Pageant News Bureau - Peach Bowl queens

Sometimes when you start telling a story, you don't know whether its ending will be sad or happy. This is one of those stories.

If you're a sports fan, you know the Peach Bowl. It's one of the annual college football classics held in America around the New Year's holiday. You've heard of others, named for famous crops -- Orange, Sugar, Cotton.

The Peach Bowl is held in Atlanta, because Georgia is known as the Peach State. And the game's parade is famous for its Georgia peaches, otherwise known as beauty queens. Chief among them is the Peach Bowl Queen. In 2005, not coincidentally, gorgeous brunette Lisa Wilson was the queen, as well as being Miss Georgia USA and a PNB cover girl.

And who will be the queen next year? That's a good question.

In the past few years, large companies have taken on individual sponsorship of bowl games, and have added their names to them. Thus the Peach Bowl became the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, because it is sponsored by the restaurant chain famous for succulent chicken sandwiches.

More recently, companies have started replacing the old names altogether, to keep media types from shortening the name and ignoring the company's contribution. (You can't blame the companies, because they contribute good money to be known as sponsors.) So it was announced in late 2005 that the 2006 bowl in Atlanta will be simply the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

We'll get used to the new name, right? Sure, but what becomes of the Peach Queen? She can't have that title, and we suspect that titles like "Chick Queen" and "Fil-A Queen" won't send the right corporate message. Will the title be quietly retired? Will beauty queens disappear from the parade altogether?

Ashley White with the University of Miami mascot

Fast-rising beauty queen Kinley Minchew, sister of Lacey Minchew

Now you're saying to yourself, "Is that all these people have to worry about?" Unfortunately, no. But if you want to think about pageant girls and not just look at them, this subject is great for starters.

Twilight of the peach