The Oyster Bowl is a regular season college football game played annually in the Hampton Roads-area of Virginia. The game has featured match-ups between high school, NCAA Division III, and at present, NCAA Division I teams, at various points in its existence. It is sponsored by the Norfolk, Virginia-based Khedive Temple of the Shriners, with a portion of the revenue going to children's charity. The 2023 Oyster Bowl was the 73rd edition of the game.

During the first incarnation of the Oyster Bowl, the game was held at Foreman Field in Norfolk, Virginia. The inaugural contest, held in 1946, featured two high school teams, the local Granby Comets and the Clifton Mustangs of Clifton, New Jersey. ^{[1] [2]} After a one-year break, the game was resumed in 1948 as a major college football contest, and was played continuously until 1995, when it was discontinued for financial reasons. ^{[1] [2] [3]} The series of games from 1946 to 1995 generated more than $3 million for the Shriners Hospitals for Children. ^[3]

Many well known players participated in the Oyster Bowl during the time it featured Division I teams. These include Ernie Davis of Syracuse, Don Meredith of SMU, Bruce Smith of Virginia Tech, Roger Staubach of Navy, Fran Tarkenton of Georgia, and Randy White of Maryland. ^[4] The 1977 game between East Carolina and William & Mary featured an incident well-publicized at the time, in which former East Carolina head coach Jim Johnson, attending the game as a sideline spectator, tackled a William & Mary player about to score the game-winning touchdown. ^[5]

In 1999, after a hiatus of three years, the Oyster Bowl was revived and relocated to Joseph S. Darling Memorial Stadium in nearby Hampton, Virginia, where the game featured a match-up between Division III college teams. ^[6]

In 2011, the Oyster Bowl returned to a renovated Foreman Field (now known as S.B. Ballard Stadium) as an annual home game for Division I Old Dominion University (ODU). Recent visiting teams have been conference rivals of ODU from Conference USA (through 2021) and the Sun Belt Conference (2022 to the present).

Game results

References