The Mineral Water Bowl was an annual American NCAA Division II college football bowl game held in Excelsior Springs, Missouri at Tiger Stadium. Throughout its long history (1948 to 2019), the game was sponsored by the Quarterback Club, a civic organization in Excelsior Springs. At the time of its demise, it was one of four Division II sanctioned bowl games, along with the Live United Texarkana Bowl, the Heritage Bowl, and the America's Crossroads Bowl.

History

The first Mineral Water Bowl was played on Thanksgiving Day in 1948. The game was established to showcase the Excelsior Springs High School team against another Missouri high school squad, but the Missouri High School Athletic Association never officially sanctioned it and forbade Excelsior Springs from playing in the game after 1950. (It remains unclear why Excelsior Springs was singled out while the association continued to sanction other Thanksgiving football games in the state, such as Kirkwood vs. Webster Groves, still played to this day). After the 1951 contest, which featured two opponents from outside the area, the high school Mineral Water Bowl was discontinued.

At the end of the 1952 season, an attempt to revive the bowl as a small-college contest failed after Northeast Missouri State (today Truman State), that year's co-champions of the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Association (today the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association), turned down an invitation to participate. Undeterred by this setback, local organizers succeeded in bringing back the game as a small-college bowl two years later, in 1954. The game was eventually moved from Thanksgiving Day to the Saturday before or after the holiday. As of 1957, it was one of 11 sanctioned NCAA bowl games. The bowl continued in the small-college format, hosting teams from as far away as Michigan and Colorado, but the pool of potential quality opponents dwindled after the onset of football playoffs for NCAA Division II and Division III, in 1973. Despite featuring a Missouri school in 11 of 22 contests, the bowl suffered from declining interest and was discontinued for a second time after the 1975 game. Crowds had dwindled from a peak of 7,000 in the 1960s to just 1,500 in 1974.

After a gap of seventeen years, the bowl was revived as a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) postseason game, held annually on the first Saturday in December starting in 1992. In the 1996 contest, Blinn (TX) defeated Coffeyville (KS) for the NJCAA championship. The junior college bowl typically featured top-ranked teams, and the Kansas community college league--closest to the game site geographically--provided teams for six of the games, but after eight years the sponsors opted to make it an NCAA bowl once again, this time for teams from Division II.

Starting in 2000, representatives from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) and Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) were chosen yearly for the game, with invitations going to the top-placing team in each conference not receiving a bid to the NCAA Division II National Football Championship playoffs. The arrangement between the MIAA and NSIC continued until 2017 but was eventually strained when the MIAA began to send its top non-playoff teams to four other Division II bowl games: the now-defunct Kanza Bowl (from 2009 through 2012), C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl (in 2016 and 2017), and Live United Texarkana Bowl (in 2014, 2015, and 2017), along with the Heritage Bowl (in 2017). After 2017, the NSIC had the only automatic bid to the game, with its representative facing an at-large opponent. The 2018 game featured teams from the NSIC and the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The 2019 game once again included representatives from the NSIC and MIAA, the latter chosen as an at-large team.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of all Division II postseason football games in 2020. Local organizers hoped to hold the Mineral Water Bowl in 2021,https://www.excelsiorspringsstandard.com/sports/mineral-water-bowl-no-go-2020-return-21-possible November 27, 2010. Retrieved July 18, 2023 but after failing to do so, they finally gave up on continuing the game in 2022, citing a lack of sponsors.https://www.d2football.com/forum/forum/football/super-region-4/nsic/705398-mineral-water-bowl post #13, October 27, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2023

All-time scores High school Date played Winning team Losing teamNovember 25, 1948 Excelsior Springs (MO) 48 Mexico (MO) 18November 24, 1949 Excelsior Springs 12 North Kansas City (MO) 6November 23, 1950 Raytown (MO) 7 Excelsior Springs 0November 22, 1951 Harrisonville (MO) 14 Higginsville (MO) 13

