Orlando’s bowl game made memorable debut in 1947 McDowall excels
When Penn State’s Nittany Lions face off against the Kentucky Wildcats in the VRBO Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1, they’ll continue an Orlando football tradition that began as an idea not long after World War II on the shores of Lake Eola.
That’s where the Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks 1079 had its home, in a frame building at 409 E. Central Blvd., when members began kicking around ideas to raise money for the Harry Anna children’s hospital in Umatilla that the Florida State Elks Association then sponsored.
Twenty-one Elks members wrote $100 checks to get the ball rolling, so to speak, for what would become the first Tangerine Bowl, precursor of the Citrus Bowl, on Jan. 1, 1947.
Veteran sportswriter Bill Buchalter, who retired from the Orlando Sentinel in 2007, told the story in his 1996 book, “On the Fifty: A History of Orlando’s Bowl Game, 1947-1996.”
Little money, good sense
The Elks didn’t have a bunch of money, Sentinel stalwart Charlie Wadsworth told Buchalter as he looked back to those beginnings, “but they had people who liked the idea of a ball game” and the sense to know they couldn’t get big-name teams in their first bowl game.
Wadsworth, who would later become an Orlando household name through his “Hushpuppies” column, was covering sports during the 1947 game, which ultimately featured two venerable liberal-arts colleges: Maryville of Tennessee and Catawba of North Carolina. Both are still flourishing, judging from their websites. In 1947, Catawba won, 31-6.
But before the game could take place, the Elks’ Lake Eola clubhouse bustled with plenty of preparations. “They had lots of help,” Wadsworth remembered in 1996 — help from folks including Jack McDowall, the veteran athletic director of Rollins College who later became a two-term Orange County commissioner in the 1950s.
Incidentally, McDowall has a great history himself. Born John Witherspoon “Jack” McDowall in 1905 in Micanopy, he excelled at high-school sports in Gainesville but was deemed too small to get a scholarship to the University of Florida (his nickname was “Spindle Legs”).
Recruited by J.B. “Shorty” Lawrence, a Floridian then coaching in North Carolina, to continue high school and play at Rockingham in the Tar Heel state, McDowall went on to all-around sports glory at North Carolina State University in the 1920s. In 1927, in a 12-6 win in Tampa over his hometown Gators, he ran 75 yards for a touchdown after an interception.
Later, McDowall led the Rollins athletic program for 29 years. He had a wealth of coaching connections. With advice from him and other folks, the Elks’ Tangerine Bowl project was off to a great start. Much preparation and hard work followed, but when the great day came, the game almost didn’t come off.
“With all the details they remembered,” Wadsworth recalled in 1996, organizers “forgot to get a game ball, and had to send a policeman on a motorcycle to Denmark’s Sporting Goods to get a football.”
“It was a funny sight, with the siren going full blast,” and Tom Denmark pumping up a ball, Wadsworth recalled. The officer drove his motorcycle west on Church Street, which had been cleared of traffic, and right out to the field, where he tossed the ball to a referee, and the game began before 9,000 fans. Go, Tangerine Bowl!
Postcard fans
The annual Central Florida postcard show sponsored in January by Mary L. Martin Ltd. returns as the DeLand Vintage Paper & Postcard Expo, Jan. 4-5, at the Volusia County Fairgrounds.
This is the show that used to take place in Orlando and has relocated to Volusia County. More than a million postcards will be at the show, organizers say. The fairgrounds’ address is 2100 E. New York Ave., DeLand. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 4, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 5. Admission is $5, good for both days. Details: www.marylmartin.com and click on events.