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Conceived in 1932 by the original Orange Bowl Committee, the Orange Bowl was created as a popular tourism attraction for the New Year's Festival in Miami that would attract national publicity and bring more businesses and money to South Florida. This venture proved successful as the Orange Bowl celebration grew in both size and popularity, becoming a national extravaganza with their lavish parades, annual football games, and beauty pageants, all in an effort to create the "world's greatest half-time spectacle."

The first football game ever put on by the committee was in 1932 between the University of Miami Hurricanes and Manhattan College from New York City in what was then called the Festival of Palms Bowl. In 1935, the festival was renamed as the Orange Bowl and started featuring college football teams to participate based on their national rankings rather than offering a guaranteed position, and it was recognized by the NCAA as the first "official" Orange Bowl. The Orange Bowl stadium was created in 1937 to accommodate the game as well as the Miami Dolphins home games and several Super Bowls up until it was demolished in 2008, but it gained a prolific reputation as a local attraction during its lifespan in south Florida.

The Orange Bowl Records contains documents, financial and administrative files, scrapbooks, photographs, ephemera, pamphlets, newsclippings, audiovisual material, and 3D objects pertaining to the Orange Bowl Committee and their archives.