The Bluebonnet Bowl was an annual

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

played in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. 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 The NRG Astrodome, formerly and also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, was the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas, United States. It seated around 50,000 fans, with a record atte ...

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. 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 runner-up from the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

played against an at-large opponent. The hometown Houston Cougars played in four games, all before joining the SWC. Runners-up from the Big 8 or

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

s were also perennial participants. 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.

Game results

Record by conference

Teams with multiple appearances

Media

The Bluebonnet Bowl was broadcast by: * CBS (1960–1963) * ABC (1964–1967) * Syndication (1968–1972) * ABC (1973–1975) * TVS Television Network (1976) * Mizlou Television Network (1977–1981) *

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

(1982) * Mizlou (1983) * ESPN (1984) *

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

Lorimar Sports Network The Lorimar Sports Network, or LSN, was an American ''ad hoc'' television network providing syndicated college football and basketball. It was based at Lorimar's original headquarters in Culver City, California, with an additional office in Dalla ...

(1985) *

Raycom Sports Raycom Sports is a Charlotte, North Carolina–based producer of sports television programs owned by Gray Media. It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom Sports established a prominent joint venture wi ...

(1986) * Mizlou (1987)

References

{{Bluebonnet Bowl navbox Defunct college football bowls Recurring sporting events established in 1959 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1987 1959 establishments in Texas 1987 disestablishments in Texas

Game results

Record by conference

Teams with multiple appearances

Media

See also

References