# All-American Bowl

The All-American Bowl was an annual postseason college football bowl game played at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama from 1977 to 1990. The game was known as the Hall of Fame Classic from 1977 to 1985.
In 1986, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame decided to relocate the Hall of Fame bowl game to Tampa, Florida, where it eventually became known as the Outback Bowl (now the ReliaQuest Bowl). The game in Birmingham continued as the All-American Bowl, which was played for five years under a different organizing body.
When the Southeastern Conference expanded to twelve schools and began contesting a SEC Championship Game in 1992, Birmingham officials chose to host the conference title game and abandon the All-American Bowl. The SEC championship was moved to Atlanta's Georgia Dome two years later, leaving Legion Field without any Division I-A postseason college football until 2006, when ESPN and the city agreed to establish a new post-season game, the Birmingham Bowl.

## The game

The All-American Bowl played host to a number of successful teams from the premier college football conferences of the time (the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Eight (now Big 12 Conference), Big Ten Conference, Southeastern Conference and Southwest Conference). All of them placed teams in the All-American Bowl in various years. At least one of the power conferences fielded teams in the All-American Bowl in every year of its existence; often, two of those premier conferences met in the game. The Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference each placed five teams into the All-American Bowl. The Big Ten Conference proved to be the least successful conference, having never won a game despite placing teams in four different years.

## Game results

| Date | Bowl Name | Winning Team | Winning Team | Losing Team | Losing Team | Attendance |
| December 22, 1977 | Hall of Fame Classic | Maryland | 17 | Minnesota | 7 | 47,000 |
| December 20, 1978 | Hall of Fame Classic | Texas A&M | 28 | #19 Iowa State | 12 | 41,150 |
| December 29, 1979 | Hall of Fame Classic | Missouri | 24 | #16 South Carolina | 14 | 62,785 |
| December 27, 1980 | Hall of Fame Classic | Arkansas | 34 | Tulane | 15 | 30,000 |
| December 31, 1981 | Hall of Fame Classic | Mississippi State | 10 | Kansas | 0 | 41,672 |
| December 31, 1982 | Hall of Fame Classic | Air Force | 36 | Vanderbilt | 28 | 75,000 |
| December 22, 1983 | Hall of Fame Classic | #18 West Virginia | 20 | Kentucky | 16 | 42,000 |
| December 29, 1984 | Hall of Fame Classic | Kentucky | 20 | #20 Wisconsin | 19 | 47,300 |
| December 31, 1985 | Hall of Fame Classic | Georgia Tech | 17 | Michigan State | 14 | 45,000 |
| December 31, 1986 | All-American Bowl | Florida State | 27 | Indiana | 13 | 30,000 |
| December 22, 1987 | All-American Bowl | Virginia | 22 | Brigham Young | 16 | 37,000 |
| December 29, 1988 | All-American Bowl | Florida | 14 | Illinois | 10 | 48,218 |
| December 28, 1989 | All-American Bowl | #24 Texas Tech | 49 | #20 Duke | 21 | 47,750 |
| December 28, 1990 | All-American Bowl | North Carolina State | 31 | #23 Southern Miss | 27 | 44,000 |

## Most valuable players

| Year played | MVP | Team | Position |
| 1977 | Chuck White | Maryland | SE |
| 1977 | Charles Johnson | Maryland | DT |
| 1978 | Curtis Dickey | Texas A&M | RB |
| 1979 | Phil Bradley | Missouri | QB |
| 1980 | Gary Anderson | Arkansas | RB |
| 1980 | Billy Ray Smith | Arkansas | LB |
| 1981 | John Bond | Mississippi State | QB |
| 1981 | Johnie Cooks | Mississippi State | LB |
| 1982 | Whit Taylor | Vanderbilt | QB |
| 1982 | Carl Dieudonne | Air Force | DE |
| 1983 | Jeff Hostetler | West Virginia | QB |
| 1984 | Mark Logan | Kentucky | RB |
| 1984 | Todd Gregoire | Wisconsin | PK |
| 1985 | Mark Ingram Sr. | Michigan State | WR |
| 1986 | Sammie Smith | Florida State | RB |
| 1987 | Scott Secules | Virginia | QB |
| 1988 | Emmitt Smith | Florida | RB |
| 1989 | James Gray | Texas Tech | RB |
| 1990 | Brett Favre | Southern Miss | QB |

## Conference records

* Southwest Conference 3–0 (1.000)
* Atlantic Coast Conference 4–1 (.800)
* Southeastern Conference 3–2 (.600)
* Western Athletic Conference 1–1 (.500)
* Big Eight Conference 1–2 (.333)
* Big Ten Conference 0–4 (.000)

## Ranked teams

On several occasions, the All-American Bowl winners finished the season ranked in the AP Top Twenty poll:
* Texas A&M finished #19 in the final 1978 AP poll after defeating #19 Iowa State.
* West Virginia finished #16 in the final 1983 AP poll after defeating Kentucky.
* Kentucky finished #19 in the final 1984 AP poll and the final UPI poll after defeating #20 Wisconsin.
* Georgia Tech finished #19 in the final 1985 AP poll after defeating Michigan State.
* Texas Tech finished #19 in the final 1989 AP poll after defeating #20 Duke.