The Holiday Bowl is short for the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl (it owes its name to its sponsor –
the Pacific Life Insurance company). It is a college football bowl game sanctioned by the NCAA (the
National Collegiate Athletic Association). It is played every year at the Qualcomm Stadium, which
is situated in San Diego, CA. The first game was played in 1978. Formerly this bowl game was known
as the Sea World Holiday Bowl, the Plymouth Holiday Bowl, the Thrifty Car Rental Holiday Bowl, and
the Culligan Holiday Bowl.
After the first year the champions of this bowl became the Navy team. In 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984,
and 1991 the BYU (the Brigham University) won the bowl. Some people started calling it the BYU
Bowl. The most exiting game happened in 1980, after which it was named The Miracle Bowl by the
fans.
Nowadays, the second place belongs to the Pac-10 team, and the third to the Big 12 team. Lately
the Bowl became the so-called upset bowl. There is a reason for that: some teams were rejected by
the BCS (the Bowl Championship Series) and began losing to some heavy underdogs.
Theres one event which is usually associated with the Holiday Bowl. It is Wiener Nationals
which is a part of the Holiday Bowl (the US national dachshund racing championship, where the final
eight dachshunds race for the title). One should differentiate the Holiday Bowl from the Holiday
Bowl games which were played in St. Petersburg, Florida, from 1957-1960.
There exists another sport event which is also called the Holiday Bowl. It is organized each
year at Christmas on a farm in Campbell Hall, New-York. It is a sport competition, usually a very
entertaining one. The winner is given the Hallucifet Memorial Trophy. The MVP (the most valuable
player) is also named.
The Holiday Bowl is usually played every December (beginning from 1978). The first winner, as it
was mentioned before, was the Navy team. Other champions were: Indiana (1979), Ohio State (1982,
1993), Arkansas (1985), Iowa (1986, 1987), Oklahoma State (1988), Penn State (1989), Hawaii (1992),
Michigan (1994), Kansas State (1995, 2002), Colorado (1996), Colorado Sate (1997), Arizona (1998),
Washington State (2003), Texas Tech (2004), and Oklahoma (2005). The participants of the next
Holiday Bowl will be the Pacific 10 Conference number 5 team and the Atlantic Coast Conference
number 7 team.
Among the most valuable players should be mentioned those who have done the most for the team
achievements. They are Marc Wilson, Tom Enlow, Craig James, Tim Spencer, Steve Young, Robbie Bosco,
Leon White, Greg Battle, Bobby Bell, Richard Brown, Sim Drain, Blair Thomas, Keith Smith, Darren
Howard, Kyle Basler, Sonny Cumbie, and many more.
The next game will be played on the twenty-eighth of December, 2006. Be sure to attend it. Get
your best Holiday Bowl tickets from Vividseats. Make a Christmas surprise to your friends and
relatives by purchasing a ticket to the game.
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