College football bowl names come in all shapes and sizes. You’ve got bowls that honor a city and bowls that a corporation has put their mark on.
Some bowls like the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Sugar Bowl will never change names. Others have ceased to exist or added sponsors to help with funding. Some names make sense, and others are completely ridiculous.
Here is a list of the top 10 funny and ridiculous bowl names:
Refrigerator Bowl
At first glance, I thought this bowl was named after William “The Refrigerator” Perry, a former Chicago Bear. However, I later found out it paid homage to the city of Evansville, Ind., where the game was played.
Evansville was known as the refrigerator capital of the United States. This bowl was played from 1948-1956 and mostly involved small college teams.
I get trying to pay homage to a city by naming a bowl after what that city is known for. But refrigerators aren’t exactly the coolest thing to be known for. Does the winning team get a free refrigerator and the losing team has to settle for a cooler?
GoDaddy.com Bowl
One of two current bowls to have a “.com” name, the GoDaddy.com Bowl used to be the GMAC bowl. GoDaddy.com is a web hosting provider and domain name registrar known for its commercials involving sex appeal.
Since 2011, the GoDaddy.com Bowl has pit Mid-American and Sun Belt Conference teams against each other in Mobile, Ala. When GoDaddy.com first announced the bowl name, CEO Bob Parsons was quoted as saying “… the GoDaddy.com Bowl has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
Really, Bob? You really think “GoDaddy.com Bowl” has a nice ring to it? It wouldn’t be because you’re thinking about all of the extra exposure you will be getting by putting your company’s name on the title, would it?
It’s bad enough one of the most popular domain registrar’s name is GoDaddy.com, but to have a bowl named after it is ridiculous. If Rivals.com wants to have a bowl named after it, fine. At least Rivals.com is about college football coverage and not selling domain names with sex appeal.
Chick-fil-A Bowl
Another bowl that has succumbed to corporate sponsorship, the Chick-fil-A Bowl used to be called the Peach Bowl until the chicken restaurant began to sponsor the bowl in 1996. It was the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl until 2006.
The Chick-fil-A Bowl is played in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and features two top-ranked teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference.
This pairing makes as much sense as McDonald’s being a sponsor for the Olympics. When I think of college football, I don’t think of fast-food chicken restaurants.
Not to mention, Chick-fil-A has recently come under fire for its support of anti-gay Christian organizations. As if they needed any more publicity.
Zions Bank Top of the Mountains Bowl
A bowl name that gets the point across, but does it with too many words (why couldn’t it just be called Zions Bank Mountain Bowl?). The Top of the Mountains Bowl is played in Sandy, Utah, and sanctioned by the National Junior College Athletic Association.
The bowl started in 2006 and pits Snow College against another junior college. This is the first bowl on the list I would like if it didn’t have the superfluous preposition. Keep it simple, and you could have yourself a cool bowl name, Sandy.
Salad Bowl
The Salad Bowl was played five times in Phoenix, Ariz., from 1948-52. This bowl was for the Mountain and Western schools that did not get as much attention during the early days of college football.
The Salad Bowl came back as the Fiesta Bowl in the 1970s, and is now a major BCS bowl game.
What makes this name so great is the play-on words with an actual salad bowl. Too bad Kraft never got onboard and gave away ranch dressing to the winners. That is a sponsorship that makes sense and effectively promotes its product.
Gotham Bowl
The Gotham Bowl was played just two times from 1961-62 in New York City. The term “Gotham” became a nickname for New York City due to the Batman comics.
The first Gotham Bowl in 1960 had to be canceled because bowl organizers couldn’t find two teams to play in it. The Gotham Bowl was originally set up to help fund the March of Dimes. Unfortunately, the money never made its way to the March of Dimes.
Although Gotham is a cool name, I just think I’m going to see Batman take on the Joker rather than two college football teams. The Gotham Bowl could have used Batman to help the March of Dimes get the money it was supposed to have.
Cigar Bowl
The Cigar Bowl was played in Tampa, Fla., from 1947-54. Before smoking was taboo, Tampa had a thriving cigar industry. The game originally was a fundraiser for the local Shriners chapter.
In 2011, Camacho Cigars attempted to get a sponsorship deal with the Orange Bowl, but bowl officials turned it down.
In today’s society, a Cigar Bowl wouldn’t sit well with anti-tobacco agencies. You can’t even smoke in bars, restaurants and hotels in states such as Michigan. It was a good name 60 years ago, but cigars, and smoking in general, isn’t as widely accepted as it used to be.
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl
The Little Caesars Bowl started in 1997 as the Motor City Bowl. Before the Motor City Bowl moved to Detroit’s Ford Field in 2002, it was played in the Pontiac Silverdome.
In 2009, Little Caesars became the title sponsor. The Little Caesars Bowl generally has at least one MAC team involved. Mike Ilitch, co-founder and chairman of Little Caesars Enterprises, Inc., also owns the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers.
The Motor City Bowl was a perfect name, but of course title sponsorship dictates everything in college football. At least pizza fits better with football than fried chicken, even though Little Caesars is by far the worst pizza chain. Ilitch also has done a lot for the city of Detroit in setting up charities, so I’m going to cut him some slack.
Boardwalk Bowl
The Boardwalk Bowl was held indoors at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was played from 1961-73. The grass used for the field was grown outside and then moved inside.
From 1968-72, the Boardwalk Bowl was used as a Division II mideast championship game and became a Division II semifinal game in 1973.
Another bowl name that honors the city in which it is played in. Again, a nice homage, but it doesn’t translate well to a bowl name. Now, had the game been played on the New Jersey boardwalk, then I would have no complaints. Can you imagine a hard hit out of bounds that sends a player over the boardwalk and onto the beach?
MPC Computers Bowl
The MPC Computers Bowl was originally known as the Humanitarian Bowl and is currently known as the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. It has been played at the campus of Boise State in Boise, Idaho, since 1997.
A MAC team and a Western Athletic Conference team are currently matched up, but it used to include a Mountain West Conference team instead of a MAC team.
Naming a bowl after any sort of technology takes away from the tradition of bowls. Bowls were created long before computers were ever common place in our society. By naming a bowl after a computer company, you take away any “old school” feeling that bowl may have had.
Tom Mitsos is a high school sports reporter at MLive Media Group.
