Gotham Bowl

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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 1961 game was played in the New York Polo Grounds while the 1962 game was played in Yankee Stadium.

The games were not successful either financially or in attendance--both games lost money both years 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.

The last game in 1962 was particularly tormented with poor luck and bad planning. The game had been scheduled, but only one participant had been invited--the Miami (FL) Hurricanes. With only eleven days to go before the game was to be played, the Gotham Bowl invited Nebraska, which had just finished an 8-2 season. However, before the 1962 game could be played, the Nebraska Cornhuskers' team plane refused to leave the Lincoln airport until the bowl's check for expenditures cleared. In addition, the 1962 New York City newspaper strike ensured that the 1962 game would receive virtually no coverage in the media capital of the world. As a result of the failures, the bowl game was not renewed for 1963.

[edit] Game results

Date	Winning Team		Losing Team		Location
1960	Oregon State was invited to play, but no opponent was found.[2]
December 9, 1961	Baylor	24	Utah State	9	New York, New York
December 15, 1962	Nebraska	36	Miami (FL)	34	The Bronx, New York

[edit] See also

List of college bowl games

[edit] References

1. ^ Foldesy, Jody. "Bowls burgeon as big business", The Washington Times. December 21, 1997. Page A1.
2. ^ "Oregon State Bowl History". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_State_Beavers_bowl_game_history. Retrieved on 2007-08-16. 

Fitzgerald, Francis and Tagge, Jerry. "Devaney--A Dynasty Remembered" (1994). New York; Athlon.