By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – College bowl games have an organization called the Bowl Season Association. Its membership consists of all Division I college football bowl games. And we’ve just learned that Bruce Skinner, the Executive Director of the Olympic Medical Center Foundation, has been named to the Bowl Season Leadership Hall of Fame for his many years at the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona.
Skinner says it’s a great honor.
“Yeah, it is. And I was really surprised because, you know, I haven’t been there in 31 years. Very surprised and honored, because I still have very strong emotional ties to the Fiesta Bowl.”
That’s understandable, because Skinner served for 17 years at the Fiesta Bowl beginning in 1973, 10 of those years as its Executive Director. He was no stranger to athletics when he arrived, having worked in athletic department at the University of Washington in the late 1960s and later a stint with the NCAA. Back then, he says, the Fiesta Bowl was almost an afterthought in the bowl business.
“At that time, the bowl was very visionary, and we were kind of the Last Place Bowl. All the other bowls picked teams before we did, and we wanted to be the best bowl.”
Skinner says, gradually, one baby step at a time, the Fiesta Bowl moved up through the ranks of respectability. They sold the first title sponsorship ever for a bowl game to the Sunkist Growers, something that later became the standard in the sports industry. Then they struck gold.
“And then in 1986, finally did stage the national championship. Penn State vs. Miami, which is still the most watched college football game of all time.”
Skinner went on to serve as the President of the International Festivals and Events Association from 1990-2001 after moving back to his hometown of Port Angeles. During that time, he has also served as the Executive Director of the Olympic Medical Center Foundation.