Small college Date played Winning team Losing teamNovember 25, 1954 Hastings 20 College of Emporia 14November 24, 1955 Missouri Valley 31 7November 22, 1956 14 13November 30, 1957 33 14November 22, 1958 21 0November 28, 1959 21 20November 26, 1960 17 Iowa State Teachers 6November 25, 1961 Northeast Missouri State 22 Parsons 8November 24, 1962 Adams State 23 Northern Illinois 20November 30, 1963 Northern Illinois 21 14November 28, 1964 North Dakota State 14 13November 27, 1965 North Dakota 37 Northern Illinois 20November 26, 1966 14 8November 25, 1967 14 Doane 14November 30, 1968 Doane 10 0November 29, 1969 21 0November 28, 1970 40 12December 4, 1971 17 14November 18, 1972 27 20November 17, 1973 20 9November 23, 1974 Midland 32 6November 22, 1975 44 0

Junior college Date played Winning team Losing team ReferencesDecember 5, 1992 12 10 December 4, 1993 52 50 December 3, 1994 19 17 December 2, 1995 42 37 December 7, 1996 Blinn 43 14 December 6, 1997 26 22 December 5, 1998 41 3 December 4, 1999 29 20

NCAA Division II Date played Winning team Losing team NotesDecember 2, 2000 Winona State (NSIC) 43 Missouri Western (MIAA) 41 3OTDecember 1, 2001 Central Missouri (MIAA) 48 Minnesota–Duluth (NSIC) 17 December 7, 2002 Emporia State (MIAA) 34 Winona State (NSIC) 27 OTDecember 6, 2003 Missouri Western (MIAA) 24 Concordia (MN) (NSIC) 14 December 4, 2004 Washburn (MIAA) 36 Northern State (NSIC) 33 December 3, 2005 Missouri Western (MIAA) 35 Concordia (MN) (NSIC) 23 December 2, 2006 Pittsburg State (MIAA) 35 Bemidji State (NSIC) 27 December 1, 2007 Missouri Western (MIAA) 20 Wayne State (NE) (NSIC) 13 December 6, 2008 Augustana (SD) (NSIC) 37 Missouri Western (MIAA) 16 December 5, 2009 Missouri Western (MIAA) 34 Augustana (SD) (NSIC) 21 December 4, 2010 Pittsburg State (MIAA) 13 Concordia (MN) (NSIC) 9 December 3, 2011 Minnesota State (NSIC) 28 Northeastern State (Ind.)+ 14 December 1, 2012 Winona State (NSIC) 41 Lindenwood (MIAA) 21 December 7, 2013 Pittsburg State (MIAA) 90 Southwest Minnesota State (NSIC) 28 December 6, 2014 Sioux Falls (NSIC) 42 Central Oklahoma (MIAA) 10 December 5, 2015 Minnesota–Duluth (NSIC) 30 Fort Hays State (MIAA) 22 December 3, 2016 Bemidji State (NSIC) 36 Washburn (MIAA) 23 December 2, 2017 Central Missouri (MIAA) 38 Minnesota–Duluth (NSIC) 28 December 1, 2018 Missouri S&T (GLVC) 51 Minnesota State–Moorhead (NSIC) 16 December 7, 2019 Nebraska–Kearney (MIAA) 50 Winona State (NSIC) 33 + - Northeastern State, an independent already admitted to the MIAA for 2012, received the conference's bowl bid for 2011

Appearances by team This list is for appearances in the Mineral Water Bowl during its years as a postseason NCAA Division II game (2000 through 2019). RankTeamAppearancesRecord1 Missouri Western 6 4–22 Winona State 4 2–23 Concordia (MN) 3 0–33 Minnesota–Duluth 3 1–23 Pittsburg State 3 3–0T5 Augustana (SD) 2 1–1T5 Bemidji State 2 1–1T5 Central Missouri 2 2–0T5 Washburn 2 1–1T9 Central Oklahoma 1 0–1T9 Emporia State 1 1–0T9 Fort Hays State 1 0–1T9 Lindenwood 1 0–1T9 Minnesota State 1 1–0T9 Minnesota State–Moorhead 1 0–1T9 Missouri S&T 1 1–0T9 Nebraska–Kearney 1 1–0T9 Northeastern State 1 0–1T9 Northern State 1 0–1T9 Sioux Falls 1 1–0T9 Southwest Minnesota State 1 0–1T9 Wayne State (NE) 1 0–1

References

External links

Warren Woodson Aeschliman, A History of the Mineral Water Bowl Game. MA Thesis, Northeast Missouri State, 1966. https://avalon.searchmobius.org/search~S11?/aaeschliman/aaeschliman/1%2C7%2C7%2CB/frameset&FF=aaeschliman+warren+woodson&1%2C1%2C/indexsort=-