# Camellia Bowl (1961–1980)

The Camellia Bowl was an annual college football postseason game in Sacramento, California, which is nicknamed the Camellia City. It was held sixteen times at Hughes Stadium, from 1961 through 1975, and once more in 1980.

## History

The Camellia Bowl was founded in March 1961, when the Sacramento City-County Chamber of Commerce voted unanimously to accept an offer from the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) to move its championship game to the city. For the previous four years, the game had been known as the Holiday Bowl and was played in Saint Petersburg, Florida. The Camellia Bowl served as the NAIA Football National Championship game for three years.
After the transition from NAIA to NCAA affiliation, announced in January 1964, the game became one of four regional finals in the NCAA College Division. At the time, there were no playoffs at any level of NCAA football. For the smaller colleges and universities, as for the major programs, the national champion was determined by polls conducted by the leading news wire services. The intent of the bowl was to match the two best non-major teams from a region consisting of the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain states. The other three regional finals were the Tangerine (later Boardwalk), Pecan (later Pioneer), and Grantland Rice bowls.
When the College Division was subdivided into the current Division II and Division III in 1973, the NCAA made the Camellia Bowl the Division II football championship game. It served in this capacity for three seasons (1973 to 1975). After a four-year hiatus, the bowl returned in 1980 as the NCAA Division I-AA title game.
Sacramento's Camellia Bowl Association signed a two-year deal to host the Division I-AA championship, but after the 1980 game drew just 8,157 fans and lost $21,659, game organizers appealed to the NCAA to cancel the contract. The NCAA agreed, and the I-AA title game was moved to the Pioneer Bowl in Wichita Falls, Texas, for 1981.

## Game results

| Date | Winning team | Winning team | Losing team | Losing team | Playoff |
| December 9, 1961 | Pittsburg State | 12 | Linfield | 7 | NAIA Championship |
| December 8, 1962 | Central State (OK) | 28 | Lenoir–Rhyne | 13 | NAIA Championship |
| December 14, 1963 | Saint John's (MN) | 33 | Prairie View A&M | 27 | NAIA Championship |
| December 12, 1964 | Montana State | 29 | Sacramento State | 7 | NCAA College Division Regional Final |
| December 11, 1965 | Cal State Los Angeles | 18 | UC Santa Barbara | 10 | NCAA College Division Regional Final |
| December 10, 1966 | San Diego State | 28 | Montana State | 7 | NCAA College Division Regional Final |
| December 9, 1967 | San Diego State | 34 | San Francisco State | 6 | NCAA College Division Regional Final |
| December 14, 1968 | Humboldt State | 29 | Fresno State | 14 | NCAA College Division Regional Final |
| December 13, 1969 | North Dakota State | 30 | Montana | 3 | NCAA College Division Regional Final |
| December 12, 1970 | North Dakota State | 31 | Montana | 16 | NCAA College Division Regional Final |
| December 11, 1971 | Boise State | 32 | Chico State | 28 | NCAA College Division Regional Final |
| December 10, 1972 | North Dakota | 38 | Cal Poly | 21 | NCAA College Division Regional Final |
| December 15, 1973 | Louisiana Tech | 34 | Western Kentucky | 0 | Division II Championship |
| December 14, 1974 | Central Michigan | 54 | Delaware | 14 | Division II Championship |
| December 13, 1975 | Northern Michigan | 16 | Western Kentucky | 14 | Division II Championship |
| December 20, 1980 | Boise State | 31 | Eastern Kentucky | 29 | Division I-AA Championship |