1946–now · ESPN · Running

TaxSlayer Bowl

The TaxSlayer Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. (The stadium was originally named the Gator Bowl and this game was originally known as The Gator Bowl game), it has been held continuously since 1946, making it the sixth oldest college bowl, as well as the first one ever televised nationally. TaxSlayer.com became the title sponsor in 2011 and the bowl took its current name in 2014 after a new contract. The bowl is operated by Gator Bowl Sports and will be played on January 2 starting in 2015. According to writer Anthony C. DiMarco, Charles Hilty, Sr. first conceived of the event. Hilty, together with Ray McCarthy, Maurice Cherry, and W. C. Ivey, put up $10,000 to underwrite the first game, which was held at Jacksonville's football stadium, Fairfield Stadium, on January 1, 1946. The first two years of the event did not sell out the small capacity stadium, drawing only 7,362 to the 1946 match when the Wake Forest Demon Deacons defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks, 26–14. The stadium was expanded in 1948 and renamed the Gator Bowl Stadium in honor of the event. However, it was not until the 1949 match-up between the Clemson Tigersand the Missouri Tigers that the future of the Gator Bowl was assured. The 1948 attendance of 16,666 for a 20–20 tie between Maryland and Georgia, was nearly doubled with 32,939 watching Clemson squeak by Missouri, 24–23, on a late field goal by Jack Miller. By the 1970s, the attendance regularly reached 60,000–70,000.