The Mirage Bowl: Five Reasons Why This 1983 Ad For A UH Game Is The Greatest Promo Ever

Settling in to watch the Mirage Bowl

​You never know what the obsessed guys at the college football blog Every Day Should Be Saturday are going to come up with, and today it was video magic starring our very own Houston Cougars.

EDSBS had earlier come up with a mock list of Asian bowl games for shitty new conferences, and included one called the Mirage Bowl.

Little did they know a Mirage Bowl actually existed for a while. And UH played SMU in the 1983 game, resulting in a Channel 20 commercial that is awesome in its utter `80s cheesiness.
Five things that make this ad the greatest football promo of all time:

1) Music: The ad can't quite bring itself to go with the Asian Riff, but it instead tries to blend slightly Japanese-sounding music with synths worthy of a Flock of Seagulls B-side.

2) Introduction: Not a stereotype at all. Just an Tokyo salaryman bowing to the camera in welcome. If they wanted to use a stereotype, he would have had a coolie hat and be pulling a rickshaw.

3) First action shot: UH coach Bill Yeoman furiously calling a timeout. Cougar fever -- Catch it!!

4) Bring the bling? Oh yeah -- Shasta's cougar eyes get some sparkle animation. Because....because...it's Japan?

5) Second action shot: A Coog runner getting stopped for a two-yard gain. FEEL THE EXCITEMENT.


"Channel 20 crosses the Pacific to bring you this year's Mirage Bowl live!" says the announcer, and we're being generous by adding the exclamation point.

The Coogs lost to SMU, by the way, 34-12.