1-Man’s Opinion on Sports–Thursday “An Important Piece in San Diego Football History”
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“Holiday Bowl–A Crown Jewel”
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It’s one of the special things we have in our city, if you are a sports fan.
Yes we have Balboa Park, and the Pacific Ocean, the Hotel Del Coronado and the Zoo.
From a sports perspective, the Holiday Bowl is one of our historic Crown Jewels as it relates to events.
We have the Padres and the on-again off-again love affair with a baseball team that has had ups and downs.
We have the Aztecs with some very unique football history and more recently tremendous basketball success.
We had the Chargers, stolen away in the middle of the night, but forever revered dating to the Tommy Prothro-Don Coryell-Bobby Ross-Marty Schottenheimer days.
The Holiday Bowl is now our football identity, a small bowl game that began in 1978, one of 11-bowl games at that point. Blessed by being the stand alone bowl game on ESPN, seen by everyone on cold winters nights natiowide.
This bowl game because a signature event because of its shootouts.
Who could forget the magical tour game of 1980, BYU-vs-SMU. The Jim McMahon-led Cougars coming back time and time again to take, then retake the lead, from the SMU-Mustangs and their running back tandem of Craig James and Eric Dickerson.
When they were done, BYU had won(46-45). McMahon put up astronomical passing numbers, (446Y) and led his team to 21-points in a span of (2:33) in the fourth quarter.
Not to be outdone, the Pony Express tandem of Dickerson and James combined for (335Y) rushing in the loss. The whole nation saw it, and became enamored with explosive displays in late Decembers.
San Diego, blessed by beautiful weather, was blessed too by an array of talent who played in the game. Heisman Trophy winners, Barry Sanders and Blair Thomas. Great quarterbacks like Steve Young, Robbie Boscoe and Ty Detmer.
Legendary coaches like Joe Paterno, Jimmy Johnson and more.
The Friday game matches the legendary USC Trojans vs the Iowa Hawkeyes. A USC team with flash and splash on offense. Iowa with a blue collar defense and typical Big 10-tough offense.
It’s a special event in our town.
The Holiday Bowl, hosted by great citizens wearing Red Jackets, doing things for the enjoyment of our community, and selling all the Picture Perfect Chamber of Commerce postcards for the rest of the nation to see.
Great history, great games, great leadership making it happen.
A crown jewel of an event in America’s Finest City.
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