A look at page 421 of the 2003 NCAA Football Records reveals a list of 97 postseason games that cities across America -- from Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Wichita Falls, Texas -- have sponsored through the years for small-college football teams.

All have faded into history, except for an event that fights to live on in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, and today matches teams from two Division II conferences -- the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association and Northern Sun Conference.

In its heyday, Excelsior Springs' Mineral Water Bowl drew some of the best small-college teams in the country to Roosevelt Field -- a 1930s-era structure nestled in a hollow in the shadow of the historic Elms Resort and Spa. (President Harry Truman peacefully slept through Election Night 1948 at the Elms -- just three weeks before the first Mineral Water Bowl game -- and woke the next morning to learn he had pulled one of the great upsets in American political history with his victory over Thomas Dewey.)

Northern Illinois University clinched The Associated Press' small-college national championship with a victory in the 1963 bowl game over Southwest Missouri State University. Some familiar names -- including future coach and Congressman Tom Osborne, who played twice as Hastings College's quarterback, and Adams State College's Don Cockroft, later an NFL All-Pro kicker who claimed a place in football trivia as the man whose kickoff began the first NFL Monday Night Football game -- have appeared in the bowl.

Like the other 96 games listed in the records book, the Mineral Water Bowl fell on hard times, and actually was discontinued for 17 years after the 1975 game. But the event, played for the benefit of local high-school and youth activities programs, was resurrected by the Excelsior Springs Quarterback Club in 1992, first matching up some of the nation's best junior college teams, then switching to its current arrangement with the Division II conferences in 2000.

Today, the game offers an almost unique experience, joining the Pioneer Bowl in Atlanta as the only postseason games outside the NCAA championship for Division II football teams.

"It been part of Excelsior for so long," said Roger Siegel, director of the bowl since its rebirth and the son of Melvin Siegel, who was active in organizing the game during the 1960s and 1970s in this city of 10,000 people. "We know the first Saturday in December is Mineral Water Bowl day."

The first few games, beginning in 1948, featured Kansas City-area high-school teams and drew huge crowds. But the Missouri High School Athletic Association banned such games in the early 1950s, leading the event's sponsors to turn to small-college participants to survive -- not for the last time, as it has turned out.

The 1960s were the game's best years, filling the stadium for contests pairing teams from such far-flung places as Michigan, Colorado, Texas and North Dakota. But an increase in televised college football -- as well as more playoff opportunities for NCAA Divisions II and III members and teams in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics -- cut attendance and available participants, and eventually resulted in discontinuation of the event.

'Let's play'

When the game resumed, it featured some of the best junior-college teams in the country and hosted several exciting games. Unfortunately, however, few fans accompanied the teams to Excelsior Springs; junior colleges do not have large alumni followings, Siegel explained.

"We probably wouldn't still be doing it if it was junior college," he said.

Siegel and others in the Quarterback Club, noticing that Excelsior Springs is located in the geographical heart of the nationally powerful Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, won MIAA Commissioner Ralph McFillen's support for a game involving that league's teams, and assistance in lining up the Northern Sun Conference to provide an opponent.

"We just took a chance," Siegel said. "(McFillen) came up, we took him on a tour and said, 'This is what we've got, what d'ya think?' He said, 'Let's play.' He did most of the work with the NCAA for us (obtaining Division II approval of the game at the 2000 Convention).

"We didn't have a clue whether it would work."

The first game went three overtimes, with Winona State University beating Missouri Western State College, 43-41. The game drew 2,300 fans -- not a big crowd, but a welcomed improvement.

The Quarterback Club and other city groups work hard to provide an enjoyable experience for the participating teams and their fans, sponsoring a Thursday-night "tailgate party" where local restaurants provide food, followed by a Friday-night banquet for the teams and a parade before the game on Saturday.

Change on the way

The event still struggles a bit. The game doesn't get the kind of area media attention that it enjoyed in the 1960s, and attendance, though decent, is not as good as desired.

"We dream about seeing the stadium standing-room only, but that hasn't happened yet," Siegel said. "But we're pleased about it, or we wouldn't be doing it."

There is concern, too, about next year's expansion of the NCAA Division II Football Championship from 16 to 24 teams, which will cut into the availability of teams from the two conferences.

"It's not going to help us, but it's nothing that will cause us to throw up our arms and quit," Siegel said. "It gives another team something to play for...if you're a senior and you get one more chance to put on the pads, it seems like that's something to play for."

This year's game, scheduled for December 6, may stir more memories than usual even for an event that cherishes its history, because it will be the last Mineral Water Bowl played at Roosevelt Field. The game is moving to a new location at Excelsior Springs High School on the west side of town -- and a new stadium featuring seating purchased from Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium after a recent remodeling, as well as a Sprint Turf field and modern press box and scoreboard.

"Roosevelt Field has been tremendous, and those colleges that have come in just love it -- they love the old setting down there in the hollow, and the old buildings around it. One of the conferences asked why we have to move it away. But it's time; we've got to do something."

Why? Because Excelsior Springs wants its Mineral Water Bowl to continue for years to come. That's Siegel's biggest hope, among several he expresses for the future of the game.

"I hope the new stadium helps us out tremendously in terms of people, especially from the Kansas City area, coming and watching the ball game," Siegel said. "I hope the conferences will still want to participate with us -- it's been a good fit so far. I hope the conferences, from top to bottom, stay strong.

"Our biggest thing is, we want to put people in the seats. That's what our struggle has been so far."