Outback Bowl Alternate History

So it's bowl season! The best time of year for any football fans. There are too many bowl games, let me say that now. There's also a lot of corporate sponsorships that drown out the legacy of the game. Some are fine, such as the Valero Alamo Bowl. Then there are games, like the Belk Bowl, that have no history or indicator where the event takes place. The Belk Bowl could hypothetically take place in any city with a large enough football stadium, because it hardly gives you any indication that it's in Charlotte.

My home town bowl is the Outback Bowl. Outback Steakhouse is from Tampa, but generally people don't know that. The Outback Bowl just celebrated their 30th anniversary in Tampa. The game originally was the Hall of Fame Bowl, which was played at the Iron Bowl, and is a lame name.

So I rewrote bowl history.

So the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were real bad in their first few seasons. Though the team was new and exciting, they needed to build a fanbase. Former USC coach, and then Bucs coach John McKay pitched a bowl game to take place on New Years Day, when the Bucs stadium would (most likely) be empty. The game was accepted by the NCAA to be played January 1st, 1979. 

The Bucs owners became a part time bowl committee. To tie the game to the pro team, they decided on the "Treasure Bowl". The initials would be TB, and they could continue to sell the pirate theme. In addition to this, they had the city move the traditional Gasparilla Parade to New Years Day, in a smaller homage to the Rose Bowl Parade. They decided the best plan of action was to have a team from the Southeast, and a Big Ten team to draw the local fans who are near Florida, or may have moved there.

Michigan State and Florida State both finished 8-3 in the 1978 season, and were hand picked by the committee. The first game was won by Michigan State 23-17

The game became a success. With Florida, Florida State, and Miami becoming very good in the following decade, the bowl committee started the tradition of a Big Ten vs SEC game. In 1995, the hometown company Outback attached their name to the game.

Penn State would win 43-14 over Auburn.

The game soon moved to Raymond James, and the pirate ship really fit in the theme they were pushing. The community rallied around the game, and gave the city a true identity.

This year Tennessee and Northwestern faced off, with Tennessee rolling 45-6.

I love doing time-based concepts, and I tried my best to make the presentation seem like it really was made those years. I made the original logo, then figured the script was strong enough that I could change and still seem pretty modern.