A Girl’s Guide to the Bowls: Super, Rose, Orange…Cereal

Posted by Stiletto Jen 3,360 views

First of all, what the heck is a bowl? Could football players not say “football playoffs” so it got grunted out “bowl?” I’ve often wondered but never really thought to question it, it is what it is. The Super Bowl. And my favorite: the Rose Bowl. That one just sounds pretty.

Now, if you are looking for in depth info about College Football’s BCS, or Bowl Championship Series, check out our post A Girl’s Guide to college Football: The FBS, FCS, BCS…..OMG! WTF?

Turns out “bowl” came about because the first post-season college football games took place in the Rose Bowl Stadium. (Aha! Finally we know which came first the chicken or the egg! I mean the stadium or the playoff name. The Rose Bowl Stadium was named for its bowl-shape design NOT because it is the host of the Rose Bowl. The tourney is named for the stadium)

aw Rose Bowl Stadium does look like a big bowl!

Great. So why did it catch on?

The Rose Bowl drew in so much revenue and tourism traffic that other towns began seeing the potential in having their own festivities, regardless if their stadiums looked like bowls. The number of bowls grew from 1 in 1930, 5 in the 40s, to 11 in the 70s and now, there is a total of 34 across the country. Originally, all the games took place on New Year’s Day as part of the town’s celebration. Also, back in the day without Southwest, JetBlue, Expedia and Priceline or even SUVs to help with the traveling, the bowls were held after the regular season to give fans the opportunity to travel to the site.

NFL Copycats

Yeah the NFL totally jumped on that bandwagon! They saw the revenue the bowls were driving in and began calling their all-star game the Pro Bowl in 1951. Apparently “all-star game” isn’t elite enough (though it works well for the MLB and NBA). And you are going to totally love where the name Super Bowl came from! I know you are thinking it’s just because it’s the superest bowl of them all but nope, it’s even better than that! It could be the best piece of trivia I give you until next year (gosh I really hope I post this on the 31st and not the 1st or that joke just won’t be funny at all will it?)

So from Wikipedia, my favorite sports reference place, I give you the origin of the term Super Bowl:

“According to NFL Films President Steve Sabol, the NFL Comissioner Pete Rozelle wanted to call the [NFL-AFL Wold Championship Game] “The Big One.” During the discussions to iron out the details, AFL founder Lamar Hunt had jokingly referred to the proposed interleague championship as the “Super Bowl.” Hunt thought of the name after seeing his children playing with a toy called a Super Ball; the small, round ball is now on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio”

Oddly enough, I think I knew that beforehand and blocked it out.

up next: A Girl’s Guide to the Bowls Part II

About the author: Jennifer Taglione is the owner of this fabulous website Stiletto Sports. Despite writing well over 500 posts, she still maintains that she is not a sports writer! She is however a huge fan of Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Mark Sanchez, the Celtics, and totally kicks butt on March Madness brackets! Connect with her by following her on Twitter @StilettoSportsJ and subscribing to her weekly newsletter. For more info check out the About the Editor page!