One of the oldest collegiate bowl games in existence, the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl is still one of the more prominent showdowns during bowl season.
This year, the Clemson Tigers and Kentucky Wildcats will play in this historical bowl game.
What is the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl?
The TaxSlayer Gator Bowl is an annual bowl game contested between teams from the SEC and ACC each December. It has featured six Heisman trophy winners and multiple Hall of Fame coaches, including Bobby Bowden, Steve Spurrier, and Vince Dooley, and others.
Currently, the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl is in the tier just below the New Year’s Six Bowls and is one of the more well-respected bowls for the SEC and ACC. This year, it features the only SEC-ACC matchup of bowl season.
The Gator Bowl is one of the pools of six bowls for the SEC, meaning after the New Year’s Six Bowls and Citrus Bowl have been filled, the six bowls decide which SEC teams should fill them. This year, 8-4 Kentucky was chosen for the Gator Bowl.
Where is the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl?
The TaxSlayer Gator Bowl has been played each year at Everbank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida since January 1996, but it was originally played at Gator Bowl Stadium from 1946-1993. The 1994 game, however, was played at the University of Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville.
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One of the oldest bowl games in existence, the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl has experienced relatively little change in location or venue since its creation in 1946.
What Was The Former Name of the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl?
The Gator Bowl has always had the same basic name, but it has had several sponsors over the years. From its creation in 1946 to 1985, the Gator Bowl was simply called the Gator Bowl and played at Gator Bowl Stadium. For the next five years, Mazda sponsored the game as the Mazda Gator Bowl.
In 1992, the game was called the Outback Gator Bowl, which gave way to the Toyota Gator Bowl in 1995. Toyota was the presenting sponsor until 2008 when the name changed again to the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl. Progressive sponsored the game in 2011.
Since 2012 TaxSlayer.com has sponsored the bowl. The company dropped the “Gator” part of the name in 2014, presenting the game as the TaxSlayer.com Bowl for three years. In 2018, partially due to the reaction of fans, the game was named the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl and has remained the same ever since.
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