top-ranked teams, and the Kansas community college league--closest to the game site geographically--provided teams for six of the games, but after eight years the sponsors opted to make it an NCAA bowl once again, this time for teams from Division II.
Starting in 2000, representatives from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) and Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) were chosen yearly for the game, with invitations going to the top-placing team in each conference not receiving a bid to the NCAA Division II National Football Championship playoffs.[6] The arrangement between the MIAA and NSIC continued until 2017 but was eventually strained when the MIAA began to send its top non-playoff teams to four other Division II bowl games: the now-defunct Kanza Bowl (from 2009 through 2012) and C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl (in 2016 and 2017), along with the Live United Texarkana Bowl (in 2014, 2015, and 2017) and Heritage Bowl (in 2017). After 2017, the NSIC had the only automatic bid to the game, with its representative facing an at-large opponent. The 2018 game featured teams from the NSIC and the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The 2019 game once again included representatives from the NSIC and MIAA, the latter chosen as an at-large team.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of all Division II postseason football games in 2020. Local organizers hoped to hold the Mineral Water Bowl in 2021,[7] but after failing to do so,[8] they finally gave up on continuing the game in 2022, citing a lack of sponsors.[9]
All-time scores
High school
| Date played | Winning team | Losing team | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 25, 1948 | Excelsior Springs (MO) | 48 | Mexico (MO) | 18 |
| November 24, 1949 | Excelsior Springs | 12 | North Kansas City (MO) | 6 |
| November 23, 1950 | Raytown (MO) | 7 | Excelsior Springs | 0 |
| November 22, 1951 | Harrisonville (MO) | 14 | Higginsville (MO) | 13 |
Small college
Junior college
| Date played | Winning team | Losing team | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 5, 1992 | Garden City | 12 | Itawamba | 10 |
| December 4, 1993 | Northeastern Oklahoma A&M | 52 | Butler County | 50 |
| December 3, 1994 | Hinds | 19 | Blinn | 17 |
| December 2, 1995 | Middle Georgia | 42 | Hutchinson | 37 |
| December 7, 1996 | Blinn | 43 | Coffeyville | 17 |
| December 6, 1997 | Snow | 26 | Coffeyville | 22 |
| December 5, 1998 | Middle Georgia | 41 | Northeast Mississippi | 3 |
| December 4, 1999 | Blinn | 29 | Fort Scott | 20 |
NCAA Division II
| Date played | Winning team | Losing team | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2, 2000 | Winona State (NSIC) | 43 | Missouri Western (MIAA) | 41 | 3 OT |
| December 1, 2001 | Central Missouri (MIAA) | 48 | Minnesota–Duluth (NSIC) | 17 | |
| December 7, 2002 | Emporia State (MIAA) | 34 | Winona State (NSIC) | 27 | OT |
| December 6, 2003 | Missouri Western (MIAA) | 24 | Concordia (MN) (NSIC) | 14 | |
| December 4, 2004 | Washburn (MIAA) | 36 | Northern State (NSIC) | 33 | |
| December 3, 2005 | Missouri Western (MIAA) | 35 | Concordia (MN) (NSIC) | 23 | |
| December 2, 2006 | Pittsburg State (MIAA) | 35 | Bemidji State (NSIC) | 27 | |
| December 1, 2007 | Missouri Western (MIAA) | 20 | Wayne State (NE) (NSIC) | 13 | |
| December 6, 2008 | Augustana (SD) (NSIC) | 37 | Missouri Western (MIAA) | 16 | |
| December 5, 2009 | Missouri Western (MIAA) | 34 | Augustana (SD) (NSIC) | 21 | |
| December 4, 2010 | Pittsburg State (MIAA) | 13 | Concordia (MN) (NSIC) | 9 | |
| December 3, 2011 | Minnesota State (NSIC) | 28 | Northeastern State (Ind.)+ | 14 | |
| December 1, 2012 | Winona State (NSIC) | 41 | Lindenwood (MIAA) | 21 | |
| December 7, 2013 | Pittsburg State (MIAA) | 90 | Southwest Minnesota State (NSIC) | 28 | |
| December 6, 2014 | Sioux Falls (NSIC) | 42 | Central Oklahoma (MIAA) | 10 | |
| December 5, 2015 | Minnesota–Duluth (NSIC) | 30 | Fort Hays State (MIAA) | 22 | |
| December 3, 2016 | Bemidji State (NSIC) | 36 | Washburn (MIAA) | 23 | |
| December 2, 2017 | Central Missouri (MIAA) | 38 | Minnesota–Duluth (NSIC) | 28 | |
| December 1, 2018 | Missouri S&T (GLVC) | 51 | Minnesota State–Moorhead (NSIC) | 16 | |
| December 7, 2019 | Nebraska-Kearney (MIAA) | 50 | Winona State (NSIC) | 33 | |
+ - Northeastern State, an independent already admitted to the MIAA for 2012, received the conference's bowl bid for 2011
Appearances by team
This list is for appearances in the Mineral Water Bowl during its years as a postseason NCAA Division II game (2000 through 2019).
