The Ivy Bowl (also known as the Epson Ivy Bowl) was an international college football game played between an American, 43-man all-star team (composed of only Ivy League players) versus a team of college all-stars from Japan.[1] The first Epson Ivy Bowl occurred on January 8, 1989, and the final game occurred at the conclusion of the 1996 NCAA Division I-AA football season.[1] The United States won every match-up. The wins, because they were not between two NCAA-affiliated schools and some of the years were mixed school (all-star) teams[2] [3] [4] [5] do not count toward official win–loss records.
Despite the fact that the College of William & Mary was not a member of the Ivy League, they were chosen to participate in 1988 and 1992 seasons' Epson Ivy Bowls.[6] Long considered a "public ivy", William & Mary was the only true non-Ivy League school to send players to Japan.
| Game | Date | Winner | Score | Loser | Score | Venue | MVP | Fighting Spirit Award | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 8, 1989 | 73 | Japan All-Stars | 3 | ||||||
| 2 | December 23, 1989 | Ivy League All-Stars | 49 | Japan All-Stars | 17 | Yokohama Stadium | Rick McIntyre （Harvard） | Ryusei Kajiyama （Nihon） | [7] | |
| 3 | December 24, 1990 | Ivy League All-Stars | 47 | Japan All-Stars | 10 | Yokohama Stadium | Steve Hooper （Penn） | Kazuyuki Shinbori （Hosei） | [8] | |
| 4 | December 23, 1991 | Ivy League All-Stars | 24 | Japan All-Stars | 0 | John Makunifu （Cornell） | jin Shirawachi （Meiji） | [9] | ||
| 5 | January 1, 1993 | Ivy League All-Stars | 68 | Japan All-Stars （excluding Nihon University） | 3 | Tokyo Dome | Matt Bashika （Dartmouth） | [10] | ||
| 35 | Nihon[11] | 19 | ||||||||
| 6 | January 8, 1994 | Ivy League All-Stars | 31 | Japan All-Stars | 14 | Tokyo Dome | Jay Fiedler （Dartmouth） | Masafumi Kawaguchi （Ritsumeikan） | [12] | |
| 7 | January 8, 1995 | Ivy League All-Stars | 20 | Japan All-Stars | 10 | Brian Bassett （Columbia） | Tetsuya Akiyama （Nihon） | [13] | ||
| 8 | January 7, 1996 | Ivy League All-Stars | 35 | Japan All-Stars | 16 | Hankyu Nishinomiya Stadium | John Harper （Columbia） | Toru Kojima （Tokai） | [14] |
Source:[15]
| Player | Position | College | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CB[16] | Cornell | ||
| Bryan Keys | RB | Penn | |
| Steve Johnson | |||
| Matt Pollard | K | Columbia | |
| Matt Less | TE | Columbia | |
| Danny Clark | QB | Brown | |
| Nick Stanham | WR | Dartmouth | |
| Malcolm Glover | QB | Penn | |
| John Francis | DB | Brown | |
| Mark Bianchi | WR | Dartmouth | |
| Frank Leal | DB | Princeton | |
| Mark Ligos | LB | Penn | |
| Dave Amodio | |||
| Steve Kapfer | |||
| Judd Garrett | RB | Princeton | |
| Rick McIntire | |||
| Rich Huff | DB | Yale | |
| Chris Finn | |||
| Mike Holt | DB | Columbia | |
| Jon Skinner | |||
| Mike Ciotti | C | Yale | |
| Franco Pagnanelli | Princeton | ||
| Scott Wollam | DL | Yale | |
| Harris Siskind | |||
| Dave Tauber | |||
| Bob Surace | Princeton | ||
| Greg Gicewicz | Harvard | ||
| Gerald Mahon | |||
| Kevin Luensmann | |||
| Glover Lawrence | DL | Yale | |
| Steve Harrison | Brown | ||
| Drew Fraser | |||
| Kevin Collins | |||
| Jim Griffin | TE | Yale | |
| Dave Whaley | WR | Penn | |
| Tom Parker | WR | Dartmouth | |
| Pete Masloski | |||
| Mike Vollmer | |||
| Bob Paschall | DL | Columbia | |
| Rich Puccio |