Branding Bowl Games: Gator Bowl
The Gator Bowl, formally named Konica Minolta Gator Bowl after its present sponsor, is the sixth oldest college bowl game and was first played in 1946 between Wake Forest and South Carolina. It was in 1955 when the Gator Bowl became the first ever to be nationally televised coast-to-coast. Over the years the sponsorships, much like others bowls, have switched hands several times. Other Gator sponsorships have included Toyota, Outback, and Mazda.
I found out a great deal of information about the Gator Bowl’s history but nothing about how the actual “Gator” name came to be. Of course, we can’t forget about the University of Florida who named its mascot the “Gator” in 1911, long before the Gator Bowl came into existence. I think we can safely assume the name came from the region’s historical and continually growing alligator population.
By: Kelly Wilson
Branding Bowl Games: Outback Bowl
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The Outback Bowl www.outbackbowl.com is played on New Years day at “The New Sombrero” Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. It pits the third pick of the SEC vs the third pick of the Big Ten Conference.
Suffering from something of an identity crisis for decades, this bowl game had several aliases before Outback Steakhouse became the title sponsor in 1995. From 1977 to 1985 the game had two names: The Hall of Fame Classic, and the All American Bowl. Both of these names signified the game that was played at Legion Field in Birmingham Alabama.
In 1986, the Hall of Fame Bowl was relocated to Tampa Florida. Legion Field hosted a game for the next five years under a different name, and after that would not see postseason college football until 2006, with the creation of the PapaJohns.com bowl. In 2001, the US Army sponsored a new All-American Bowl for the top high school football players in the country.
The Outback bowl was the first American sporting event of this century. On Jan 1, 2000, the Georgia Bulldogs inched out the Purdue Boilermakers in one of the greatest ever bowl-game comebacks (25 points). Feathers will fly this year as the 2009 Outback bowl features a battle between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Contributed by: Maghan Cook
Branding Bowl Games: Capital One Bowl
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The Capital One Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that is played on New Year’s Eve, before the Rose Bowl. This bowl game is played in Orlando, Florida at the Citrus Bowl Stadium. The Capital One Bowl’s tagline is “Little Bowl with the Big Heart” because at one time, the proceeds all went to charity. The first game was played in 1947 and was originally called the Tangerine Bowl. It has since been called Florida Citrus Bowl, CompUSA Florida Citrus Bowl, Ourhouse.com Florida Citrus Bowl, and now the Capital One Florida Citrus Bowl (or Capital One Bowl for short).
The majority of the names for this bowl game have been derived from their title sponsor’s name (CompUSA, Ourhouse.com, Capital One) and their operating partner, Florida Citrus Sports, a not for profit group which also organizes the Champs Sports Bowl and Florida Classic. I don’t know why it was originally named the Tangerine Bowl; my only thought is because of the game’s location- Florida.
For more information on the Capital One Bowl, check out their official website.
By:Jessica McGrail
Myth Busters: Dogs & Their Owners
Every heard of the saying that a dog looks like its owner? Let's test this old wives tale. Please match the Addison Whitney employee with his/her dog!
Wanna see the matchups? Click here.
By: Trista Thielker
Dubbing the A-Dub Conference Rooms
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White walls and miscellaneous storage items are not very inspiring or conducive of a creative working environment, so with the help of a few folks here at Addison Whitney, we have spiced up our conference rooms and given them names to reflect their purpose and design.
The first room we tackled is now known as the “Creative Lounge.” Color bands of eggplant and sage surround the room, giving it a relaxing, edgy look. Blocks of chalkboard paint that serve as a tool for capturing ideas during brainstorming sessions, along with inspiring creative items, like LiteBrite, Play-Doh and an inflatable palm tree named Pedro, add some flare to the room.
12 Toys of Christmas: And a Partridge with a New Wii
Seeing the cool, new toys hit the shelf this Christmas really made me want to be a kid again. I thought back to the toys of my day (being a child of the 80’s) and realized that there is not a lot of difference if you take away the heavy influence of technology. Check out my comparison study where I compare toys from 1988 and 2008 (20 year span) and feel free to add your own:
12 Toys of Christmas: 2 Hulas Hooping
Oh the sweet memories of being entertained by a plastic hoop! I’m not embarrassed to say that this was one of my prized possessions growing up…and still is. For those of you who are not familiar with this amazing phenomenon let this paint a picture for you.
After doing some quick research, I discovered that the hoola (“hula”) hoop has actually been around for thousands of years. Historians say that even Egyptians were known to partake in the hooping. Plastic hoops were first manufactured and sold in Australia, and eventually the founders of the toy company Wham-O saw the potential of producing hoops in the US. Because the company could not patent a product that had been in existence for so long, they decided to modify the name.
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12 Toys of Christmas: 3 Cabbage Patches Sprouting
Cabbage Patch Kids, still marketed today, became a growing fad in the early 1980s. The product itself was actually invented in the 1970s by Xavier Roberts, and was originally named Little People. It wasn’t until 1982 when the name “Cabbage Patch Kids” came into existence.
The name “Cabbage Patch Kids,” according to Roberts, is said to have come from a mother’s answer to where babies come from — the cabbage patch. (If you’re a parent and you’re reading this, I bet you are thinking about how you’ve answered this same question).
The company website describes the “legend” of how Cabbage Patch Kids came into being. Check out the link.
By: Kelly Wilson
12 Toys of Christmas: 4 Hot Wheels Hauling
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Literally every day, growing up, I had Hot Wheels vs. Matchbox championships. I would tear out a piece of my sketchpad, draw a bracket, make some fake crowd noise and fire up the little plastic engines. Turns out, in 1996, Mattel acquired the Matchbox brand from Tyco. I always wondered why the Hot Wheels always won; must have been a little foreshadowing. The Hot Wheels logo has always been one of my favorites due to its perfect fit for the target audience. Drawn by California artist Rick Irons, the logo is symbolized through its unique retro-esque typography and a distinguishable outer flame shape. Although established in 1968, the brand Hot Wheels really started to pick up speed in the 70’s, and revolutionized the die-cast toy car market, beginning to leave its competitors in the dust.
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12 Toys of Christmas: 5 Busty Barbies
Imitated but never duplicated, Barbie is one of the most successful toys ever. Many of my Barbie® memories include my friends and I cutting her hair, searching for her high-heeled shoes and creating our own swimming pool in the bathroom sink. Barbie was certainly my favorite toy and I am sure many of you would agree (yes, even you guys. . . we know you loved to wage war on her with your G.I. Joes).
Barbie was first introduced at The New York Toy Show in 1959, and she was unlike anything else in the market. Barbie had the fashion sense of paper dolls, the realism of baby dolls, and the beauty of a young woman who would go on to inspire the imaginations of millions of little girls. Within ten years, Mattel had sold $500 million in products.
Many people do not realize that Barbie, and her boyfriend Ken, were actually inspired by real people. They were named after the children of Ruth and Elliot Handler, the doll’s creator. That’s right -- the original Barbie (Barbara) and Ken (Kenneth) were brother and sister!
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