That Time College's Liberty Bowl Was Played in Atlantic City

For years college football's Liberty Bowl has been played in Memphis, TN.

As a matter of fact, the current venue of the game is Memphis' Liberty Bowl Stadium.

The Liberty Bowl, though, has a history before Memphis - that includes Atlantic City.

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The Liberty Bowl actually got its start in Philadelphia (Hey, that's where the Liberty Bell is located, right?). According to Wikipedia. the Liberty Bowl was played in Philly for five years, beginning in 1959. From there the bowl was moved to - ta-da - Atlantic City!

The 1964 edition of the Liberty Bowl took place indoors at the Atlantic City Convention Hall (now called Boardwalk Hall).

According to StadiumJourney.com, the bowl game was relocated to Atlantic City due to "dwindling attendance figures and frigid weather." According to the site, "A group of businessman (sic) offered $25,000 to move the game indoors to the convention center in what was hoped to be an annual event and a way to lure tourism dollars in between the summer months."

It turned out to be the first indoor college bowl game to feature two national football powers. The game was nationally televised on ABC as featured Utah defeating West Virginia 32-6.

StadiumJourney says 6,059 fans paid $10 each to see the game. "The price for a ticket was $10, considered quite high in 1964 and $81 in today’s dollars." The site says the game did turn a nice $10,000 profit, but that didn't stop the bowl game from moving to Memphis the next year.

A punter for one of the teams explained what playing in the Convention Center was like:

(Some of his facts and figures don't quite jell with what we've found, but his is entertaining!)

You can find a video of an old recap of the game here.

SOURCES: Wikipedia and StadiumJourney.com.