50 years ago: NCAA gives its OK for Fiesta Bowl
The 50th Fiesta Bowl was in January — Iowa State winning 34-17 over Oregon — but what could be considered the bowl’s actual 50th birthday is Monday.
It was April 26, 1971 that the NCAA approved a new as yet unnamed bowl game pairing the Western Athletic Conference champion against an at-large opponent to be staged at Arizona State’s Sun Devil Stadium starting that December.
“This culminates two years and five months of hard work,” said Jack Stewart,
who owned the Camelback Inn for 30 years and is recognized today as one of nine Fiesta Bowl founders. “We just feel the news is terrific for the Valley sports-wise.
“With the advent of the Suns and Roadrunners, this is just another step forward in what we all are interested in seeing — Phoenix becoming a major sports town.”
Impetus to create a metro Phoenix area bowl came from Arizona pressuring the Sun Bowl for an invitation before the 1968 Territorial Cup against ASU, which the Sun Devils won 30-7 in what now is known as the Ultimatum Bowl.
“This bowl game is a state-wide venture,” said Clyde Smith, then ASU athletic director. “It took a lot of years, but I’m glad to see Arizona State and the University of Arizona can finally link arms for the good of the state.”
Stewart was chair of the Arizona Sports Foundation that still exists today as the non-profit arm of the Fiesta Bowl.
Even with just 11 bowls sanctioned in 1970, it was not a sure thing that the NCAA would certify more. The Sun Bowl opposed a game in Arizona and cities (Tampa; Birmingham, Alabama; Greensboro, North Carolina) seeking bowl approval in 1971 were turned down.
“We think twice before certifying a new bowl game,” said Wade Stinson,
NCAA extra events committee chair. “But the area hasn’t been served a bowl game in some time so there was clearly a good need.”
Part of what pushed the Arizona bowl presentation over the line was its promise to donate some game profits to Dope Stop, a Maricopa Mental Health Association program designed to stem drug abuse that had support from then U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell.
”He (Mitchell) told the NCAA that it had no good reason for not certifying the bowl, and that if they didn`t, they`d be in violation of antitrust laws,” bowl
founder Don Meyers told the
Tribune in 1989.
The only bowls west of Texas before the Fiesta Bowl were the Rose Bowl and short-lived Pasadena Bowl in California.
Speaking of the name, a contest was held in conjunction with the Arizona Republic with Fiesta announced as the winning choice in June 1971. Cactus, Copper and Canyon were among 382 contest submissions from 6,620 entrants. Gov. Jack Williams was among those on the name selection committee.
Chicago “We liked the name Fiesta because it has an international flavor and is more representative of the entire state,” one committee member said.
Gary Keltner was the contest winner drawn from among 77 submitting the name Fiesta.
“I hadn’t planned to enter the contest, but I didn’t like the names being bandied about,” said Keltner, who attended UA as an undergraduate and UA law school. “They weren’t glamorous enough. I felt the bowl should have a name with a Southwestern flavor.”
Keltner, now 85, still attends the Fiesta Bowl each year, more than taking advantage of the four lifetime passes to the bowl he received a half century ago.