Over a hundred years ago, the first bowl game was played. In 1902, Michigan and Stanford started the tradition of end-of-year bowl games as the Wolverines crushed the Cardinals 49-0.

Times change. The ostrich races, which used to be part of the Rose Bowl, are gone, and the idea of a lone bowl game also disappeared.

Out of the 32 bowl games for the 2006-2007 season, NIU has found its way into one: the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

History of the Poinsettia Bowl

The Poinsettia Bowl is the fourth youngest bowl, as it begin last year. There are only three bowls which are younger, as they will play their inaugural game year.

These bowls are the International Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl and the PapaJohns.com Bowl (formerly known as the Birmingham Bowl).

The first Poinsettia Bowl featured Navy defeating Colorado State 51-30. The game set a NCAA bowl record of 1,183 combined yards of offense between two teams.

Navy running back Reggie Campbel took home the first Offensive MVP, as he tied a NCAA bowl record of five touchdowns and 30 points in a single bowl game.

The game was attended by 36,842 fans, and brought in a Nielsen rating of 0.89, the lowest rating of a bowl games last year. Still, approximately 980,000 televisions were tuned into the match up.

Each team last year also received $750,000 for playing in the bowl.

TCU’s Bowl History

In the last nine years TCU has gone ‘bowling’ eight times. The program’s record during this period has been 4-3 and awaits the results of the December 19th game against NIU.

The Horn Frogs’ success all began in 1998 when they went to the Sun Bowl against USC. The bowl game broke a 41-year draught since TCU’s last appearance in the postseason. The Horn Frogs didn’t waste their chance, as they beat the Trojans 28-19.

The next season featured TCU’s running back LaDainian Tomlinson rushing for 124 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-14 victory over East Carolina in the Mobile Alabama Bowl.

TCU would go on to lose its next two bowl appearances, but rebounded in 2002 with a victory over Colorado State at the AXA Liberty Bowl.

The only year in this time span where TCU did not earn a bowl trip was in 2004 when the Horn Frogs ended the regular season with a record 5-6.

NIU’s Bowl History

Since NIU went to Division I-A in 1969, the program has earned three trips to the post season, The Poinsettia Bowl being the third.

The Huskies hold a perfect 2-0 record in their past post season games thus far.

All three of the program’s bowl games have been played in California. NIU’s first trip to the post season came in 1983 with a trip to the Cal Bowl. NIU went on to beat Cal State-Fullerton 20-13 in this game.

More recently, NIU played in San Jose, Cali. against Troy at the Silicon Valley Bowl in 2004. The Huskies beat the Trojans 34-21 in their second bowl appearance.

In 2004, the Silicon Valley Bowl attracted 21,456 fans, an improvement of 1,288 fans in attendance.

But television ratings suffered.

In 2003 the bowl attracted a Nielsen rating of 0.91. But in 2004 the ratings only reached 0.60 — the lowest of the bowl season. The second lowest rating for a bowl was the New Orleans Bowl with a rating of 1.4.

Ben Gross is a NIU Football beat reporter for the Northern Star.