Ridenbaugh Press/Northwest

Humanitarian Bowl

Considering all the name changes it’s gone through already, the new name addition of Roady’s Truck Stops to the Boise State Humanitarian Bowl may not be a very big deal.

After all, consider the names the game already has had: Humanitarian Bowl (1997-98), Crucial.com Humanitarian Bowl (1999-2002), [plain old] Humanitarian Bowl (January 2004) and MPC Computers Bowl (Dec. 2004-2006 – no “Humanitarian” at all).

In the context, the new Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl doesn’t really sound like a big stretch. And the naming rights were duly paid for.

(Never heard of Roady’s Truck Stops? That may be because, though it’s currently a large outfit in the industry, it was created only this year by the merger of two differently-named companies. The company list says the only Roady’s in Idaho at present is the Mayfield stop east of Boise on I-84; there is one in Oregon, at Baker, and two in Washington, at Spokane and Toledo. Roady’s corporate offices are located in New Plymouth, however.)

Not everyone’s happy about it. Remarked one commenter on an Idaho Statesman comment board (the whole long thing, well over 100 comments so far, really is worth scanning) offered: “I never thought I could ever stop laughing at the Taco Bell Arena… Today I finally got over it. Can’t wait to find out who will have naming rights for Bronco Stadium so that I can stop laughing at the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl.”