independence bowl history
independence bowl history
Get your Independence Bowl tickets for the December 28th contest that will no doubt feature two of the better college football teams in the country. The 2006 Independence Bowl will feature winning teams from the SEC and the Big 12. Held in Shreveport, LA the Independence Bowl has a growing reputation among college football fans and has hosted nationally recognized programs such as LSU, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Oregon, Texas A & M and Oklahoma State. Who will be the lucky teams to hit the field this year? Get your 2006 PetroSun Independence Bowl tickets and find out for yourself. You won’t be sorry.
The Independence Bowl is the brainchild of the Shreveport Bossier City Sports association who were granted the right to put on a college bowl game by the NCAA in 1976. Due to the Centennial year and the local military population the game was dubbed the Independence Bowl. That first year McNeese State capped off a solid year with a 20-16 Independence Bowl win over Tulsa. It was a good start to what would soon grow to be a great tradition of top quality college football from the Independence Bowl.
In 1981 the Independence Bowl really went big time. The directors of the event were given the freedom to choose from a wide selection of Division I teams in the country and ended up picking Oklahoma State and Texas A & M, two fierce rivals that would satisfy both the local Louisiana fans hunger for good college football and also take advantage of the proximity of Texas in order to draw fans in from the Lone Star State who wanted to see these two teams butt heads in the post-season. Texas A & M wound up topping the Cowboys 33-16. The lure of big time college football has been drawing fans back to Shreveport in growing numbers ever since.
Since then there have been a number of memorable Independence Bowls. 1990 saw 48,000 fans witness an offensive battle between LA Tech and the University of Maryland. In 1991 it was the University of Georgia and the University of Arkansas. Continuing it’s SEC connection and banking on its local flavor, the Independence Bowl hit gold in 1995 by landing LSU and Michigan State. Naturally, a 45-26 win by the LSU Tigers brought more attention to the game from Louisiana college football fans.
By 2005 the Independence Bowl was boasting of a 30 year history of great college football. With Missouri and South Carolina lining up across the foiled from each other the Independence Bowl had established itself as a major college football event and one of the better bowl games of the post-season. Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks leaped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter. But Missouri showed why they belonged in a bowl game by coming back to eventually post a 38-31 win in one of the better college bowl games of the year.
Who’ll be on the field at the 2006 PetroSun Independence Bowl? There’s no telling, but rest assured you’ll find the kind of football excitement you’re looking for. History just keeps being made every year and you can see it in person with 2006 Independence Bowl tickets.
