Mirage Bowl (college football)

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The Mirage Bowl was an annual college football game hosted in Tokyo, Japan from 1977 through 1993. The game was renamed the Coca-Cola Bowl in 1986 and kept this name until the event was discontinued after the 1993 season. Unlike most college football bowl games, the Mirage Bowl was the site of a regular season matchup, usually between two teams from the same conference.

The first Mirage Bowl was played in Korakuen Stadium on December 11th, 1977 between Grambling and Temple. Grambling won 35-32. Grambling quarterback Doug Williams was named MVP.

The game was held in the Tokyo Dome from 1988 to 1993.

[edit] Game results

Italics denote a tie game.

Date Played	Winning Team		Losing Team
December 11, 1977	Grambling	35	Temple	32
December 10, 1978	Boston College	28	Temple	24
November 24, 1979	Notre Dame	40	Miami (FL)	15
November 30, 1980	UCLA	34	Oregon State	3
November 28, 1981	Air Force	21	San Diego State	16
November 27, 1982	Clemson	21	Wake Forest	17
November 26, 1983	SMU	34	Houston	12
November 17, 1984	Army	45	Montana	31
November 30, 1985	USC	20	Oregon	6
November 30, 1986	Stanford	29	Arizona	24
November 28, 1987	California	17	Washington State	17
December 3, 1988	Oklahoma State	45	Texas Tech	42
December 4, 1989	Syracuse	24	Louisville	13
December 2, 1990	Houston	62	Arizona State	45
November 30, 1991	Clemson	33	Duke	21
December 6, 1992	Nebraska	38	Kansas State	24
December 6, 1993	Wisconsin	41	Michigan State	20

[edit] Trivia

• Nebraska and Wisconsin won their respective conference titles (Big Eight and Big Ten) at the last two Mirage Bowls. The 1993 win allowed Wisconsin to advance to its first Rose Bowl Game since 1963.

• The 1984 Mirage Bowl between Army and Montana marked the introduction of "The Wave" to Japan.