Hula Bowl

The Hula Bowl is a post-season college football all-star game held annually, usually in January. From inception through the 2021 playing, it was held in Hawaii; since the 2022 edition, it has been played in Orange County, Florida near Orlando.
The game was first staged in 1947, between mainland collegiate players and local Hawaiian players; it has been played exclusively with collegiate players since 1960. The bowl was paused following its 2008 edition, then was revived in January 2020.
The game was originally held at Honolulu Stadium in Honolulu, then moved to Aloha Stadium in Halawa starting with the January 1976 edition. The game remained at Aloha Stadium through the 2021 edition, except for eight editions played at War Memorial Stadium on the island of Maui. The University of Central Florida agreed to host the January 2022 playing of the game, due to Aloha Stadium being closed for repairs and upgrades.

History

In late 1946, the first Hula Bowl was organized by Paul Stupin and Mackay Yanagisawa. When the inaugural game was played on January 5, 1947, the teams were composed of mainland college players pitted against a local team of graduates of Leilehua, a local high school in Wahiawa, Hawaii—the mainland team won, 34–7. The teams played a two-game series every January until 1951, when the format was changed to allow National Football League players to join the Hawaiian all-stars, in an effort to create a more competitive environment. From 1960 onward, the game featured only collegiate players, and game results are listed in NCAA records. Players were historically rostered by college location; North vs. South or East vs. West. Since 2000, team names of Aina and Kai, the Hawaiian words for land and ocean, have been used multiple times.
The game was originally played in Honolulu Stadium in Honolulu through the January 1975 playing, then moved to Aloha Stadium in neighboring Halawa. In 1997, the then-mayor of Maui County, Linda Lingle, obtained authorization to spend $1.2 million to improve War Memorial Stadium in the town of Kahului on the island of Maui, which then hosted the game for the 1998 through 2005 playings. However, due to poor attendance and reduced revenue, the Hula Bowl returned to Oahu for its 2006 game and stayed at Aloha Stadium through the 2008 playing.
The game has predominantly been played in January as one of the final games of the college football postseason, allowing players who competed in bowl games with their collegiate teams to participate. The game has been held in early February twice, in 2002 and 2003.
For many years, the Hula Bowl was distinguished from a similar event, the Senior Bowl, by playing by collegiate rules rather than professional rules, and by remaining amateur. This was very important for those wishing to remain eligible to compete in other collegiate sports or otherwise retain amateur status. At one point the longest-running sporting event in Hawaii, it was considered a premier venue to launch professional careers in the NFL.

Changing direction

On July 1, 2006, it was announced that the American Football Coaches Association would end its ten-year relationship with the Hula Bowl due to "philosophical differences" over the future plans for the game, including proposed changes for the 2007 game — such as reintroducing the "Hawaiian Islands versus Mainland" matchup used from 1947 to 1959. University of Hawaii and former NFL head coach June Jones expressed a willingness to coach a potential Hawaiian Islands team, which would have a mix of Hawaiian and Polynesian players and, bowl organizers hoped, would draw more fans to the game. The Hula Bowl had also discussed the idea of allowing junior status players to participate in the game and bringing over college football players from Japan, something the game had done in the recent past. Game officials also discussed awarding a national "Hula Bowl Player of the Week" to college players during the regular season; the winning players would have been invited to play in the Hula Bowl and been able to direct a $1,000 donation to a charity in their state.

Dormancy

After the January 2008 playing, the bowl remained dormant. Organizers searched "for opportunities to reintroduce and reimagine the historic bowl game", and in November 2016, announced their intent to restart the game in North Carolina in January 2018. However, in March 2017, additional news reports indicated that a revival of the game was unlikely, as a key supporter of the proposal, North Carolina governor Pat McCrory, left office at the start of that year.

Revival

On October 29, 2019, it was announced that the Hula Bowl would be revived; the 2020 edition was played at Aloha Stadium on January 26, 2020. It featured "NCAA college football players from all divisions, along with international players". Aloha Stadium also hosted the 2021 edition, played on January 31, 2021, held without spectators after the facility was "deemed unsafe to hold crowds" in December 2020. In August 2021, with Aloha Stadium closed for repairs and upgrades, the University of Central Florida agreed to host the 2022 playing—scheduled for January 15—at its home stadium, then known as FBC Mortgage Stadium and now as Acrisure Bounce House, near Orlando, Florida.

