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Corn Bowl was short-lived Thanksgiving gridiron tradition
By Bill Kemp
Archivist/Librarian
McLean County Museum of History
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BLOOMINGTON -- Even casual college football fans know Pasadena is home to the Rose Bowl; Miami, the Orange; New Orleans, the Sugar; and Dallas, the Cotton.

But they probably don’t know that Bloomington once hosted an annual Thanksgiving Day football game known as the -- what else --- Corn Bowl.

Co-sponsored by the Hybrid Seed Corn Breeders of Illinois, the inaugural Corn Bowl on Nov. 27, 1947, was billed as “The Greatest Thanksgiving Event in the Mid-West.”

Despite that aggressive sales pitch, the short-lived series struggled to gain traction among gridiron fans. Not only was the weather usually nasty, but the invited teams represented small-time programs and conferences.

The first Corn Bowl, for instance, pitted North Central College of Naperville, champions of the College Conference of Illinois, against Southern Illinois University, champions of the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. And though a bowl in name, the game was held neither in a “bowl” nor stadium, but rather at Bloomington High School’s Fred Carlton Field.

Lofty goals

Despite the inadequate (to put it charitably) facilities and lack of marquee teams, the optimism of the Corn Bowl organizing committee knew no limits. A.B. Perry, the game’s chief organizer, called for the construction of a mammoth Corn Bowl stadium with a seating enough for 150,000.

Perry’s Corn Bowl would have dwarfed the likes of the Rose Bowl (current capacity 92,500) and the Orange Bowl (74,500). Today, the largest sports stadium in America is the University of Michigan’s “Big House” in Ann Arbor, with a capacity of 107,500.

The grand plans of Perry, of course, never materialized, and in its run of seven games, the Corn Bowl never attracted more than 8,000 spectators.

The first Corn Bowl parade, though, was an unqualified success. Once fully under way, it stretched seven miles and featured more than 90 floats and seven bands. A bevy of seed companies sponsored floats, such as Burras, Funk, Iowealth, Pfister, Pioneer and Stiegelmeier.

‘Best parade ever’

Despite the light snow and cold drizzle, Bloomington Police Chief S. Clyde Hibbens estimated the number of spectators lining the parade route at 30,000. The Pantagraph called it “the longest and best parade ever held in Bloomington.”

As for the game, a shivering crowd estimated at 5,500 watched Southern’s defensive line manhandle North Central en route to a 21-0 victory.

Delivering the radio play-by-play was 31-year-old Jack Brickhouse, the future Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster whose trademark “Hey, hey!” call was heard by several generations of Chicago Cubs fans. The Pantagraph noted that Brickhouse, “whose size might conservatively be termed ‘ample,’ looked with a wary eye at the ladder scribes used to ascend to the press box.”

The following year, in the second annual Corn Bowl, Illinois Wesleyan defeated Eastern Illinois 6-0. Organizers moved the action to Wesleyan’s field, and the fair weather and hometown draw boosted attendance to 8,000.

In the end, Bloomington and its late November weather proved a lousy match against the larger, better-funded bowl games staged in the balmy South and sunny West. Combinations of rain, sleet and snow plagued the Corn Bowls of 1949, 1950 and 1951, dampening the enthusiasm among all but the most ardent boosters. After a one-year hiatus, the game returned in 1953, with Western Illinois trouncing Iowa Wesleyan 32-0.

The final Corn Bowl game, held in 1955, was played in Macomb, with Luther College of Iowa edging hometown Western Illinois 24-20.

To be fair, the Corn Bowl has plenty of company in the annals of forgotten college bowl games. After all, who remembers the Cigar Bowl in Tampa, Fla.? Or the Aluminum Bowl in Little Rock, Ark.? Or the Salad Bowl in Phoenix, Ariz.?

Take a look
Corn Bowl parade float heading south on Main St. and turning west onto Monroe St. Pantagraph/STEVE SMEDLEY
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Reader comments on this story - 1 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Doris Harpole wrote on Nov 18, 2007 11:00 AM:

" Hey, you forgot to mention the lovely Queen, Her name was Louise Olson, an Alpha Gamma Delta member at Illinois Wesleyan University. She married Wendell Learned and lives in Bloomington. It was a cold, cold day and she prooved to be a real trooper. Doesn't every Bowl game have a queen. We were mighty proud of ours. "
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