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 1984.Foldesy, Jody. "Bowls burgeon as big business", The Washington Times. December 21, 1997. Page A1.

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 Losing Team Attendance Source 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 All-American Bowl 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 playedMVPTeamPosition1977 Chuck White Maryland SE Charles Johnson DT1978 Curtis Dickey Texas A&M RB1979 Phil Bradley Missouri QB1980 Gary Anderson Arkansas RB Billy Ray Smith LB1981 John Bond Mississippi State QB Johnie Cooks LB1982 Whit Taylor Vanderbilt QB Carl Dieudonne Air Force DE1983 Jeff Hostetler West Virginia QB1984 Mark Logan Kentucky RB Todd Gregoire Wisconsin PK1985 Mark Ingram Sr. Michigan State WR1986 Sammie Smith Florida State RB1987 Scott Secules Virginia QB1988 Emmitt Smith Florida RB1989 James Gray Texas Tech RB1990 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.

References

See also List of college bowl games