Eirball.Football – Irish Australian Football Archive

Recap

In the big New Years’ Day Bowl Game in the European Theater of Operations Football Championship of Winter 1944, Navy Galloping Gaels tied 0-0 with Army Wolverines in the home ground of Newry Town Football Club (Soccer), which was designated “Lone Star Field” for the day. The game was billed as the “Championship of Northern Ireland”, playing for the Potato Bowl

A crowd of 3,000 showed up but homebred spectators did not understand the rules and the highlight of the day according to Newry Museum researcher David Ashe was when three dogs invaded the field. Before kick-off, Janet Tyson, an assistant at Newry Red Cross Club was crowned “Queen of the Potato Bowl”, like in American High School or College Homecomings.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] Massimo Foglio with Mark L. Ford (2015) “Winter Football 1944 – Bowl Games and Professionals” Touchdown in Europe: How American Football Came to the Old Continent. pg. 62.

Websites

[4] Lucky Show (2016) American Football in Ireland [Internet] Available from: http://www.luckyshow.org/football/Shamrock%20Bowl.htm [Accessed 5 June 2017]