When teams from the ACC and Pac-12 meet on the field on Dec. 31, 2025, it will mark the 92nd edition of one of the oldest traditions in college football history, the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl. The game has grown into El Paso’s number one national attraction since the first Sun Bowl was played on January 1, 1935, between two high school teams as a fundraising event for a local service club. With its picturesque stadium nestled between two mountains, it has become a piece of the Southwest and a lesson in history.
The Sun Bowl has not been a stranger to having some of football’s greats come through the Sun City’s game of the year. With over 1,300 NFL drafted players, 128 first-round NFL draft picks, 103 Consensus All-Americans, and four Heisman winners: Carson Palmer, LaDanian Tomlinson, Tony Dorsett, and Jayden Daniels. Our game has hosted some other greats of the game – Ara Parseghian, Merlin Olsen, Tony Dorsett, Barry Sanders, Don Maynard, James Lofton, Carson Palmer, LaDainian Tomlinson, and more recently Xavier Watts, Jonathan Stewart, Toby Gerhart, Ryan Broyles, Victor Butler and Joey Harrington.
Since 1936, the Sun Bowl has featured the color and pageantry that is college football. Eight of the top 10 winningest programs of all-time have participated in the Sun Bowl and 30 college programs that have won national championships in the past have appeared as well. Through the years, 38 Sun Bowls have been decided by a touchdown or less, including 13 of the last 20 games. Through its first 91 years, the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl has featured 80 different programs, more than any other bowl in the nation.
The gridiron generals have loomed large on the sideline. Legends such as Sammy Baugh, Tom Osborne, Barry Switzer, Bob Devaney, Johnny Majors, Grant Teaff, Don Nehlen, and recently Marcus Freeman. Hall of Famers from across the nation have been to Far West Texas in late December and early January like Alabama’s Nick Saban and UNC’s Mack Brown.
Certain moments have the power to captivate a nation, and the Sun Bowl has witnessed its fair share of unforgettable experiences. Who can forget the infamous “Fog Bowl” of 1974? A freak winter storm the night before the game left frost on the field. The warmth of the morning sun caused steam to rise from the field during the first half, which is how the game earned its nickname: “The Fog Bowl.”
In 2006, Oregon State’s two-point conversion with 23 seconds remaining proved to be the decisive moment, forever etched in Sun Bowl history.
In 2009, we saw Oklahoma and Stanford in a see-saw battle, which the Sooners won thanks to the incredible play of Ryan Broyles. The speedy wideout became the first player in Sun Bowl history to be named the C.M. Hendricks Most Valuable Player and the John H. Folmer Most Valuable Special Teams Player.
The 2015 Sun Bowl was referred to as the “Snow Bowl” by the media due to heavy snowfall. It was the second time that Miami played in the Sun Bowl with the snow following the team. The first time was in 2010 when snow covered El Paso during a sell-out game against Notre Dame.
Lee Corso and Buddy (Burt) Reynolds played together in the same Florida State backfield in 1955. There was also the time that No. 17 George Washington upset Texas Western (now UTEP) in 1957.
The Sun Bowl has eclipsed 50,000 fans eight times – Texas vs. North Carolina (50,612); Michigan State vs. USC (50,562); Arizona vs. Georgia Tech (50,203); Maryland vs. Tennessee (50,126); Arizona State vs. Purdue (51,288); Northwestern vs. UCLA (50,426); Stanford vs. Oklahoma (53,713) and Notre Dame vs. Miami (54,021), which established a new stadium record.
Locals recall Priest Holmes’ four touchdowns to lift Texas over North Carolina in 1994, in what was voted the greatest Sun Bowl ever played. At the time, UNC was coached by Mack Brown, who would eventually become the head coach at Texas for 15 years before returning to Chapel Hill for another five.
It’s all about the experiences that fans cherish and take with them. What begins as merely a journey to El Paso transforms into a lifetime of memories. Schools of various sizes have trekked to the Southwest to support their teams, including Alabama, Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Florida, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, and so many more. In all, 78 schools have made 172 appearances in El Paso.
Many memorable games have occurred over the years, but none of this would have been possible without the vision of the El Paso Kiwanis Club. The Sun Bowl was first played to benefit underprivileged children and to finance improvements to the El Paso High School Stadium.
On October 18, 1934, during a meeting of the El Paso Kiwanis Club, Dr. Brice Schuller proposed that the club sponsor a football game on New Year’s Day. The game would feature an All-Star team from El Paso High School competing against a worthy opponent. The motion was approved unanimously. It was decided to ask for public suggestions as to the name of this annual game, and the name “Sun Bowl” was submitted by Doctor C. M. Hendricks, who became the first Sun Bowl Association President. The following year a weeklong schedule of events was added to the Sun Bowl festivities, and four other local service clubs (Rotary, Lions, Optimist, and Active 20-30) joined the Kiwanis in coordinating the entire “Sun Carnival” calendar.
The Sun Bowl Association was founded in 1934 with a threefold purpose:
An economic impact study by Dr. David Schauer of the Economics Department at the University of Texas at El Paso revealed that the direct economic impact to this area from the bowl game is 12 to 15 million dollars. This figure does not include the value of the national media exposure resulting from the game.
In 1936, New Mexico State University and Hardin-Simmons University were invited to play, and the Sun Bowl has been a college game ever since. During the early years of the Sun Bowl, it was a tradition to match the Border Conference Champion against the best available opponent. Today, the Sun Bowl matches a Pac-12 Conference versus the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
To ease the financial strain caused by declining television rights fees for college bowl games and increasing costs imposed by the NCAA, the Sun Bowl secured John Hancock Financial Services, based in Boston, as its title sponsor in 1986. As a result, the event was officially renamed the John Hancock Sun Bowl. In 1989, to increase team payouts and ensure the longevity of El Paso’s bowl game, the Sun Bowl was officially renamed the John Hancock Bowl. This change made the Sun Bowl the first bowl game to secure a title sponsorship.
After a two-year hiatus with no title sponsor, Norwest Bank became the game’s title sponsor in 1996. Norwest merged with Wells Fargo Bank in 1999 and the game was renamed the Wells Fargo Sun Bowl until 2003. In 2004, the publicly-traded El Paso-based company Helen of Troy became the game’s title sponsor, and the Sun Bowl was renamed the Vitalis Sun Bowl. Helen of Troy then renamed the game in 2006 to the Brut Sun Bowl. Beginning in 2010, Hyundai Motor America moved into the role as title sponsor of the Sun Bowl game and continued to be the title sponsor through the 2018 bowl game. On August 20, 2019, a new era of college football began as Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes® was announced as the title sponsor of the newly-named Tony the Tiger® Sun Bowl.
