The United States in the late 1940s was hungry for college football. With many schools completely dropping their programs for the duration of World War II, the American public was ready to resume its collegiate sports traditions. The postwar era saw a rush of newly created bowl games throughout the country as cities sought to cash-in on the trend and market themselves as popular sports destinations. Most of these bowl series are now defunct but included the Raison Bowl in Fresno, California; the Salad Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona; and the Cigar Bowl in Tampa, Florida. Never to be left out of a trend, Indiana also had a bowl entry dubbed the Refrigerator Bowl, held annually in Evansville from 1948 to 1956.

Souvenir program for the first game.

By 1948, the city of Evansville was home to multiple companies that manufactured refrigerators or refrigerator components. Servel, Inc., the Seeger Refrigerator Corporation and International Harvester were producing over a million units each year, a figure which gave Evansville boasting rights to the title “refrigerator capital of the world.”

Evansville’s “Big Three” refrigerator manufacturers.

Members of the Evansville Junior Chamber of Commerce – commonly known as the Jaycees – developed the idea of hosting a college bowl game, partly to highlight the city’s importance in the refrigerator industry and also to raise money for the local YMCA children’s facility known as Camp Carson.

While most college bowl games have historically been held on the first day of January, the Refrigerator Bowl was always held in early December, a concession to Indiana’s fickle winter weather. The game was scheduled to be played in the Reitz Bowl, a “natural amphitheater” stadium attached to Reitz High School.

Built in 1921, the Reitz Bowl continues to be used for local high school football games.

The teams selected to participate in the inaugural game were Missouri Valley and Evansville College. The Missouri Valley Vikings were a Midwestern powerhouse and had not lost a game since 1941. Going into the bowl game, the team had only allowed a mere three touchdowns the entire 1948 season. The Evansville Purple Aces had lost three games and were considered obvious underdogs.

Much to the surprise of all involved, the Evansville Purple Aces managed to end Missouri Valley’s long winning streak by scoring two touchdowns and defeating them 13 to 7. Approximately 7,500 spectators attended the event and Evansville’s head coach was carried off the field on the shoulders of his ecstatic players.

Newspaper coverage from the Evansville Courier Press, Dec. 5, 1948. From Newspapers.com.

The first bowl game was enough of a success that it continued for the next eight years. However, by the mid 1950s, attendance was very low and one of the major refrigerator companies, Servel, went out of business. Despite no longer having its own bowl game, Evansville continued to be a hub of refrigerator manufacturing for the next couple of decades.

This blog post was written by Jocelyn Lewis, Catalog Division supervisor, Indiana State Library. For more information, contact the Indiana State Library at 317-232-3678 or “Ask-A-Librarian.”