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January 3, 2004
Sports America Scores National Attention for Fourth Annual U.S. Army All-American Bowl

ROCKVILLE, Md. - The fourth annual U.S. Army All-American Bowl reached milestones in both national television ratings and attendance, recording a 2.0/5 Nielsen rating and attracting a record 25, 813 fans to San Antonio's Alamodome. Broadcast on NBC on January 3, the U.S. Army All-American Bowl featured an electrifying half-time performance by Alicia Keys and nine college declarations by U.S. Army All-Americans.

Sports America was responsible for coordinating all sports publicity efforts during the event's National Selection Tour and Game Week. The National Selection Tour travels across the country to all 78 U.S. Army All-Americans' hometowns. In total, this year's tour involved 125,000 students attending the various events and pep rallies.

Sports America was successful in sustaining broadcast and print media for the tour in local markets nationwide, which generated a buzz about the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and resulted in over a million impressions. In addition, Sports America was instrumental in organizing a USA Today roundtable discussion during Game Week, which included nine U.S. Army All-Americans. The roundtable focused on the major issues affecting college football and resulted in a full page feature story. USA Today also ran a preview piece on the game and a wrap-up story. Other Game Week media initiatives included chats on ESPN.com and Rivals100.com, home town interviews with the players and daily feature stories in the San Antonio Express-News.

Sports America also handled all media during the array of Game Week events and activities, which included media day at the Alamodome (highlighted by a special tribute to David Edwards, a local San Antonio high school student who suffered a severe spinal cord injury during a football game this past fall), a seminar by the Oakland Raiders Tim Brown and the U.S. Army All-American Awards Dinner featuring Terrell Davis as the guest speaker and Fox NFL Sunday's James Brown as the emcee. The record crowd attending the 2004 U.S. Army All-American Bowl is up more than 6,000 from the 2003 contest (19,250).

This year's game was broadcast live via satellite to members of the 82nd Airborne Division in Ramadi, Iraq and included a pre-game ceremony that honored the heroic men and women of the armed forces and featured more than 90 veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Similar to the 2003 game, which included college declarations by University of Florida quarterback Chris Leak and University of Southern California running back Reggie Bush, nine U.S. Army All-Americans announced their college intentions throughout this year's contest. Among the nine was the nation's No. 1 one high school football prospect, running back Adrian Peterson (Palestine, TX), and No. 3 prospect, defensive back Ted Ginn Jr. (Cleveland, OH) declaring to University of Oklahoma and Ohio State University respectively.

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