Alabama players carry coach Paul Bear Bryant off the field after beating Nebraska 34 7 in the 1967 Sugar Bowl 4
1 5 SUGAR BOWL HISTORY A SWEET IDEA I n the early days of college football there was only First played in 1902 though it did not become one bowl game an annual event until 1916 the Rose Bowl gave two schools an opportunity to play one more game in warm and sunny Southern California And it was more than just a game it was a week-long party for the teams and their fans Other cities noticed the wave of visitors who traveled to support their teams In New Orleans Louisiana two local newspapermen thought it was time for the city called The Big Easy to get in on the act Colonel James M Thompson and Fred Digby both worked at the New Orleans Item newspaper in the
Louisiana State halfback Abe Mickal breaks through the line of scrimmage against Texas Christian in the second Sugar Bowl played on January 1 1936 at Tulane Stadium 1920s Thompson was the publisher Digby worked on the sports section They wanted to invite two top teams to face each other on New Year’s Day at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans Digby thought the name Sugar Bowl would help the game stand out Louisiana is one of the top sugar-producing states in the United States Digby also came up with a list of activities to go along with the game from a track meet to a rowing competition to a tennis tournament 6
The first Sugar Bowl was played in 1935 It soon became one of the hottest tickets in sports By 1939 Tulane Stadium expanded to hold more fans By the 1950s more than 80,000 people came each year to watch two of college football’s best teams face off What started as a yearly showdown usually between teams from the South grew Soon schools from all over the country wanted to spend New Year’s in New Orleans NOT JUST FOOTBALL Sugar Bowl officials had more than just football in mind when they created the bowl game They used the game to promote other athletic events too One such event is the Sugar Bowl Classic basketball game For years it was one of the best regular-season college basketball events on the calendar In the mid-2000s the event changed to a high school basketball tournament for top teams from all over the country Over the years the game became more important It moved from Tulane Stadium to the Superdome in 1975 and the party just kept getting bigger The Most Valuable Player MVP of each Sugar Bowl wins the Miller-Digby Trophy It is named for Warren Miller who was the first president of the Sugar Bowl and Digby the man who thought having a bowl game in New Orleans would be a pretty sweet idea He was right And then some 7
