Red Carpet Bowl moving 2012 game to Warren Central

Published 11:30 am Friday, April 27, 2012

This year’s 50th anniversary Red Carpet Bowl is a bad news and good news situation for Vicksburg High School.

The bad news is that construction of a new fieldhouse — which will be underway on the game’s Aug. 17 date — forced the Red Carpet Bowl committee to move the game to Warren Central’s Viking Stadium.

As for the good news, Vicksburg will host the next two games, in 2013 and 2014. It is the first time the game has been played at the same venue two years in a row.

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RCB committee chairman Travis Wayne Vance announced the move at Wednesday’s committee meeting. The committee hated to move the game, but he said the construction, which will result in much of the fencing around the practice fields being removed, forced it.

Also, the construction equipment and materials will take up much of the parking behind Memorial Stadium.

“We didn’t have a choice,” Vance said. “Under the circumstances, logistically, it’d be a nightmare to have it there. I don’t even want to fathom the things that would happen with the fence down. We’d have to probably hire 30 to 45 more security guards.”

The first game was played at Memorial Stadium and Vance played in that game.

“I played on that field and we’d have loved to have had it there,” Vance said. “I hate we can’t have it there.”

Vicksburg will play Pearl in the opener at 6, while Warren Central and Brandon will play at 8.

Plenty of festivities are planned for the 50th anniversary of the first Red Carpet Bowl, played on Dec. 7, 1962. Players and coaches from the two teams who played in the first game — Vicksburg’s Cooper High School and Lee (Columbus) High School — will be honored at halftime.

A pregame flyover, like before last year’s game, is in the planning stages.