Sugar Bowl

Tim Rebowe, who led Nicholls State football to the NCAA FCS playoffs, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Collegiate Coach of the Year for Louisiana for 2017-18. The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, selects annual award winners in a variety of categories; it also selects Amateur Athletes of the Month and each year’s Hall of Fame class.

Rebowe, who completed his third season at the helm of the Nicholls State program in 2017, directed the Colonels to a program-record seven Southland Conference victories and earned a spot in the FCS playoffs for the first time in 12 years. They finished 8-4 and were ranked in both final FCS polls. While the turnaround has been quick (Nicholls had lost 18 straight games before Rebowe’s arrival in 2015), Rebowe has built the foundation of the program by recruiting locally. Rebowe and his staff have signed 68 Louisiana natives out of 74 recruits, including all 10 in the recent signing period. With the majority of the student-athletes hailing from the river parishes, New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas, Nicholls had the most Louisiana players on its roster in Division I football. Nicholls graduated only 16 seniors from the 2017 FCS playoff team, which was ranked as high as No. 17. All 10 All-Southland honorees were juniors and sophomores.

The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee began in 1957 when James Collins spearheaded a group of sports journalists to form a sports awards committee to immortalize local sports history. For 13 years, the committee honored local athletes each month. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the creation of the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1971, honoring 10 legends from the Crescent City in its first induction class. While adding the responsibility of selecting Hall of Famers, the committee has continued to recognize the top amateur athlete in the Greater New Orleans area each month – the honors enter their 65th year in 2021. To be eligible, an athlete must be a native of the greater New Orleans area or must compete for a team in the metropolitan region.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 99 Hall of Fame players, 51 Hall of Fame coaches and 19 Heisman Trophy winners in its 87-year history. The 88th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will feature top teams from the Big 12 and the SEC, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2022. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.7 billion into the local economy in the last decade.

-AllstateSugarBowl.org-