Military games The original incarnation of the
Poinsettia Bowl was as an armed forces football championship game, pitting western and eastern military services champions against each other. In the inaugural Poinsettia Bowl, the
Bolling Air Force Base Generals defeated the
San Diego Naval Training Center Bluejackets by a score of 35–14 on December 20, 1952. The game was held at
Balboa Stadium in San Diego in a torrential downpour, before hundreds of reluctant sailors – including future
College Football Hall of Fame coach
Hayden Fry – who were ordered to sit in the stands so that they wouldn't appear empty in the nationally televised game. Television came to terms with the NCAA the next year, making the 1952 Poinsettia Bowl the last nationally televised game between military teams, other than the annual
Army–Navy Game. In 1953, the
Fort Ord Warriors, an Army team that featured
quarterback Don Heinrich and
running back Ollie Matson, defeated the
Quantico Marines team led by Hayden Fry at quarterback. The
Fort Sill Canoneers defeated Bolling Air Force Base in 1954, and the Fort Ord Warriors returned as champions in 1955, defeating
Pensacola Naval Air Station in the fourth and final such Poinsettia Bowl. In November 1956, organizers announced the cancellation of that year's game, "because of deployment of the fleet," shortly after the
Suez Crisis.
NCAA games The bowl was resurrected in 2005, and featured a team from the
Mountain West Conference each year it was played, originally against an at-large opponent. The inaugural game matched
Navy Midshipmen against the
Colorado State Rams; Navy won 51–30. It had attendance of 36,842. In the week leading up to the 2005 game, the Navy Midshipmen accepted an invitation to the 2008, 2009, or 2010 Poinsettia Bowls if Navy was bowl-eligible in those seasons. The fact that there are several naval bases in and around San Diego contributed to this decision by the independent Midshipmen. Navy later played in the
2008 EagleBank Bowl and the
2009 Texas Bowl, then returned for the
2010 Poinsettia Bowl. The Poinsettia Bowl announced that if the
Army Black Knights became bowl-eligible by the end of the 2006 regular season, they would receive an automatic berth in their bowl game; however, the Cadets wound up with a losing record, and thus were not eligible. In July 2007, it was announced that (starting with the 2008 game) the Pac-10 would send its seventh-place team to the game, and its sixth-place team in 2009 and 2010 – replacing the at-large team. The 2007 game matched the
Utah Utes against the
Navy Midshipmen; Utah won, 35–32. Navy made the Poinsettia Bowl as a result of
Navy's win over North Texas (74–62), a game that set a new NCAA record for most points scored in a college football game. That year's attendance was 39,129. It was announced, starting with the 2008 season, and continuing through 2009, if the Pac-10 does not have enough bowl-eligible teams to send one to the Poinsettia Bowl (a contractual obligation), the game's organizers reserved the right to select a
WAC team to take the Pac-10 team's place. The 2008 game matched the No. 11
TCU Horned Frogs of the
Mountain West Conference against the No. 9
Boise State Broncos the
Western Athletic Conference champion; TCU won, 17–16. Boise State replaced the representative from the Pac-10, since it did not have any extra bowl-eligible teams to spare for this game. The game garnered a 3.74 national television rating on ESPN, the bowl's most watched game ever and the highest rated pre-Christmas game ever on the all-sports network. The game was restored for the 2026 bowl season. ==Game results==