Sport: Gravy Bowls

Last year more than $75,000,000 from football gate receipts went into the treasuries of U. S. colleges. This year Notre Dame alone will have a football income of almost $1,000,000. The University of California showed a net profit of $299,425.61 on its books at the end of the ten-week football season last year, after guarantees to visiting teams had been paid and deductions made for expenses. In addition to the season’s income, California received $104,000 for a side job: playing in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.

Midwinter has now become so cluttered with Bowl games, that they have ceased to mean anything except gravy for the colleges and hangovers for sport fans who try to taste all the bowls at once.

Rose Bowl. Biggest portion of gravy is in the Rose Bowl. Chosen to share this year’s gate receipts (about $300,000 split three ways among the contestants and the sponsor) are Southern California and Duke University. Last week Southern California made this game trebly exciting by outplaying Notre Dame 13-to-0.

Sugar Bowl at New Orleans is part of a week-long sport fiesta (yacht races, track meets, boxing, tennis and basketball). An invitation to the Sugar Bowl is worth about $50,000. Quick to accept New Orleans’ invitation last week were undefeated Texas Christian and once-defeated (by Notre Dame) Carnegie Tech.

Orange Bowl, Miami, seven years old, lacks the prestige of the Sugar. Last week Miami succeeded in getting two of the five top-ranking teams of the U. S.—undefeated Tennessee and undefeated Oklahoma—to play for a reported $25,000 apiece.

Cotton Bowl. Dallas is a Johnny-come-lately. Its Cotton Bowl is only one year old. To shove it into the spotlight this year, Dallas promoters planned a double-header Bowl game (one the day before and one the day after New Year’s) between four of the five top teams of the country. But when Texas Christian, of neighboring but envious Fort Worth, refused to come to its party, notwithstanding a proposed junket to the New York World’s Fair next year as an added inducement, the Cotton Bowl Association announced that it would stage only one game—between undefeated Texas Tech (pride of the Panhandle) and twice-defeated St. Mary’s of California. Each team will get about $35,000.

Other U. S. Bowl games scheduled for New Year’s week: Sun Bowl at El Paso, Prune Bowl at San Jose, Calif., Dixie Bowl at Atlanta, Peach Bowl (for Negroes) at Atlanta, Coal Bowl at Charleston, W. Va., Finger Bowl (between two six-man football teams) at Ennis, Texas.