El Camino College Will Seek Sponsors for South Bay Bowl

Jim Schwartz, El Camino College dean of physical education and athletics, has announced plans to seek sponsors for a post-season bowl game in 1988 that will invite at least one South Bay community college football team to participate.

Schwartz made the announcement in response to a story in the Thursday edition of The Times that speculated that El Camino College could win the South Coast Conference title, yet not receive a post-season bowl bid.

“El Camino must look at the possibility of forming a South Bay Bowl for community colleges,” Schwartz said. “I plan to pursue it.”

Presumably the game would be held at El Camino’s Murdock Field.

“The South Bay community will be very supportive of this,” he said. “And it will give (South Bay teams) an opportunity to play in a bowl game more frequently.”

Schwartz said sponsors of the Pony Bowl in Orange County, which will be played Dec. 5 at Orange Coast College, had shown interest in inviting El Camino to participate if the team wins its remaining games, but he said he had not received “anything concrete.”

“We’d love to play Taft,” he said.

Taft College entered play Saturday ranked No. 1 in the state. El Camino was ranked second. Taft is expected to be invited to play in Bakersfield’s Shrine Potato Bowl, but it is not likely that El Camino will be invited, according to community college officials.

Invitations for the Shrine Potato Bowl may be announced as early as Tuesday.