Bowl Game Is on Hiatus, but OCSA Going Strong

Failure to produce a Big Orange Classic for 1995 understandably disappointed the Orange County Sports Assn., which organized and staged a postseason college football game 11 consecutive years.

The game, formerly called the Freedom Bowl, was the association’s signature event. The defeat came on the heels of the demise of the Disneyland Pigskin Classic and during the association’s ongoing financial troubles. Moreover, new management hoped to improve the county-wide image of the OCSA by executing a financially successful game--a rarity during its run at Anaheim Stadium.

However, the association hasn’t been idle since it announced the event’s hiatus.

The OCSA is working to improve its surviving events, promote its renewed direction and procure additional events, said Jerry McGee, executive director. And although many sports fans think the Big Orange Classic is gone for good, McGee maintains it will be back in 1996 and better than before.

“Obviously, we’re not pleased that there won’t be a Big Orange Classic in 1995; there’s really no getting around that,” said McGee, a vice president of the Irvine-based Lindquist group that took over management of the OCSA in April. “But we’re just taking a year off.

“We’ve already had discussions with the [NCAA Special Events Committee] and schools throughout the country about ’96. Surprisingly, we received a significant amount of understanding from the NCAA and the schools we’ve talked to.”

The Special Events Committee granted the OCSA’s request to be considered again for certification in 1996. The committee will review the group’s proposal when it is scheduled to reconvene in late April.

Had the Special Events Committee denied the request, the OCSA would have had to begin the certification process as a newcomer. The initial certification process mandates a two-year waiting period for play after committee approval.

Granting the request was not unusual, longtime bowl game administrators said. The NCAA realizes attempting to save bowls is in its best interest.

However, some of McGee’s counterparts are pessimistic about the game’s long-term viability. They expressed doubt that the game would be played again when the decision was announced to skip this season.

Still, McGee and his OCSA colleagues are undeterred.

“We will have a game in 1996--that’s not something open to discussion,” McGee said. “There is no doubt in our minds about that.”

Though frustrated that months of work went unfulfilled, McGee believes not playing the game this season provides advantages too.

“The reality is that it was in the best interest of the OCSA and the Big Orange Classic that we do this with an adequate amount of lead time,” McGee said. “We needed that to make it a great event, and we really didn’t have [enough time]. All of our efforts would have had to come together just perfectly, and we would have had to keep our fingers crossed that all the pieces fell into place.

“Now we can do it right.”

There is still the matter of the OCSA’s unwieldy debt, which McGee said is between $1.4 million and $1.7 million. He said the association is working on plans to “make our past debts whole.”

That, however, doesn’t mean the OCSA will curtail its ongoing efforts to organize and promote sports events, he said.

“We are still involved in a broad range of events and we’re trying to bring new events to the county for the spring and summer of next year,” McGee said. “I think we have addressed most of our past liability, and we are developing strategies to resolve those remaining and move the organization forward.”