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.