The Sun Bowl is tied for the second-oldest bowl game in college football, and the first one was played by high schoolers.

That is not a technicality anyone hides. It is in the game's own history (Sun Bowl Association). And it makes the Sun Bowl's origin story the most unusual of the four oldest bowls, because it did not begin as a tourism scheme or a newspaper campaign. It began as a charity fundraiser at a service club meeting.

October 18, 1934

At a meeting of the El Paso Kiwanis Club, Dr. Brice Schuller proposed that the club sponsor a football game on New Year's Day, matching a team of El Paso high school all-stars against a worthy opponent. The motion was approved unanimously.

The purpose was specific and modest: benefit underprivileged children and pay for improvements to the El Paso High School stadium.

The organizers put the naming out to the public. Dr. C. M. Hendricks submitted "Sun Bowl," which won, and he became the first president of the Sun Bowl Association (Sun Bowl Association).

El Paso All-Stars 25, Ranger 21

The first Sun Bowl was played on January 1, 1935, at El Paso High School's Jones Stadium. The El Paso All-Stars drew players from El Paso, Bowie, Austin and Cathedral high schools. Their opponent was Ranger High School, from Ranger, Texas, which the Sun Bowl Association describes as the No. 2 high school team in the state, its only loss having come against eventual state champion Amarillo.

El Paso won 25-21 in front of 3,000 people (Sun Bowl Association game recap). Ken Heineman, a high school junior, accounted for every one of the All-Stars' points: he ran for one touchdown, threw for two and returned an interception for another (Sun Bowl Association, Legends of the Sun Bowl).

So when the Sun Bowl claims 1935 alongside the Orange and Sugar Bowls, that is the game it is claiming. The NCAA record book's Sun Bowl results begin a year later, with the first game between colleges. Whether the 1935 game counts is a fair argument, and the Cotton Bowl — first played on January 1, 1937, when TCU beat Marquette 16-6 (NCAA record book) — has a reasonable case for being the fourth-oldest bowl in the sport. We would rather lay out the facts than settle it.

The college era

The Sun Bowl became a college game in its second year. On January 1, 1936, New Mexico State — then New Mexico A&M — and Hardin-Simmons played to a 14-14 tie in front of 11,000 (NCAA record book).

Even that had its oddities. The Sun Bowl's recap counts 10 fumbles, five interceptions and 29 punts, and the tying touchdown came on a trick play: a pass to Hooky Apodaca, who lateraled to his cousin Lauro, who ran it in untouched. Hooky kicked the extra point (Sun Bowl Association game recap).

That same year a weeklong schedule of events was built around the game, with the Rotary, Lions, Optimist and Active 20-30 clubs joining the Kiwanis to run what became the Sun Carnival (Sun Bowl Association).

Three stadiums

The Sun Bowl Association counts three homes for the game: Jones Stadium, Kidd Field and Sun Bowl Stadium (Sun Bowl Association game recap). It began at Jones Stadium, the El Paso High School field the whole thing had been organized to improve. In 1937, Hardin-Simmons beat Texas Mines, now UTEP, 34-6 (NCAA record book).

The move to Kidd Field, on what is now the UTEP campus, is usually dated to 1938 (Saturday Down South), though the NCAA record book lists Kidd Field as the site from 1936. In 1963 the game moved next door to the new Sun Bowl Stadium, which opened that September with room for 30,000 (UTEP Athletics). Oregon beat SMU 21-14 in the first Sun Bowl played there, on December 31, 1963 (Sun Bowl Association game recap). That is where the game is played today, in a stadium set between two mountains, one of the more striking settings in American college football.

Small details, long memory

In 1941, Arizona State's Hascall Henshaw, at one point backed into his own end zone, ran 94 yards for a touchdown. The Sun Bowl Association says the run stood as an NCAA record for 13 years. His team lost 26-13 to Western Reserve (Sun Bowl Association game recap).

In 1958 the game was played twice in one calendar year, on January 1 and again on December 31. The second of those, the 25th Sun Bowl by the association's count, was the first played in December; every previous edition had been on January 1 or 2 (NCAA record book).

Where it stands

The Sun Bowl was played for 86 straight years before the pandemic, a run only the Rose Bowl could top (Dave Campbell's Texas Football). The December 2020 game was cancelled because of COVID-19, the first cancellation in the game's history (Sun Bowl Association), and the game returned in 2021.

After carrying the Tony the Tiger name from 2019 through 2025, the game took a new title sponsor in September 2026: Old El Paso, the General Mills brand that traces its roots to the city. It remains one of the few bowls whose broadcast home is CBS (Sun Bowl Association announcement, Business Wire).

The most recent edition, the 92nd by the association's count, was on December 31, 2025, when Duke beat Arizona State 42-39 in front of 44,975 (Sun Bowl Association game recap). The association counts 44 Sun Bowls decided by a touchdown or less.

A Kiwanis club wanted to fix up a high school field. Ninety-one years later, the 93rd edition is on the calendar for December 31, 2026.

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