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College football bowl games: how did the Sugar Bowl get its name?

Georgia take on Notre Dame at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, the second venue to have hosted the college football game.

Georgia take on Notre Dame at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, the second venue to have hosted the college football game.

The College football bowl games continue on New Year’s Day, with the Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl all taking place on Wednesday, January 1 and deciding three of the four teams that will reach the College Football Playoff semifinals.

Earlier on Wednesday, there had been some uncertainty as to whether the Sugar Bowl would go ahead at Caesars Superdome, New Orleans after 10 people were killed in the city earlier in the day when a man drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people in Bourbon Street.

At the time of writing, the game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is set to be played as planned at 8:45 p.m. ET / 5:45 p.m. PT, although the authorities are reportedly holding talks to discuss the safest way to move forward, which suggests that could yet change.

The reason for the Sugar Bowl’s name

While the naming of the Rose Bowl Game is fairly obvious, stemming from the stadium in Pasadena, California of the same name, the Sugar Bowl’s isn’t as immediately clear, although the reasons are similar.

The story behind the name dates back to 1935, when the first Sugar Bowl took place at Tulane Stadium on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans. Tulane Stadium was itself nicknamed “the Sugar Bowl” as it was built on land on which granulated sugar had previously been produced for the first time in the area.

Tulane Stadium hosted the Sugar Bowl until 1974, as well as three of the first nine Super Bowls (1970, 1972, 1975). It was demolished in 1980, five years after the college football game moved to the Superdome, the home of NFL team the New Orleans Saints.

On Wednesday, January 1, the Bulldogs and the Fighting Irish will meet for the second time in a Sugar Bowl at Caesars Superdome, with Georgia winning the previous meeting in 1980.

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