There is the colorful pageantry. The festive, holiday atmosphere. Parties galore. Trips to all the funspots.
Playing in a college football bowl game leaves a lasting memory for all involved.
Former Orono High School football standout Jack Bicknell III, the son of former University of Maine and Boston College coach Jack Bicknell Jr., had the chance to play in three bowl games during his own Boston College football career.
Bo Jackson and Auburn beat Bicknell’s Eagles in the 1982 Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla. 33-26; Notre Dame upended BC 19-16 in the 1983 Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn.; and, in 1984, Boston College received the opportunity to play in a major bowl and the Eagles outscored Houston 45-28 in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Bicknell had another year of eligibility but a back injury prevented him from playing the following season.
He considers himself lucky to have had the opportunity to play in three bowl games. A 260-pound center in college, Bicknell was a long snapper at the Citrus Bowl; he would have been the starting center in the Liberty Bowl if he hadn’t dislocated a toe during an indoor workout two days before the game, and he was the starting center for BC during the Cotton Bowl.
The BC quarterback was Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie.
“After nine years, I certainly appreciate playing in three bowl games much more than maybe I did back then,” said the 30-year-old Bicknell, who has coached the defensive line at the University of New Hampshire for the last six years. “I realize how tough it is to get to a bowl game and what it takes to get there.
“Playing in a bowl game is a great reward for having a successful season,” added Bicknell. “That was always my father’s philosophy. He wanted us to enjoy the atmosphere. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You get treated like kings, especially in Dallas where the Cotton Bowl is king and football is king.”
Bicknell, wife Helen, and their two children, John IV and Katelyn, currently live in Dover, N.H. His recollections of those bowl games, however, are still vivid.
The teams usually spent a week in the host city preparing for the game.
“Every bowl game was great. The first bowl game, I remember that it was just fun to get there,” recalled Bicknell. “Bo Jackson was unbelievable. He was a man amongst boys. Auburn was a big time team. It was kind of special.”
He added that being in Orlando “was a lot of fun. We got to go to Disney World, the Epcot Center and the space center. Every day we were there, there was something great going on.”
The Liberty Bowl had a different memory for Bicknell.
“We hit it on a bad week,” said Bicknell. “There was real bad weather. There was an ice storm. I remember looking out my hotel window and seeing the Mississippi River frozen over. The boats couldn’t go anywhere.
“At the game, everything was frozen. The field was frozen. People couldn’t get above the 25th row in the stadium because the stairs were frozen. People were crawling to try to get to their seats. It was unbelievable.”
The team bus got stuck on a railroad track due to the ice and he also recalled the police escorts they received when they would bus to different places.
“Those guys were unbelievable. They didn’t mess around. People had better stop when our bus went sailing through,” said Bicknell.
“It was a big game to the people in Memphis and the whole community pitched in,” added Bicknell. “They treated you very well.”
The Cotton Bowl will always be a cherished event for Bicknell because it was a major New Year’s Day bowl game and it turned out to be his final football game.
He said again he and his teammates were treated “very nicely. And every single day, they had something different planned for you.
“There were so many emotions for me during that game,” said Bicknell. “It turned out to be my last game and I remember looking around and realizing these were some of my best friends in the world. The thing I remember about the game is that I had some huge guy, some 290-pounder, that I had to contend with. But I liked playing against big guys because they didn’t move quite as well.
“I played pretty well but I had a couple of great offensive guards beside me (Mark Bardwell and Steve Trapillo) in case I got in trouble. Our good players came to the forefront in that game,” added Bicknell. “It was such a great memory for us.”
He said he and his mates took the Cotton Bowl game more seriously than they had the previous two bowl games.
“We were pretty serious. We didn’t go out (on the town) as much. We really wanted to win the game,” added Bicknell.
Bicknell also recalled the reaction of the people in Boston to the Cotton Bowl.
“There must have been 25,000 people from Boston there,” said Bicknell. “It made you feel good. You realized you were in a game with a lot of history. The game not only meant a lot to the people who were there but it also meant a lot to the people in Boston.”
There has been a lot of talk about having Division I-A football go to a playoff system to decide a national champion instead of having bowl games.
Bicknell opposes such a move.
“Maybe playoff games make sense but I would hate to see bowl games go by the wayside,” said Bicknell. “They are very special.”
Comments
comments for this post are closed