NCAA Football | History of the "Kickoff Classic"

With the college football season a few weeks away in 2024,during the month of August especially the latter part of the month college football kicks off to start a new season no fall camp or spring practice now it is go time in the college football landscape. Once upon a time back in 1983, the college football season would kickoff a series called the Kickoff Classic something unprecedented especially the venue it was played in.

The origins of the Kickoff Classic got started in New Jersey in East Rutherford but before that transpired back in 1978,the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority operated and scheduled events at the old Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. There used to be a bowl game that was played called the Garden State Bowl but the attendance was very low due to the weather in December and not enough intriguing teams in college football for the Kickoff Classic.

Fast Forward to 1983 now the Kickoff Classic was born on August 29th, 1983 when the defending champion Penn State Nittany Lions faced the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Giants Stadium for the first inaugural matchup in the Kickoff Classic. Both teams had played each other in recent years so these teams were not strangers to playing each other.

The matchup was intriguing to whet the appetite for the college football consumer. Nebraska dominated winning by score of 44-6. Nebraska would go on to have one of the most dominant college football seasons ever led by Coach Tom Osborne, Quarterback Turner Gill, Running Back Mike Rozier and Wide Receiver Irving Fryar and would play for the national championship in the Orange Bowl but would lose to the eventual national champion the Miami Hurricanes by score of 31-30.

What made the Nebraska/Penn State tilt such as a watershed moment in the annals of college football because it was the first time ever in college football history that a regular season game in college football was played in the month of August unprecedented.

From a television perspective, the rights to the game was sold to syndication by a gentleman named Michael Botwinik who was in charge of Katz Communications. The game was aired on various local stations throughout the country. There were 71,123 fans that were in attendance for the Nebraska vs Penn State matchup.

The Kickoff Classic was definitely a game changer for college football at the time. Sports Illustrated even put Mike Rozier from Nebraska on the cover on behalf of the Kickoff Classic matchup between Nebraska and Penn State for the September 5th 1983 issue bringing more exposure to the Kickoff Classic.

Moving forward the Kickoff Classic would feature 20 matchups including ABC Sports covering and broadcasting the Kickoff Classic. The Kickoff Classic would run from 1983 to 2002 ending a great run at Giants Stadium. Overall August 29th 1983 was a watershed day in college football lure for the Kickoff Classic breaking new ground with a college football game being played in the regular season beginning in the month of late August that would lay down the blueprint for future games to be played in August such as the Pigskin Classic that would begin in 1990 or the Eddie Robinson Classic that would begin in 1997.

In 2002 due to the NCAA making rule changes regarding season opening extra games brought an end to the Kickoff Classic. But later in the decade of the 2000s,the new wave and form of kickoff games would be revived again in 2008 with the Chick-Fil-a Kickoff Game in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Kickoff Classic sparked a revolutionary seismic shift in college football where college football games was able to be played in late August to kick off a new season of college football where aspirations and anticipation for a successful possible season begins and it all started on August 29th 1983.