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This Saturday at 2:30PM Central on ABC, the 11th oldest college football bowl game in the United States will be played once again..
No, not the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, or the Peach Bowl. If you said, “The Poulan Weed Eater Bowl”, you would be (sort of) correct!
The 45th playing of Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana takes place Saturday afternoon between #13 Brigham Young (10-2) and the 8-4 UAB Blazers from Conference USA and Birmingham, Alabama. Based on their regular season records, this ranks as one of the strongest match-ups in the 45 years of this bowl’s fascinating history.
The I-Bowl (as the locals call it) is more like “The Little Bowl that Could”. It is a testament to a good idea and the unrelenting positive spirit displayed by a group of local people who sought to bring a little recognition to the oft-forgotten northwestern corner of Louisiana.
Born during America’s bicentennial birthday year of 1976, the Independence Bowl is still carrying to the torch 45 years later.
Shreveport is one of the nation’s largest cities which does not have a college football team to call its own. On any given Saturday in Shreveport and Bossier City, thousands of vehicles will head east via Interstate 20 to Grambling to watch the G-Men, to Ruston to see the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs play, or into Monroe to roost with the ULM Warhawks. Thousands more college football fans from the Shreveport area make the 240-mile trek down I-49 South and I-10 East (or via US 190 if you plan to watch your speed carefully – hint, hint) to Baton Rouge to watch the LSU Tigers play football.
Shreveport’s population (about 200,000) may decrease by up to five percent on some Saturdays during college football season.
In the middle 1970’s, the population of Shreveport was still growing. The Baby Boom generation of kids had been born to returning veterans of World War II. Many of those military veterans settled in Shreveport and bought their first house with the help of a G.I. Loan. At the time, the Shreveport area was still home to several large oil and gas companies and manufacturing concerns which provided an abundance of steady jobs for the local workforce. With Barksdale Air Force Base (home of the country’s B-52 fleet) located just across the river in Bossier City, the area had become a popular home for military families and retirees.
Though Shreveport doesn’t have a college football team, the city (which is home of the annual Louisiana State Fair) owns a rather large football stadium located on the fairgrounds. Louisiana Tech played local rival Northwestern State University for decades in Shreveport during the annual two-week run of the Louisiana State Fair. Grambling University also came to town to play a few football games at State Fair Stadium, too.
Though a few of the city’s largest high schools play their Friday night football games and playoff games utilizing this big football facility, Shreveport’s State Fair Stadium remains empty on the north side of Interstate 20 on most Saturdays during college football season.
In the early 1970’s, a group of local business people helped to lure a struggling World Football League (WFL) franchise from Houston to Shreveport in 1974. Renamed the Shreveport Steamer, the area’s first pro football team regularly drew more than 20,000 fans to State Fair Stadium. Interested football fans from northwest Louisiana, east Texas and southern Arkansas fell in love with the chance to be part of football’s “big leagues”.
Alas, all good things come to an end as the WFL folded midway through the second football season in 1975.
That brief window of football success quickly translated into the spark which generated the birth of the Independence Bowl college football game in 1976. With the documented attendance success of the short-lived WFL Shreveport Steamer, the region had proven (to itself and the nation) that this mid-sized Southern city had plenty of supporters willing to pay for tickets to watch football.
Having grown-up in Shreveport during this period, there was definitely a “Why not us?” attitude from within the community. This would lead to the creation of the first Independence Bowl college football game in 1976 and its continued presence to this day.
Three primary positive factors came together to make it happen:
Positive Local Spirit – The residents of the area loved the idea of celebrating the country’s 200th birthday with a college football bowl game to be played annually at Shreveport’s football stadium. With Barksdale Air Force Base already a vital part of the community, the patriotic spirit within the region ran deep. In 1976, the United States was celebrating its bicentennial birthday. The timing was perfect to create a college football bowl game to celebrate the country’s founding. Beginning with the initial game played in December, 1976, the Independence Bowl has presented its annual “Spirit of Independence” award at each game. Past winners include General Omar Bradley, entertainer Bob Hope, test pilot Chuck Yeager, and Grambling’s legendary football coach Eddie Robinson.
Positive Media Coverage – It is rare when a region’s radio stations, television stations, and the print media all pull together to help promote anything positive in the community.
