Los Angeles Christmas Festival

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1924 Los Angeles Christmas Festival
1234 Total
USC 00200 20
Missouri 0007 7
DateDecember 25, 1924
Season1924
StadiumLos Angeles Memorial Coliseum
LocationLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles Christmas Festival

The Los Angeles Christmas Festival was a post-season college football bowl game played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, on December 25, 1924, between the USC Trojans and the Missouri Tigers. It was the first and only Festival game ever played, in a time where bowl games were a fairly new concept. It was Missouri's first bowl appearance and USC's second, having last played in the 1923 Rose Bowl.[1]

Proposed revival[edit]

Proposed Christmas Bowl logo

A group led by Derek Dearwater looked to create a new Christmas Bowl in 2010.[2] According to Dearwater, the game was supposed to pit the Pac-10's No. 7 team (or a school from the Mid-American Conference if the Pac-10 didn't have any more bowl-eligible squads) against the Western Athletic Conference's No. 2 team. The L.A. Coliseum was the planned venue, either on Christmas Eve or the following Monday, December 27. The Children's Miracle Network ("Creating Christmas Miracles for Children in Need") was to be the game's chief benefactor.

However, the bowl proposal "fell short of meeting the NCAA's licensing criteria due to an inability to secure a back-up conference agreement" for the Pac-10's No. 7 selection. The game applied to the NCAA for certification in 2011 and again in 2014, unsuccessfully.[3]

In 2019, the Los Angeles Bowl was announced, with the game to be played at the new SoFi Stadium.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Foldesy, Jody. "Bowls burgeon as big business", The Washington Times. December 21, 1997. Page A1.
  2. ^ "L.A.'s Christmas Bowl backer breaks his silence ... And we're still not sure how it could have made it on the 2010 calendar - Farther off the Wall". Archived from the original on November 19, 2010. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
  3. ^ "2014-19 Los Angeles Christmas Bowl Outline". 9 December 2013.