One of the rather popular post-season college football bowl game sanctioned by the NCAA, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl was first held in 1997. Before adopting the current name in 2011, it changed the name several times (including the Humanitarian Bowl and the MPC Computers Bowl).
Inaugurated by Idaho Sports Properties, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl first graced the college football stage in 1997. This annual gridiron clash is hosted at Boise’s Albertsons Stadium, renowned for its eye-catching blue playing field. Teams from the Mountain West Conference and the Mid-American Conference often find themselves competing on this unique turf.
The bowl’s journey through the years has been marked by numerous highlights and milestones. It has been the arena for thrilling finishes and standout performances from collegiate athletes, some of whom have gone on to achieve professional football acclaim. The event has not only been a battleground for emerging talent but also a spotlight for teams seeking to etch their names in college football lore.
Presently, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl stands as a pivotal fixture in the college football landscape. Its impact extends beyond the sporting realm, stimulating economic activity and enhancing the cultural fabric of Idaho. The game continues to draw a national audience, cementing its status as a cherished annual sports tradition.
What is the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl?
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is the name of an intercollegiate post-season football bowl game; which is affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The bowl had its first game played in 1997 when its name was Humanitarian Bowl. Today all events of the Bowl are held at the Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho.
Established as the Humanitarian Bowl, the football game had its first five logos designed around the bold green inscription with its name. The very first version, created in 1997, featured a two-leveled inscription in a heavy sans-serif typeface, executed in green capitals and set on the right from the geometric emblem, where the white rugby ball outlined in blue was set over the green rhombus, enclosed into a white square.
With the redesign of 1999, the sponsor’s logotype was added to the Humanitarian Bowl badge, written in black bold sans-serif. It was the “Crucial Com” lettering, which looked pretty heavy, as the main green shade of the Bowl’s name inscription switched to a lighter shade, and started looking airier and more elegant.
The original green shade came back to the badge in 2001, with the rectangular framing of the logo. The frame had its upper border emboldened and also set in green, making up a background for the black “Crucial Com” inscription, which was still there but rewritten with a white outline now. The blue “V” was added on the right of the logotype to celebrate the 5th game of the bowl.
The green rectangle was removed from the frame and now it was the light blue framing around the inscription with the bold blue “VI”. As for the sponsor’s logotype, it was written in the same style and colored but above the frame, over a white background. The emblem and main inscription remained untouched.
The “Crucial Com” logotype in black was removed from the logo and the insignia of the new Bowl’s sponsor was added to the green and blue badge, but now placed under the main rectangle. The new edition featured black lettering in sans-serif, set in narrowed capitals over a white background, with the “Larry Miller” part outlined in blue.
In 2004 the logo of the bowl has undergone a major redesign, with a completely new concept introduced. The new badge featured a horizontally located rugby bowl in solid blue with a thick orange outline and white and light-blue details drawn over it. The upper line of the lettering, “MPC Computers” was set in orange lowercase sans-serif with the uppercase underline. As for the “Bowl”, it was set in white capital on the bottom part of the logo, underlined by an orange arched ribbon with the white serif “Boise, Idaho” on it.
In 2007 the blue palette of the logo gets light gradients and a red addition. Now it is a light blue rugby ball, with the bold blue “Humanitarian” set in the uppercase of a narrowed sans-serif typeface, placed at the bottom and underlined by a black extended “Bowl” in a modern font. The upper part of the badge was decorated by a red script “Roady” logotype with the whole inscription underlined by a smooth wide element drawn as a stylized black and white road.
The last logo for the Humanitarian Bowl was designed in 2010. It was a bright blue shield with straight sides, triangular bottom, and an arched top, in a bold gray outline. The upper part of the logo was decorated with a blue and white image of a flying rugby ball, and the bottom part of the crest had a three-level inscription written over it in different styles and colors. The upper line featured a bold white “uDrove” in a bright blue outline, with the “Humanitarian Bowl” inscription in gray capitals set under it.
The bowl was renamed the Famous Idaho Potato Howl in 2001, with the new logo introduced in the same year. The first version of the badge featured a blue and white crest in a bold yellow outline, with the brown rugby ball set horizontally at the bottom and poking like a baked potato. The lettering was written in white and yellow on the upper part of the badge, in solid heavy capitals.
In 2016 the 20th-anniversary logo for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl was created: the same Madge was slightly refined and got its upper border arched from the center, getting a dark blue ribbon with the white “Twenty Years” inscription on it. The two parts of the lettering were separated from each other by two enlarged “D”s, standing for “20”, and executed in gradient gold shades.
The most visible element of the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl logo is the lettering “Idaho Potato” in large yellow letters that belong to a sans serif type. The words “Famous” and “Bowl” are given above and below respectively. The latter is placed over a brown football, which also looks very much like a potato.