The name “Texas Bowl” refers to the post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game played at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
Conceived by Lone Star Sports & Entertainment, a subsidiary of the NFL’s Houston Texans, the Texas Bowl emerged in 2006 as a celebrated collegiate football event. Hosted in the dynamic city of Houston, Texas, this annual bowl game has rapidly ascended as a highlight of the college football post-season. Featuring primarily teams from the Big 12 and SEC conferences, the Texas Bowl has etched its mark through exhilarating games and a commitment to philanthropy, notably supporting the DePelchin Children’s Center. Today, the Texas Bowl stands as a pivotal event in the college football landscape, drawing vast crowds and making a palpable impact on Houston’s community and economic vitality, furthering its legacy in the sphere of college sports.
What is Texas Bowl?
Texas Bowl is the intercollegiate football game, which is affiliated with the first division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The first bowl game was played in 2006, and since then its held annually at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
The Texas Bowl logo from 2006 was executed with the idea of the championship belt buckle in mind, or at least it seems so. The badge featured a shape of a horizontally located rugby ball in glossy gradient silver, with a distinct blue outline. The surface of the badge was decorated with some delicate ornaments, and the middle part was taken by a bold uppercase “Texas” lettering in dark blue wishbone-style letters. The inscription was slightly arched to the top and had a red “2006” datemark above it, and a red ribbon with a white “Bowl” under it. The silhouette of the Texas State was engraved on the bottom part of the badge, under the red ribbon.
The redesign of 2007 refined and clean all lines and contours of the logo, keeping all the elements in their places, but removing the red datemark from the composition. The shade of blue, used for the logotype and the outline, was a bit muted, but only started looking more elegant and chic. The red ribbon was enlarged, as well as the white lettering on it, and now the massive geometric sans-serif typeface of the uppercase “Bowl” was more visible and readable. The same applies to the Texas State contouring, executed in silver and blue on the bottom of the glossy bowl’s logo.
The bowl gets an official sponsor in 2011, so the logo had to be redesigned. The shape and idea remained the same, but everything else was rethought. Now the badge features a bright yellow background, and the central part was taken by the two levels of the sponsor’s logotype. The top line boasted a bold lowercase “Meineke” in a traditional yet slightly slanted sans-serif typeface, and the bottom line had “Car Care Bowl” written on it in the same style, but with thinner lines of the letters. The red ribbon saying “Of Texas” was set under the black inscription, and above the iconic element with the state contour, which was now executed in yellow and red.
The cold and stylish Texas Bowl logo from 2007 came back as the official one in 2013, but again, only for one season. No changes were made to the badge, it was still the same color palette, same style of the lettering, and same clean and elegant contours of all elements.
In 2014 the bowl gets a new official sponsor and the logo is being redesigned again. This time the sponsorship did not affect the color palette of the badge and even didn’t change the composition much. The “Advocare” logotype in white outlines capitals was set on the upper part of the logo, over the silver-gray “V1000”, set between it and the main “Texas” wordmark of the badge.
The emblem is housed in a 3D silver football. The word “Texas” is the most prominent element inside, and you can also see a bright red banner housing the lettering “Bowl” in white. On the top, there is the name of the sponsor, Academy Sports + Outdoors.
While the overall structure has preserved over the years, the name and emblem of the sponsor has changed several times.
The color palette of the Texas Bowl logo got brightened up in 2017. The red and silver shades of the badge became lighter and more vivid. Another change of the redesign was about the sponsor’s insignia: the bold white and blue Advocare logotype got replaced by a simple and elegant blue “Academy” inscription set on the right from a stylized emblem and underlined by a red “Sports + Outdoors” in all capitals of a modern sans-serif typeface.
The redesign of 2022 was held after the bowl got a new sponsor — TaxAct. The academy insignia was removed from the top part of the silver Texas Bowl logo, and now there is a bold and progressive logo of the new sponsor, executed in the red and black color palette, with the arched cut line, coming through both parts of the company’s name.