X-Nico

12 unusual facts about sugar bowl


1973 college football season

Alabama and Notre Dame had never met in a college football game before their encounter in the Sugar Bowl, which was played on December 31, 1973.

In its inaugural season, Division I had two NCAA-recognized national champions, and they faced each other at year's end in the Sugar Bowl.

1976 college football season

At the Sugar Bowl, Pitt quarterback Matt Cavanaugh passed for 192 yards, and Dorsett had 32 carries for 202 yards, overcoming Georgia's heralded "Junkyard Dogs" defense.

Pittsburgh was invited to play in the Sugar Bowl after the players took a vote and made it clear that they would prefer to play SEC champion #5 Georgia there rather than face lower ranked Big 8 co-champion Colorado in the Orange Bowl.

Blanche Ely High School

The band has traveled to perform and compete at events to include the 73rd Annual Allstate Sugar Bowl, the Florida Classic Battle of the Bands, and the Florida Bandmasters Association District 15 Evaluations.

E. H. Crump

Crump was sworn in at a few minutes past midnight on January 1, 1940, in a snow storm on the platform of the railroad station, just before leaving for New Orleans to see the Sugar Bowl.

L. D. Meyer

He kicked the winning field goal in the famous 3-2 TCU victory over LSU in the 1936 Sugar Bowl.

Marion Military Institute

In past years they have performed at such events as the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Indianapolis 500, and the Air Force Academy Invitational Drill Meet.

Pace Foods

He earned a football scholarship to Tulane University, where he played in the first Sugar Bowl in 1937 and earned his undergraduate degree in science.

Pride of the Southland Band

Although the T formation is used almost exclusively at UT home games in Neyland Stadium, it has been done at other venues, most notably at the 1986 and 1991 Sugar Bowl.

Sugar Bowl Regatta

The 2006 Sugar Bowl football classic was moved to Atlanta, Georgia and the regatta committee held the intercollegiate races on Lake Lanier in the Atlanta-area thanks to the Lake Lanier Sailing Club and the Georgia Tech sailing team.

The Sugar Bowl Regatta was established in 1934 by the Midwinter Sports Association to be part of a winter carnival of sports offerings in conjunction with the Sugar Bowl football game.


1941 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team

Missouri would go on to finish the season ranked #7 by the AP Poll, and played Fordham in the 1942 Sugar Bowl.

1994 NCAA Division I-A football season

The Coalition consisted of six bowls, with the Orange, Fiesta, Cotton, and Sugar bowls were all considered potential hosts for a national championship game.

Alonzo Jackson

In the National Championship game, the Sugar Bowl vs. Virginia Tech, Jackson contributed one solo tackle on special teams.

Benny Boynton

Some of his most notable games include the first Cotton Bowl Classic (then called “the Dixie Classic”) and the second Sugar Bowl.

Bowl Coalition

The Bowl Coalition consisted of five conferences—the SEC, Big 8, SWC, ACC and Big East--independent Notre Dame, and six bowl games—the Orange, Sugar, Cotton, Fiesta, Gator and John Hancock bowls.

DeVier Posey

On December 23, 2010, DeVier Posey and four other Ohio State players were suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season, but were allowed to play in Ohio State's bowl game, the Allstate Sugar Bowl, which they won 31–26 vs. Arkansas.

H. Lawrence Gibbs

According to Richard Carlton Haney in his book Canceled Due to Racism, the impetus for Gibbs's bill was probably the preceding Sugar Bowl game in New Orleans in January 1956, when the University of Pittsburgh brought a black fullback, Bobby Grier, for the game with Georgia Tech of Atlanta, Georgia.

Harry Ice

Ice was an all-Big Six selection in 1941 as Missouri won the conference championship and went on to the Sugar Bowl, where he was the game's MVP.

I'm a Little Teapot

"I'm a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my... handle... Gosh, I'm a sugar bowl." (From a character-based physical gag used in the original Saturday Night Live cast skit "Gidget Goes to Shock Therapy").

Larry Birdine

He was a part of Oklahoma’s 2003 and ‘04 teams that played in the BCS National Championship Game (Sugar Bowl) in 2003 vs. LSU and (Orange Bowl in 2004 vs. USC).

Marquand Manuel

As a junior in 2000, Manuel served as a key leader on Florida's 10–2 Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship team that earned a berth in the Sugar Bowl.

Mike Guman

He is well remembered by college football fans for being on the receiving end of a goal line hit by University of Alabama linebacker Barry Krauss, in the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 1979, (ranked the Greatest Bowl Game Ever by ESPN in 2002) determining the NCAA national football champion.

Paul Dietzel

Dietzel's 1958 LSU team concluded an 11–0 season with a win over Clemson in the Sugar Bowl and was a consensus national champion.

LSU concluded the season with a 21–0 loss to Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl, two months after the top-ranked Tigers beat the third-ranked Rebels 7–3 in Tiger Stadium on Billy Cannon's 89-yard punt return, a play that helped win Cannon the Heisman Trophy.

Penn State–Pittsburgh football rivalry

Pitt's coach Johnny Majors moved Tony Dorsett to fullback for the second half, and the Panthers went on to defeat Penn State, 24–7, finishing the regular season 11–0, on their way to a Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia and their first National Championship in 39 years.