California Bowl

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California Bowl (defunct)
California Rasin Bowl
Stadium	Bulldog Stadium
Location	Fresno, California
Operated	1981 — 1991
Conference Tie-ins	PCAA/Big West, MAC
Sponsors
California Raisin Advisory Board (1988 — 1991)

The California Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game played annually at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno, California, from 1981 to 1991. The games matched the championship teams from the Big West Conference (formerly the Pacific Coast Athletic Association) with teams from the MAC. During the bowl's existence it was generally the first bowl game played during the postseason. It was regarded as one of the lower-profile bowl games in that the conferences involved were mid-majors, and was one of the first bowls to restrict its television marketing efforts to the medium of cable television. Due to the purchase of naming rights by the California Raisin Advisory Board, the California bowl was sometimes referred to as the California Raisin Bowl in contemporary accounts. This is not to be confused with the bowl, played 1946 — 1949, called the Raisin Bowl (also played in Fresno). Fresno State largely dominated this game, playing in five of the 11 games and winning four of them.

In 1992, the game moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and became the Las Vegas Bowl.

[edit] Results by year

Date Played	Winning Team		Losing Team
December 19, 1981	Toledo	27	San Jose State	25
December 18, 1982	Fresno State	29	Bowling Green	28
December 17, 1983	Northern Illinois	20	Cal State Fullerton	13
December 15, 1984	Toledo *	13	UNLV	30
December 14, 1985	Fresno State	51	Bowling Green	7
December 13, 1986	San Jose State	37	Miami (OH)	7
December 12, 1987	Eastern Michigan	30	San Jose State	27
December 10, 1988	Fresno State	35	Western Michigan	30
December 9, 1989	Fresno State	27	Ball State	6
December 8, 1990	San Jose State	48	Central Michigan	24
December 14, 1991	Bowling Green	28	Fresno State	21