The game was originally played from 1952 to 1955 between military services teams; in 2005 it was re-created by the organizers of the Holiday Bowl.

The new Poinsettia Bowl games were played in late December each year at San Diego Stadium.

The original incarnation of the Poinsettia Bowl was as an armed forces football championship game, pitting western and eastern military services champions against each other.

In the inaugural Poinsettia Bowl, the Bolling Air Force Base Generals defeated the San Diego Naval Training Center Bluejackets by a score of 35–14 on December 20, 1952.

[2] The game was held at Balboa Stadium in San Diego in a torrential downpour, before hundreds of reluctant sailors – including future College Football Hall of Fame coach Hayden Fry[3] – who were ordered to sit in the stands so that they wouldn't appear empty in the nationally televised game.

[6] In November 1956, organizers announced the cancellation of that year's game, "because of deployment of the fleet,"[7] shortly after the Suez Crisis.

The bowl was resurrected in 2005, and featured a team from the Mountain West Conference each year it was played, originally against an at-large opponent.