East-West Shrine Game
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The East-West Shrine Game is an annual post-season college football all-star game played each January since 1926. The game is sponsored by the fraternal group Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and the net proceeds are earmarked to some of the Shrine's charitable works, most notably the Shrine's Hospital for Crippled Kids. The game's slogan is Strong Legs Run That Weak Legs May Walk.
The game matches teams of players who attended college in the Eastern United States against those schooled in the Western United States. The game, and especially the practice sessions leading up to it, attracts dozens of scouts from professional teams. Since 1985, two players from Canadian university football, with one playing on each team, are also invited. As such, this is the only bowl game (Canadian or American) to include players from both Canadian and American universities.
The game is often played well into the month of January so that even players from teams whose schools were involved in bowl games can participate, which is important, as these teams often have some of the very best players.
For most of its history, the game has always been played in the San Francisco Bay Area, historically at San Francisco's Kezar Stadium and at Stanford Stadium. In recent years it has been played at SBC Park. For several years there was a similar game in Miami, Florida at the Orange Bowl Stadium, also sponsored by the Shrine, involving teams from the North and South (the North-South Shrine Game). The East-West Shrine Game is sometimes (erroneously) referred to as the Shrine Bowl.
Starting in 2006, the game will be played in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas