The Pecan Park Eagle

With the 2015 college football season coming to a close on 1/11/2016 with the NCAA Division One Championship Game between Clemson and Alabama, 95% of my thoughts now flow almost fully unimpeded back to baseball, the Astros, and the MLB season coming up, but I did want to settle an old memory debt to the now moribund Bluebonnet Bowl that really did so much to establish long ago that the City of Houston intended to be a strong active player in the post-season college football scene from 1959 through these current times. This bowl, and the establishment of Houston as the annual winter base of the Lombardi Award to the best lineman of the year, were the earliest two feet in the door of that commitment.

I was fortunate to have seen the first two games in person, all of the UH Cougar appearances, of course, and a few of the others. They were beautifully timed to the needs of our Cougars for a venue to show their stuff to a national audience, and, win, lose, or draw, that they did. I recall the 1969 36-7 bruise the Cougars put on Auburn as a generator of feelings similar to the ones we grabbed in sweet joy in the Peach Bowl last week with the 38-24 win over Florida State.

This time, we long of tooth Coogs understand that it takes more than a one-time bombing of national awareness that “these guys are good” sentiments to earn a place at the big table. We must continue to excel – and do more.

Fortunately for UH fans, young Coach Tom Herman understands that fact as well as any of his more age-worn coaching cohorts.

Today we remember the Bluebonnet Bowl as one of those places you played to boost your school’s opportunities for post-season recognition by a national audience – and, mostly on New Years Eve, no less. “The Blue” is the father of the 2000 Houston Bowl and the grandfather of the 2008 Texas Bowl at NRG. And it is most deserving of its own place of honor in our local sports history – even if we did only get to this mention in the last week of the now passing away college football season.

Have a great sunshiny cold day in Houston, neighbors!

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A Brief History

The Bluebonnet Bowl was an annual college football bowl game played in Houston, Texas.^[1] A civic group was appointed by the Houston Chamber of Commerce Athletics Committee in 1959 to organize the bowl game. It was held at Rice Stadium from 1959 through 1967, and again in 1985 and 1986. The game was played in the Astrodome from 1968 through 1984, as well in 1987. When held in the Astrodome, it was called the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl. The proceeds from the bowl games were distributed to various Harris County charitable organizations. The game was discontinued following the 1987 season due to poor ticket sales and lack of a title sponsor.^[2]

The Bluebonnet Bowl generally featured a team from Texas against an out-of-state opponent; 19 out of the 29 games involved a team from Texas. From 1980 to 1987, with the exception of 1981, a team from the Southwest Conference played against an at-large opponent.

The bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas.

Bowl games returned to Houston in 2000 with the Houston Bowl, and then the Texas Bowl since 2006.

~ Excerpt from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebonnet_Bowl

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Bluebonnet Bowl Results, 1959-1987

The above table was reconstructed from data provided by http://www.databasefootball.com/College/bowls/bowlgame.htm?BowlID=9

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