The Coaches All-America Game was a postseason college football all-star game that served as the concluding game of the college football season, held from 1961 to 1976. The all-star game was sponsored by the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

(AFCA) and profits from ticket sales and television rights went to fund AFCA scholarships. From 1961 to 1965, the game was played at War Memorial Stadium in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Southe ...

. The game moved to

Atlanta Stadium Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

from 1966 to 1969. Attendance issues led to the game being relocated to

Jones Stadium Jones AT&T Stadium and Cody Campbell Field, previously known as Clifford B. and Audrey Jones Stadium, Jones SBC Stadium and Jones AT&T Stadium, is an outdoor athletic stadium in the southwestern United States, located on the campus of Texas Tech U ...

Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the north ...

, where it was held from 1970–1975. Lubbock won the bid to host the game over newer stadiums in larger cities, including Memorial Stadium in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...

and

San Diego Stadium San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium on the west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. The stadium opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium and was known as Jack Murphy Stadium from 1981 to 1997. From 1997 to 2017, the stadiu ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

, after the AFCA was convinced that Lubbock's advantages as a college town without competing entertainment would fill the stands with existing college football fans from

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary between ...

. The first game held at Jones Stadium took place only 47 days after downtown Lubbock was hit by a tornado in 1970. The stadium's newly installed AstroTurf was unharmed, but some of the light towers on the west side—which had recently been fitted with extra lights for the color telecast of the All-America Game—were bent or snapped off. Even with the surrounding circumstances, the inaugural Jones Stadium game drew 42,150 in attendance, a record attendance over any prior Coaches All-America Game in Buffalo or Atlanta. The game finally found success by an attendance standard, drawing 285,786 attendees over 7 years. By the time of the final Coaches All-America Game in 1976, more players declined to participate in the college all-star game as

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

rookies and NFL owners had little to gain, and much to lose due to injury risks. The AFCA reluctantly dropped the Coaches All-America Game, but continued to bestow All-American honors.

Game results

1961

Score: West defeats East, 30-20 Won 30-20 by the West All-stars in a game featuring Bob Schloredt,

Billy Kilmer William Orland Kilmer Jr. (born September 5, 1939) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints, and Washington Redskins. He w ...

and Marv Luster (chosen as MVP) for the winning side, and

Fran Tarkenton Francis Asbury Tarkenton (born February 3, 1940) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Minnesota Vikings. He played college football at ...

for the East.

1962

Score: East defeats West, 13-8

1963

Score: West defeats East, 22-21

1964

Score: East defeats West, 18-15

1965

Score: East defeats West, 34-14

1966

Score: West defeats East, 24-7

1967

Score: East defeats West, 12-9

1968

Score: West defeats East, 34-20

1969

Score: West defeats East, 14-10

1970

Score: East defeats West, 34-27

1971

Score: West defeats East, 33-29

1972

Score: East defeats West, 42-20

1973

Score: West defeats East, 20-6

1974

Score: West defeats East, 36-6 Barty Smith, a fullback out of the University of Richmond and the Number 1 draft pick of the Green Bay Packers injured his left knee in the game. He had carried the ball 19 times for 96 yards for the East Team, but left the game midway in the third quarter with the injury. The knee injury kept Smith out of the first six games of his rookie season with the Packers. The West beat the East 36-6. San Diego State's Jesse Freitas of the West Team was named most valuable player.

1975

Score: East defeats West, 23-21

1976

Score: West defeats East, 35-17 Me and Woodcock from Hawaii (we were both 3rd round picks by the Detroit Lions) partied at Uncle Nasty's until the sun came up after beating the East by a couple of touchdowns. It was the last game ever played and man were the girls in West Texas good to me! - But not Woodcock, he was married, but boy could he drink beer - God rest his soul... Russ Bolinger, Long Beach State #69, Left OT.

References

THE COFFIN CORNER: Vol. 25, No. 2 (2003)
*{{cite journal , last=Reed , first=William F. , date=1970-04-06 , title=A Tornado With A New Twist , journal=

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

, volume=33 , number=1 , pages=16–17 , access-date=2011-08-27 , url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1083792/index.htm College football all-star games 1961 establishments in New York (state) 1976 disestablishments in the United States Recurring sporting events established in 1961 American football in Lubbock, Texas American football competitions in Atlanta American football in Buffalo, New York Sports competitions in Lubbock, Texas American football competitions in Texas American football competitions in New York (state)