Boardwalk Bowl

The Boardwalk Bowl was a postseason college football game held indoors at the former Atlantic City Convention Hall (now Boardwalk Hall) in Atlantic City, New Jersey, from 1961 to 1973.^[1][2]

Boardwalk Bowl (defunct)
"Little Army-Navy Game" (1961–1967) NCAA College Division regional final (1968–1972) NCAA Division II quarterfinal (1973)
Stadium	Atlantic City Convention Hall
Location	Atlantic City, New Jersey
Operated	1961–1973

Atlantic City Convention Hall

Convention Hall football field, postcard image

History

From 1961 through 1967, the Boardwalk Bowl featured an annual matchup between Pennsylvania Military College (now Widener University) and the United States Merchant Marine Academy, and was known as the "Little Army–Navy Game."^[3] Merchant Marine won six of the seven games in the series. The playing surface in these years consisted of natural grass sod that was grown outside and then moved indoors for the game.

In 1968, the Boardwalk Bowl succeeded the Tangerine Bowl as one of the four regional finals in the College Division (which became Division II and Division III in 1973).^[4] The other three regionals were the Pecan (later Pioneer), Grantland Rice, and Camellia bowls. During these years, the bowl sought to match the two best non-major teams in a 17-state Eastern Region stretching from New England to Florida. Delaware secured a bid to the game in four consecutive years (1968 through 1971) and won all four games.

In 1973, under the new Division II playoff system, the Boardwalk Bowl became a national quarterfinal, while the other three quarterfinals were nameless and played at campus sites. The semifinals were the Pioneer and Grantland Rice bowls, and the Camellia was the championship game. Grambling defeated Delaware in the only Boardwalk Bowl played under this format. The game was discontinued after 1973, when the NCAA made all of its quarterfinals unnamed games at campus venues; after 1977 the semifinals likewise were unnamed (though the D-II championship game remained a "bowl" through 1985).

The Boardwalk Bowl, along with the Liberty Bowl (played at Convention Hall in December 1964), showed the feasibility of playing football indoors and led the promoters of football games to look seriously at developing indoor facilities primarily for this purpose.

Game results

Date	Winner		Loser		Game
December 2, 1961	Pennsylvania Military	35	Merchant Marine	14	Little Army–Navy Game
December 1, 1962	Merchant Marine	9	Pennsylvania Military	0
November 30, 1963	Merchant Marine	27	Pennsylvania Military	13
November 28, 1964	Merchant Marine	20	Pennsylvania Military	16
November 27, 1965	Merchant Marine	22	Pennsylvania Military	12
November 26, 1966	Merchant Marine	46	Pennsylvania Military	7
November 25, 1967	Merchant Marine	39	Pennsylvania Military	6
December 14, 1968	Delaware	31	Indiana (PA)	24	NCAA College Division Regional Final
December 13, 1969	Delaware	31	North Carolina Central	13
December 12, 1970	Delaware	38	Morgan State	23
December 11, 1971	Delaware	72	C.W. Post	22
December 9, 1972	UMass	35	UC Davis	14
December 1, 1973	Grambling	17	Delaware	8	NCAA Division II Quarterfinal

See also

• List of college bowl games

References

1. Mazda, Jason (December 31, 2014). "50 years ago, indoor college football debuted in Atlantic City". The Press of Atlantic City. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
2. Depp, Carson (September 15, 2020). "Top five football seasons in UMass history". The Massachusetts Daily Collegian. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
3. Horner, Louis (2016). Who Will Water the Flowers?. Dog Ear Publishing p. 53. ISBN 978-1-4575-4505-4.
4. Fulton, Bob (December 14, 2018). "IUP nearly pulled off major upset in '68 Boardwalk Bowl". Indiana Gazette. Retrieved September 17, 2020.