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Gator Bowl History

The Gator Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that is played at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. It is one of the oldest college bowls, held continuously since 1946. Its current full name is the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl after its present sponsor, Konica Minolta.

According to The Big Bowl Football Guide by Anthony C. DiMarco (G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1974, 1976, ISBN 399-11800-4), Charles Hilty, Sr. is given credit for conceiving the idea for the event. He, Ray McCarthy, Maurice Cherry and W.C. Ivey put up $10,000 to underwrite the first game. The event struggled in the early years, drawing only 7,362 to the 1946 match when Wake Forest defeated South Carolina, 26-14. It was not until the 1949 match-up of the Clemson Tigers and the Missouri Tigers that the future of the Gator Bowl was assured. The 1948 attendance of 16,666 for a 20-20 tie between Maryland and Georgia, was nearly doubled with 32,939 watching Clemson squeak by Missouri, 24-23, on a late field goal by Jack Miller. By the 1970s, the attendance regularly reached 60,000-70,000.

The game was played in Gator Bowl Stadium until 1993, when the stadium was partially demolished during the construction of ALLTEL Stadium on the same site. The 1994 game was played in Gainesville, Florida during construction; the 1996 game (moved to January 1 that season) and subsequent games have been held at ALLTEL Stadium.

In the early years of the bowl, from 1946-1952, it featured a team from the Southern Conference against an at-large opponent. Beginning with the 1953 game, it switched to generally featuring a Southeastern Conference (SEC) team against an at-large opponent. From 1953 to the 1975 game, at least one SEC team appeared in 20 out of the 24 games, and in 3 of those games, both teams were from the SEC. The games from 1976 to 1995 usually, but not always, involved a team from south-east part of the country against a team from another part of the country. Teams from the ACC played in 10 of these 20 games.

From 1996-2006, the Gator Bowl traditionally hosted the second-place ACC against the second-place Big East team. With the 2007 game, it began hosting the third-place ACC team versus a team from either the Big East, Big 12 or Notre Dame to take the Big East's spot in this game.

The payout for each team increased to $2.5 million for the 2007 game with a new TV contract with CBS Sports to televise the game. The longtime broadcaster of the game was ABC who would always show the game in primetime. Then TBS bought the rights to the game in the early 90's and was the home of the game until it moved to January 1st and NBC.

The Gator Bowl is one of Jacksonville's annual sports highlights. However, the event was once at the root of tragedy. In 1963, the Hotel Roosevelt in downtown caught fire after a post-Gator Bowl party in the ballroom (it was later determined that the party was not the cause of the fire, and was a mere tragic coincidence). There were 22 hotel patrons who lost their lives.

From 1996-2006, the title sponsor was Toyota, and the bowl's official name was the Toyota Gator Bowl. There was no title sponsor for the 2007 game. Mazda has also previously been a sponsor.

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