Happy 80th, Citrus Bowl — Thanks for The Memories
By Ryan McGee
ESPN.com
The first time I ever heard about the game we now know as the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, I was a kid, way back in the 1970s. My father, Jerry McGee, took me to his alma mater, East Carolina, and showed me the trophies won by his Pirates classmates, the Tangerine Bowls of 1964 and 65.
Two decades later, Dad himself was on the field in Orlando, as a football official in the 1985 Florida Citrus Growers Association Florida Citrus Bowl, between Ohio State and the defending national champions, BYU.
It was my first ever bowl game…and I’ve been bowled over ever since.
I sat with my Mom and brother. We got free neon baseball caps. I had a brand new camera that Santa Claus had brought me just three days earlier… and snapping pics of the Buckeyes, Cougars and hot air balloons that sailed over our heads and into the stadium!
We were back in 1989, sitting with the Zonies in the end zone grandstand for a Top-10 throwdown between Clemson and Oklahoma…Barry Switzer’s last game as head Sooner.
I returned in 1996, watching my school, Tennessee, with Peyton Manning and the Buckeyes of Eddie George slog through a Central Florida monsoon. Officially, the MVP was Tennessee tailback Jay Graham. But the real MVPs were my friends in the Vols equipment room who bolted on some XL cleats to get some Big Orange traction in that big red mud pit.
I’ve been back to cover Citrus Bowls as a reporter, but one year ago, I was back in the stands. A full circle — okay, full square — family moment. My Cheez-It-obsessed daughter is in college now. So, I brought her to see her alma mater, South Carolina…and we sat in almost the exact same section where I was first here with my family, almost exactly 30 years later.
And just as I still tell stories about my first bowl game with my family, those hot air balloons and those free neon ball caps…30 years from now, my daughter will still be telling the tales of her first bowl experience with me, watching Ched-Z officiate an on-field wedding and those free Cheez-It crackers.
80 years of this game. 80 years of football. But most importantly, 80 years of family memories made. Here’s to 80 more.