With nearly 50% of the radio market listening to his morning drive show daily on 50,000 Watt powerhouse 710AM-KEEL, Larry Ryan (a good athlete in his own right) became the most notable local media celebrity pushing the idea for the new college football bowl game. To the delight of his thousands of listeners, Ryan (who was also instrumental in the success of the WFL’s Shreveport Steamer) regularly chatted with local government and business leaders on the air in order to nudge the process forward to create this local bowl game. A few local television sportscasters (such as the late Bob Griffin at CBS affiliate KSLA-Channel 12) brought even more coverage to the fledgling bowl, too. Even the city’s two local newspapers (Jerry Byrd of the Shreveport Journal and Jim McLain of the Shreveport Times both come to mind) provided regular generally-supportive news articles which helped give the Independence Bowl a boost in 1976 and in the following years. In those days before the internet, positive reinforcement from local radio, television, and print sources was quite valuable and crucial to the formation of the new Independence Bowl.
Positive Local Business and Governmental Support – The inaugural Independence Bowl in 1976 did not have a corporate sponsor (as most bowls do today). However, the game spawned a local leadership group for the Independence Bowl which has lasted for the entirety of the bowl’s 45 year (and counting) run. The Independence Bowl Foundation is a group of key local business and industry executive management leaders along with government officials who work together to help guide the bowl. The I-Bowl Foundation (which still has 400 members today) has remained the cornerstone in keeping the annual bowl game alive in Shreveport since its founding in 1976. The Cities of Shreveport and Bossier City annually roll-out the proverbial red carpet for the teams and their fans during Independence Bowl week. The visiting teams have provided feedback to the Indy Bowl giving high marks for the community’s hospitality efforts.
The Independence Bowl has also weathered plenty of storms (meteorological and otherwise) over its 45 years of existence, too.
The bowl has, at times, struggled financially and has seen more than a few lean years. Important corporate sponsorships (such as Poulan Weed Eater originally had with the I-Bowl during the early 1990’s) have come and gone. The bowl has weathered a number of changes to previously negotiated contractual college football conference tie-ins, too. Some of the newer bowl games began to offer teams a higher financial guarantee, so the I-Bowl fell down the pecking order in team selections. ESPN (which now televises and controls most of the current 42 bowl games in 2021) has provided a measure of financial stability to the bowl over recent years. Unfortunately, the network has changed the playing date and kick-off time for the game from year-to-year, too.
The Independence Bowl has produced a lot of great memories, too, I attended the initial Independence Bowl in 1976 between the University of Tulsa vs. McNeese State University from Lake Charles. In 1981, my wife and I took my Mom and Dad to the game between Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. My Dad had always wanted to see the Texas A&M Fighting Aggies marching band perform in person as he played in a drum and bugle corps as a youth back in Connecticut. Mission accomplished!
In 1990, Louisiana Tech and Maryland played before the biggest crowd (48,325) in I-Bowl history. In 1995, a Nick Saban-coached Michigan State team would play against his future LSU Tigers football team in front of 48,000 mostly purple-and-gold clad fans in Shreveport.
Who can forget the memorable 2000 Snow Bowl between Mississippi State and Texas A&M?
A record national television audience was entertained by a rare December snow storm which occurred during the first half of the game in Shreveport. Snow covered the playing field for the remainder of the telecast.
Perhaps the funniest Independence Bowl story came from 2010. The Air Force Academy “live” falcon mascot was on-hand for the team’s game against Georgia Tech. Known for his impeccable ability to precisely circle the football stadium and the assembled crowd during the pregame ceremonies, the Air Force falcon was supposed to conclude his special “flyover” performance by landing on a special perch at midfield.
Not this time, though. Instead of flying back to his perch, the falcon went off into the wild blue yonder to check-out a few sights around Shreveport that day! Fortunately, the team’s mascot was finally sighted and secured in downtown Shreveport just prior to the game’s end.
Even if Saturday’s 45th edition of the Independence Bowl fails to produce such a colorful memory, the important work of the bowl’s founding fathers is still being carried-on by an enthusiastic new generation of Independence Bowl leaders from around the Shreveport metropolitan area.
Congratulations, and keep it going, Indy Bowl!