The Glass Bowl was an annual post-season

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

played from 1946 to 1949. It was held at the

University of Toledo The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a public research university in Toledo, Ohio. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, which includes the University of T ...

Glass Bowl The Glass Bowl is a stadium in Toledo, Ohio. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the American football team of the University of Toledo Rockets. It is located on the school's Bancroft campus, just south of the ba ...

. Toledo had been a manufacturing center for glass objects, including automotive glass for nearby

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

factories. Wayne Kohn, a shipyard worker at a Toledo glass company suggested to municipal leaders a "Glass Bowl" would be a way to build the city's and industry's prestige. The University of Toledo made the announcement of the new bowl game at a press conference in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on October 25, 1946. The University of Toledo operated the Glass Bowl Game as part of its regular schedule. In the four seasons of 1946 through 1949, Toledo had winning records going into the December date. Toledo won the first three contests but their perfect Glass Bowl record was shattered by the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

in the fourth bowl. In 1950, the game was to be played on December 2, however in early November the University of Toledo's athletic board voted to postpone the game until December 1951 – at the time, Toledo's record was 2–4. In 1951, the University of Toledo called off the game scheduled for December 1, as no schools contacted had indicated they would take part in it; the uncertainty of December weather was also cited. Like some other postseason match-ups of the era, such as the

Grape Bowl The Grape Bowl was a postseason college football bowl games, bowl game played in 1947 and 1948. It was held at the Grape Bowl stadium, in Lodi, California. Both games featured the College of the Pacific (now Pacific Tigers football, University of ...

and the

Optimist Bowl The Optimist Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game played in 1946. It was held at Public School Stadium (later known as Robertson Stadium), in Houston. The game was sponsored by the Houston Optimist Club, through agreement reached wit ...

, results are listed in

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records, but the games were not considered NCAA-sanctioned bowls.

Game results

1946: Toledo 21, Bates 12

Newspaper accounts lack detail of the 4th quarter missed conversion.

1947: Toledo 20, New Hampshire 14

1948: Toledo 27, Oklahoma City 14

Newspaper accounts are unclear as to which Chuck Hardy touchdown – rushing or passing – happened first in the 4th quarter, and which 4th quarter conversion failed.

1949: Cincinnati 33, Toledo 13

Newspaper accounts lack detail of the missed conversions.

References