| Rank | Team | Appearances | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Missouri Western | 6 | 4–2 |
| 2 | Winona State | 4 | 2–2 |
| 3 | Concordia (MN) | 3 | 0–3 |
| 3 | Minnesota–Duluth | 3 | 1–2 |
| 3 | Pittsburg State | 3 | 3–0 |
| T5 | Augustana (SD) | 2 | 1–1 |
| T5 | Bemidji State | 2 | 1–1 |
| T5 | Central Missouri | 2 | 2–0 |
| T5 | Washburn | 2 | 1–1 |
| T9 | Central Oklahoma | 1 | 0–1 |
| T9 | Emporia State | 1 | 1–0 |
| T9 | Fort Hays State | 1 | 0–1 |
| T9 | Lindenwood | 1 | 0–1 |
| T9 | Minnesota State | 1 | 1–0 |
| T9 | Minnesota State-Moorhead | 1 | 0–1 |
| T9 | Missouri S&T | 1 | 1–0 |
| T9 | Nebraska-Kearney | 1 | 1–0 |
| T9 | Northeastern State | 1 | 0–1 |
| T9 | Northern State | 1 | 0–1 |
| T9 | Sioux Falls | 1 | 1–0 |
| T9 | Southwest Minnesota State | 1 | 0–1 |
| T9 | Wayne State (NE) | 1 | 0–1 |
References
- ^ "SPA High Wins the Mineral Water Bowl". Sedalia Democrat. November 26, 1948. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
- ^ "Kirksville Has Turned Down Three Bowl Bids". Maryville Daily Forum. November 13, 1952. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
- ^ "Club Plans Revival of Mineral Water Bowl". Columbia Daily Tribune. October 20, 1954. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
- ^ "Mineral Bowl Halted; Committee Cites Interest, Attendance". Wichita Eagle. October 28, 1976. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
- ^ "Juco bowl back". Kansas City Star. April 29, 1992. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
- ^ "MIAA reaches agreement with Mineral Water Bowl". St. Joseph News-Press. January 13, 2000. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
- ^ https://www.excelsiorspringsstandard.com/sports/mineral-water-bowl-no-go-2020-return-21-possible 27 November 2010. Retrieved 18 July 2023
- ^ "The Mineral Water Bowl committee has announced that the 2021 Bowl game has been cancelled". Retrieved March 8, 2023.
- ^ https://www.d2football.com/forum/forum/football/super-region-4/nsic/705398-mineral-water-bowl post #13, 27 October 2022. Retrieved 18 July 2023
External links
- Official website
- Warren Woodson Aeschliman, A History of the Mineral Water Bowl Game. MA Thesis, Northeast Missouri State, 1966. https://avalon.searchmobius.org/search~S11?/aaeschliman/aaeschliman/1%2C7%2C7%2CB/frameset&FF=aaeschliman+warren+woodson&1%2C1%2C/indexsort=-
