The Cigar Bowl was a 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 in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

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 ...

held in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough ...

, featuring small college teams. The nine editions of the bowl were held from January 1947 (following the 1946 season) through December 1954 (following the 1954 season).

History

The Cigar Bowl was played at

Phillips Field Phillips Army Airfield is a military airport located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Harford County, Maryland, United States. This U.S. Army airfield has one asphalt paved runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organizati ...

, which was located across the Hillsborough River from

downtown Tampa Downtown Tampa is the central business district of Tampa, Florida, United States, and the chief financial district of the Tampa Bay Area. It is second only to Westshore regarding employment in the area. Companies with a major presence downtown ...

at the current site of

Tampa Preparatory School Tampa Preparatory School is a 6–12 private, co-educational middle and high college-preparatory school in Tampa, Florida, United States. It was established in 1974. The school is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schoo ...

and Julian Lane Riverfront Park. The bowl's name was inspired by the local cigar industry, which had been a major factor in Tampa's growth around the turn of the 20th century. The Cigar Bowl marked the first bowl appearances for the

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level ( Football Bowl Subdivi ...

(following the 1949 season) and the

Tampa Spartans The Tampa Spartans are the athletic teams that represent the University of Tampa, located in Tampa, Florida, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Spartans compete as members of the Sunshine State Conference for all sports besides beach ...

(following the 1952 season). Three editions of the bowl were played in December (1951, 1952, 1954), while the rest were played in January. In some years, the game was part of a month-long "sports circus" in Tampa, with

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

tournaments scheduled around the area along with

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

and

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

. The Cigar Bowl itself was sponsored by the local Egypt Temple Shrine as a fundraising event. After a few years, the limited capacity of Phillips Field (20,000 with temporary

bleachers Bleachers (North American English), or stands, are raised, tiered rows of benches found at sports fields and other spectator events. Stairways provide access to the horizontal rows of seats, often with every other step gaining access to a row ...

) and the rising cost of hosting the contest caused the organization to rethink its sponsorship. The Shriners discontinued support in 1955, and the bowl folded. There were several attempts to revive the game as a major bowl in subsequent years, but the lack of a larger venue—

Tampa Stadium Tampa Stadium (nicknamed The Big Sombrero and briefly known as Houlihan's Stadium) was a large open-air stadium (maximum capacity about 74,000) located in Tampa, Florida, which opened in 1967 and was significantly expanded in 1974–75. The faci ...

did not open until November 1967—made drawing top college teams impossible.Tampa Bay Football History Network – Outback Bowl Prologue
Tampa next hosted a college bowl game in 1986, when the

Hall of Fame Bowl The ReliaQuest Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, usually on New Year's Day. The event has been formerly called the Hall of Fame Bowl from 1986 to 1995 and the Outback Bowl from 1996 to ...

(later renamed the Outback Bowl) relocated from

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% f ...

Game results

References

{{Tampa Spartans football navbox Defunct college football bowls Sports competitions in Tampa, Florida American football in Florida 1947 establishments in Florida 1954 disestablishments in Florida Recurring sporting events established in 1947 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1954 1940s in Florida 1950s in Florida 20th century in Tampa, Florida

History

Game results

See also

References