Tampa Bay Football History Network - St. Petersburg Bowl Prologue

St. Petersburg Bowl Prologue

It had been almost fifty years since the City of St. Petersburg had played host to a college football bowl game, then on April 30, 2008, the NCAA approved a new college bowl game to be played at Tropicana Field.

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Championship Game had various names throughout the years. It has been called the Aluminium Bowl (Little Rock), Camellia Bowl (Sacramento), Apple Bowl (Seattle), Palm Bowl (McAllen, TX) and sometimes simply the Championship Bowl. For four years, it was called the Holiday Bowl and held in St. Petersburg. The games were played at Stewart Field, on the campus of St. Petersburg High School, and broadcast nationally on CBS.

Muddy Waters

Not to be confused with the blues musician, Frank "Muddy" Waters was the longest tenured head coach in the history of Hillsdale College. He coached the Dales from 1954 to 1973 and posted a 138-47-5 (.739) record. Waters received national attention when his 1955 team (9-0) was invited to play in the Tangerine Bowl. Due to bowl committee's policy of excluding black players, the invitation was turned down. In his last year at Hillsdale, the football field was renamed Frank Waters Stadium in his honor.
Waters would go on to become the first head coach at Saginaw Valley State, posting a 24-26-2 record from 1975-79, and finished his coaching career with three years (1980-82) at Michigan Sate (10-23).

Hillsdale College (10-0) was on a 34 game winning streak, and Frank "Muddy Waters" was named NAIA Coach of the Year, heading into the first Holiday Bowl. Kansas State Teachers College (10-0), a school that was renamed Pittsburg State in 1971, was also undefeated and no team had scored more than 14 points on the Gorillas. KSTC jumped to 20-0 lead after the first quarter. Early in the third quarter, the Dales had comeback to tie the game at 20-20. Each team would score again, however, Hillsdale missed the extra point and lost 27-26. KSTC was lead by Charles Norris with two touchdown runs and a pair of TD catches by Paul Creandell. Doug Maison tossed three TD passes for HC, twice hitting Walt Poe.

The 1958 game was another battle of undefeated teams with Arizona State College at Flagstaff (11-0), later known as Northern Arizona University, and Northeastern State (10-0). The Oakies of Northeastern State, the school is in Oklahoma, took a 19-7 lead. Lead by quarterback Ted Sorich, the Lumberjacks drove 92 yards late in the game to close the gap. The Arizona team never got the ball back and the Oakies won 19-13.

Lenior Rhyne (10-0) was the number one ranked team throughout the regular season, and were lead by NAIA Coach of the Year Clarence Stasavich, coming into the 1959 game. Texas A&I (11-1), later renamed Texas A&M-Kingsville, had posted four shutouts during the year and only allowed a total of 20 points in their last five games. Behind the running of game MVP Butch Pressley, and three TD passes from Jarrell Hayes, the Texas A&I Javelinas easily handled the Lenior-Rhyne Bears 20-7.

Lenior-Rhyne would return for the last Holiday Bowl and it is interesting how they got there. In the final minute of the NAIA Eastern Championship Game, the Bears scored to tie Northern Michigan 20-20. At the time, NAIA regulations used total yardage as a tie breaking procedure. Lenior-Rhyne had outgained Northern Michigan by 25 yards to get the nod. Their Holiday Bowl opponent, Humboldt State (11-0), were headed by NAIA Coach of the Year Phil Sarboe. The Lumberjacks lead until the final minute, until freshman Marion Kirby kicked the winning field goal. The 15-14 victory game Lenior-Rhyne its first and only championship.

After all those years, college postseason football returned to St. Petersburg. Construction on Tropicana Field, the site of the game, began in 1986 in an effort to lure Major League Baseball to town. Due to the area’s hot, humid summers and frequent thunderstorms a dome was selected. The stadium was finished in 1990 and originally known as the Florida Suncoast Dome. Efforts to entice the Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners and San Francisco Giants to relocated failed, then St. Petersburg was passed over when baseball expanded in 1993.

The Arena Football League Tampa Bay Storm began playing there in 1991 and the National Hockey League Tampa Bay Lightning in 1993. The Florida Suncoast Dome was renamed the Thunderdome during that time. In 1995, Tampa Bay was awarded an expansion baseball franchise to begin play in 1998. The naming rights were sold to Tropicana. The facility also hosted the 1999 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four. This past fall Tropicana Field also hosted the World Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies.

There was always talk of the possibility of holding football games, other than Arena Football, at the dome. A high school event called "The Battle of the Bay" was held in August 2004. With ESPN as the game’s owner, the NCAA's Postseason Football Licensing Subcommittee approved the idea. A one-year sponsorship deal with a communications company was announced on November 25, 2008 and the majicJack St. Petersburg Bowl was born. A deal with the Big East, Conference USA and Sun Belt was signed for the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

On December 20, 2008, the first game saw the University of South Florida defeat Memphis 41-14.

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