Peach, Fiesta relationship goes deeper than co-hosting CFP semifinals
ATLANTA -- As the sites of this season's College Football Playoff semifinals, there's the clear connection between the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl, as their winners will meet for a national title.
But the relationships between these games goes beyond what will transpire Saturday in Atlanta and Glendale, Ariz., because the Fiesta may not exist without some help from the Peach.
"It's kind of like a brother-sister type thing," said former Peach Bowl chairman Albert Tarica, who is currently on the game's board of directors and board of trustees. "We've always felt a certain closeness to the Fiesta Bowl."
In 1968, Arizona State and Arizona were to meet with an expected Sun Bowl bid going to the WAC rivalry game's winner. But Wildcats coach Darrell Mudra told the bowl that if Arizona wasn't offered an invitation before the game, they wouldn't go.
The Sun Bowl caved in, and despite the Sun Devils winning 30-7 and finishing with a No. 23 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25, they didn't earn a postseason bid.
At that season's Arizona State football banquet, school president G. Homer Durham suggested that if the Sun Devils couldn't get an invite to a bowl -- they hadn't played in one since the 1950 Salad Bowl -- then they should start their own.
It proved easier said than done. A group of Tempe leaders formed to start a game, but for three years they couldn't make it a reality, with their initial petition denied by the NCAA in April 1970.
During that wait, the Sun Devils did end their bowl drought, going to the Peach Bowl in 1970 in a trip that would prove fortuitous -- aside from the weather -- as Arizona State won 45-38.
"All the people from Phoenix and Scottsdale and Tempe came here to watch Arizona State," said Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl president and CEO Gary Stokan. "In the first quarter it rained; in the second quarter it snowed; in the third quarter it iced and in the fourth quarter it sleeted."
Atlanta's game was in its third year of existence, and stood as an example to the group of Tempe, who reached out to Peach Bowl founder George Crumley.
"George showed them our application to the NCAA and helped them draft theirs," Tarica said. "I was working on the festival division as a volunteer and he told me 'If anybody from the Fiesta calls you, you tell them everything they need to know.' That kind of started this whole thing."
With the aid of the Peach Bowl's leadership, the Tempe group petitioned the NCAA again in early 1971 and was granted a game, with the first edition on Dec. 27, 1971. Arizona State played in it, beating Florida State 45-38.
"George tended to play it down, what we did for them, but I think George always felt a sense of closeness to the Fiesta Bowls than the other bowls." Tarica said. "We felt pretty good about the fact that we helped them out."
Now, 45 years later, the Fiesta is in the spotlight, hosting No. 2 Clemson and No. 3 Ohio State, and sharing the moment with the Peach and its matchup of No. 1 Alabama and No. 4 Washington.
"It makes this year even more interesting, because there really was a tie-in and it's almost like we're related, because the Peach Bowl helped the Fiesta Bowl get created," Stokan said.
Follow Cory McCartney on Twitter @coryjmccartney and Facebook. His books, 'Tales from the Atlanta Braves Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Braves Stories Ever Told,' and 'The Heisman Trophy: The Story of an American Icon and Its Winners.' are now available.
