All-American Bowl

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All-American Bowl (defunct)
Stadium	Legion Field
Location	Birmingham, Alabama
Operated	1977-1990
Former names
Hall of Fame Classic (1977-1985)
1990 Matchup
North Carolina State vs. Southern Mississippi (31-27)

The All-American Bowl was an annual post-season college football game played at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama from 1977 to 1990. The game was known as the Hall of Fame Classic from 1977 to 1985.

In the spring of 1986, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame decided to relocate the Hall of Fame Bowl game to Tampa beginning in December, 1986. The game in Birmingham continued for five years under a different name and organizing body. When the SEC expanded to twelve schools and began contesting a championship game in 1992, Birmingham officials chose to host the conference title game and abandoned the All-American Bowl. Ironically, the SEC championship was moved to Atlanta's Georgia Dome two years later, leaving Legion Field without any Division I-A postseason college football until 2006, when the NCAA agreed to hold a new post-season game the Papajohns.com Bowl, proposed by ESPN.

Since 2001, the United States Army has sponsored its own All-American Bowl for the top eighty high school football players across the nation.^[1]

1 Game results
- 1.1 Hall of Fame Classic
- 1.2 All-American Bowl
2 Teams
- 2.1 Ranked Teams
3 Trivia
4 References
5 See also

[edit] Game results

[edit] Hall of Fame Classic

Date played	Winning team		Losing team		Attendance
December 22, 1977	Maryland	17	Minnesota	7	47,000
December 20, 1978	Texas A&M	28	Iowa State	12	41,500
December 29, 1979	Missouri	24	South Carolina	14	62,785
December 27, 1980	Arkansas	34	Tulane	15	30,000
December 31, 1981	Mississippi State	10	Kansas	0	41,672
December 31, 1982	Air Force	36	Vanderbilt	28	75,000
December 22, 1983	West Virginia	20	Kentucky	16	42,000
December 29, 1984	Kentucky	20	Wisconsin	19	47,300
December 31, 1985	Georgia Tech	17	Michigan State	14	45,000

[edit] All-American Bowl

Date played	Winning team		Losing team		Attendance
December 31, 1986	Florida State	27	Indiana	13	30,000
December 22, 1987	Virginia	22	Brigham Young	16	37,000
December 29, 1988	Florida	14	Illinois	10	48,218
December 28, 1989	Texas Tech	49	Duke	21	47,750
December 28, 1990	North Carolina State	31	Southern Mississippi	27	44,000

[edit] Teams

The All-American Bowl played host to a number of successful teams from the premier college football conferences of the time (the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Eight (now Big 12 Conference), Big Ten Conference, Southeastern Conference and Southwest Conference). All of them placed teams in the All-American Bowl in various years. At least one of the power conferences fielded teams in the All-American Bowl in every year of its existence; often, two of those premier conferences met in the game. The Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference each placed five teams into the All-American Bowl. The Big Ten Conference proved to be the least successful conference, having never won a game despite placing teams in four different years.

Conference records in the All-American Bowl were as follows:
- Southwest Conference 3-0 (1.000)
- Atlantic Coast Conference 4-1 (.800)
- Southeastern Conference 3-2 (.600)
- Western Athletic Conference 1-1 (.500)
- Big Eight Conference 1-2 (.333)
- Big Ten Conference 0-4 (.000)

[edit] Ranked Teams

On several occasions, the All-American Bowl winners finished the season ranked in the AP Top Twenty poll:

Texas A&M finished #19 in the final 1978 AP poll after defeating Iowa State.
West Virginia finished #16 in the final 1983 AP poll after defeating Kentucky.
Kentucky finished #19 in the final 1984 AP poll after defeating Wisconsin.
Georgia Tech finished #19 in the final 1985 AP poll after defeating Michigan State.
Texas Tech finished #19 in the final 1989 AP poll after defeating Duke.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

The only team to appear in the All-American Bowl two years in a row was Kentucky.
Hall of Fame coach Jerry Claiborne coached three teams in the All-American Bowl: Maryland in 1977 and Kentucky in 1983 and 1984.
No team won the All-American Bowl more than once, although Kentucky had a second half lead in 1983 and won it in 1984.
The most lopsided of the games was Texas Tech 49, Duke 21 in 1989.
The closest game was Kentucky 20, Wisconsin 19 in 1984.
No team from the state of Alabama (where hosted) ever appeared in the bowl game.
Duke's loss to Texas Tech was the last game Steve Spurrier coached before returning to the University of Florida.
The very last All-American Bowl game featured Brett Favre. Ironically, it would be his last game with Southern Miss and it was the first game for their new head coach, Jeff Bower.