Although as football fans, we tend to think that bowl games have been played since the beginning of time, the fact remains that individuals, through hard work and vision, actually had to start them! A. F. “Bud” Dudley is one such individual. Without him, we would never have had the opportunity to enjoy the Liberty Bowl. A 1943 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Dudley was a member of the football and baseball squads and president of his class. He then entered the Army Air Corps and during World War II flew fifty-four missions as the lead navigator of a B-24 bomber group. Captain Dudley was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with five clusters, and seven major battle stars. The first to obtain NCAA authorization to stage a major college football bowl game in the East, he introduced the Liberty Bowl at Philadelphia in December 1959. It became the first bowl game ever held indoors when played at Atlantic City’s Convention Hall in December 1964. Then in 1965, the Liberty Bowl was permanently moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Among “Bud” Dudley’s many honors, awards, and recognitions is the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame “Most Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football” award for 1985. An upstanding, longtime Memphis resident, A. F. Dudley’s legacy is the Liberty Bowl, and for that, we thank him.
