The first Military Bowl game was held in late 2008. Ever since it has been played every year. It has the status of a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I college football bowl game. While initially, it took place in Washington, D.C., it moved to Annapolis, Maryland in 2013.
The inception of the Military Bowl in 2008 marked a unique addition to the college football postseason landscape. This bowl game was founded with dual purposes: to celebrate the spirit and talent of collegiate football, and to pay homage to the bravery and dedication of the United States Armed Forces. It started as a platform for college football teams to showcase their skills in a highly competitive environment.
As it progressed, the Military Bowl witnessed a series of remarkable achievements. It established strong connections with various collegiate football conferences, enhancing its prestige and drawing attention from across the nation. The bowl also secured sponsorships from renowned companies, bolstering its financial stability and increasing its prominence in the sports world. Today, the Military Bowl stands as a significant event in the college football calendar, attracting widespread attention and maintaining its commitment to honoring the U.S. military. Its current position is a testament to its successful blend of sportsmanship and tribute to the armed forces.
What is Military Bowl?
Military Bowl is the intercollegiate football bowl game, which had its first game played in 2008, and since then been held annually at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. The bowl is affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The first logo of the Bowl was introduced in 2008 and boasted a dark and intense yellow and blue color palette. It was a horizontally oriented banner with the yellow ribbon on top, where the blue “EagleBank” logotype with an icon was set. The bottom part of the badge featured a solid blue background, with the large blue “Bowl” in a classy heavy serif font with each letter outlined in white and yellow. The letter “O” was stylized as a rugby ball and had an image of the Capitol overlapping it. The yellow Capitol roof was accompanied by the blue “Washington DC” inscription on the right, set in square bold serif font too.
The very first logo of the Military Bowl was created in 2010. The composition was based on a circular medallion in the blue, white, and red color palette, set above the enlarged two-leveled inscription in a massive geometric sans-serif typeface. The lettering was drawn in white and outlined in red and black, is complemented by a solid black five-pointed star on the left from the “Bowl” line. The whole badge was underlined by the “Presented by” in the black set above a solid blue Northrop Grumman logotype with a light thin swoosh. As for the main part of the logo, the circular badge, it featured the image of the Capitol, with a rugby ball on the left, a smooth glossy red and white ribbon under, and three white five-pointed stars on the left.
The most prominent pictorial element on the Military Bowl logo is the United States Capitol, which is placed over the sky blue background next to three stars. Below the Capitol, there are white and red stripes and the name of the game in white letters with red and black trim. In the left part of the logo, you can see a pretty realistic football housing the abbreviation “USO.”
For the tenth anniversary of the bowl, the badge got some delicate additions. It was all about the top line of the logo, with the black “10th Anniversary” lettering arched on the left and the “2008 — 2017” datemark — on the right from the Spire on the roof of the Capitol, extending beyond the logo frame.
In 2018 the Military Bowl logo came back to its original, pre-anniversary design, with all the additional lettering arched above it removed. The badge was exactly the same as it was designed in 2014.
The redesign of 2021 made the Military Bowl logo stronger and more modern than it has ever been. The new concept is built around the dark blue circular badge in a bold gray and blue frame with the “Benefiting the USO” capitalized inscription in blue sans-serif letters arched along its bottom part. The top of the frame has a blue and white insert with the military chevron and a white five-pointed star. The main logotype with the letter “O” stylized as the rugby ball, was set in white enlarged letters across the central part of the circle, decorated with two smooth red ribbons on the sides.