Game results

The Hula Bowl has used four different pairs of team designations. Before 2000, teams were rostered as either North vs. South or East vs. West, with the exception of the 1994 game, which was College Stars vs. Hawaii Ponoʻi. Since 2000, the matchup has been Aina vs. Kai, except for 2005 and 2006, which reverted to East vs. West. Past NCAA records have substituted North or West in place of Kai, and South or East in place of Aina.
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;All-time series

MVPs

1947–2008

Year	Name	College
1947	John Johnson	UCLA
1948	Dick Hagen	Washington
1949	Jerry Williams	Washington State
1950	Dick Kempthorn	Michigan
1951	Sonny Grandelius	Michigan State
1952	Vic Janowicz Don Coleman	Ohio State Michigan State
1953	Tom Stolhandske	Texas
1954	Bobby Garrett	Stanford
1955	Carroll Hardy	Colorado
1956	Bob Davenport	UCLA
1957	Paul Hornung	Notre Dame
1958	John David Crow Lou Michaels	Texas A&M Kentucky
1959	Bob Ptacek Sam Williams	Michigan Michigan State
1960	Richie Lucas Larry Grantham	Penn State Ole Miss
1961	Fran Tarkenton Mike Ditka	Georgia Pittsburgh
1962	Lance Alworth Merlin Olsen	Arkansas Utah State
1963	Kermit Alexander Dave Watson	UCLA Georgia Tech
1964	Peter Liske Dave Wilcox	Penn State Oregon
1965	Larry Elkins Jeff Jordan	Baylor Tulsa
1966	Steve Juday Carl McAdams	Michigan State Oklahoma
1967	Charlie Brown Dave Williams	Missouri Washington
1968	Larry Csonka Harry Gunner	Syracuse Oregon State
1969	Bill Enyart Tim Buchanan	Oregon State Hawaii
1970	Bobby Anderson Floyd Reese	Colorado UCLA
1971	Jim Plunkett Jack Ham	Stanford Penn State
1972	Jerry Tagge Walt Patulski	Nebraska Notre Dame
1973	Greg Pruitt Jim Merlo	Oklahoma Stanford
1974	Norris Weese Lucious Selmon	Ole Miss Oklahoma
1975	Condredge Holloway Rubin Carter	Tennessee Miami
1976	Cornelius Greene Lee Roy Selmon	Ohio State Oklahoma
1977	Tony Dorsett Ron Crosby	Pittsburgh Penn State
1978	Dave Turner Ricky Odom	San Diego State USC
1979	Rick Leach Ted Brown	Michigan NC State
1980	Billy Sims Steve McMichael	Oklahoma Texas

Year	Name	College
1981	Samoa Samoa Kenny Easley Blane Gaison	Washington State UCLA Hawaii
1982	Walter Abercrombie Leo Wisniewski	Baylor Penn State
1983	Dan Marino Paul Soares	Pittsburgh Navy
1984	Jim Sandusky Freddie Gilbert	San Diego State Georgia
1985	Al Toon Freddie Joe Nunn	Wisconsin Ole Miss
1986	Doug Gaynor Rogers Alexander	Long Beach State Penn State
1987	Chris Miller Louis Brock	Oregon USC
1988	Aaron Cox Dennis Price	Arizona State UCLA
1989	Anthony Dilweg Deion Sanders	Duke Florida State
1990	Cary Conklin James Francis	Washington Baylor
1991	John Langeloh Derrick Brownlow	Michigan State Illinois
1992	Derrick Moore Steve Israel	Northeastern State Pittsburgh
1993	Lamar Thomas Ron Carpenter	Miami Miami
1994	Andre Coleman Chris Maumalanga	Kansas State Kansas
1995	Kordell Stewart Robert Baldwin	Colorado Duke
1996	Winslow Oliver Regan Upshaw	New Mexico California
1997	Archie Amerson Andy Russ	Northern Arizona Mississippi State
1998	Chris Howard Eric Ogbogu	Michigan Maryland
1999	Kevin Daft Ricky Williams Brad Scioli	UC Davis Texas Penn State
2000	Bashir Yamini Todd Husak Brian Young	Iowa Stanford UTEP
2001	Jonathan Beasley Reggie Germany	Kansas State Ohio State
2002	Nick Rolovich Chester Taylor	Hawaii Toledo
2003	David Kircus Kassim Osgood	Grand Valley State San Diego State
2004	Wes Welker Fred Russell Colby Bockwoldt	Texas Tech Iowa Brigham Young
2005	Ronald Stanley Derrick Wimbush	Michigan State Fort Valley State
2006	Brent Hawkins Brad Smith	Illinois State Missouri
2007	Will Proctor Chad Nkang	Clemson Elon
2008	Bernard Morris Angelo Craig	Marshall Cincinnati