Bicentennial Bowl was the name of two different postseason bowl games played in the United States after the 1975 and 1976 college football seasons. The games were held in different venues; first in Little Rock, Arkansas, and then in Richmond, Virginia. The bowls were named after the United States Bicentennial.
Bicentennial Bowl results are listed in NCAA records as two independent games, not a bowl series, and the games were not NCAA-sanctioned events.[1]
The 1975 game matched teams from the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference and Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference, and was considered an NAIA "special event." It was contested at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The Ouachita Baptist Tigers opted not to participate in the game, in hopes of playing in the 1975 NAIA postseason.[2]
| Season | Date ! | Winner | Loser | Venue | Att. (est.) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | November 29, 1975 | Henderson State | 27 | 14 | 2,000 | |||
MVPs: Willie Guient (TE, East Central) and Johnny Gross (DT, Henderson State)[4]
The 1976 game matched teams from the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC).[5] It was played in Richmond, Virginia, at City Stadium. The game had originally been planned for December 4, in Charlotte, North Carolina,[6] but was rescheduled for December 11, and moved, to allow for television coverage.[7]
| Season | Date ! | Winner | Loser | Venue | Att. (est.) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | December 11, 1976 | South Carolina State | 26 | 10 | 7,500 | |||
MVPs: Ricky Anderson (FB, South Carolina State) and Jerry Curry (RG, Norfolk State)
Four additional bowl games played from 1977 to 1980 at City Stadium in Richmond were known as the Gold Bowl. Each of the five bowls played in Richmond during 1976–1980 featured teams from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).