Blue Wahoos Owner Quint Studer Honored At Soul Bowl, Part Of Football Weekend At Stadium 

A few months past the 2012 grand opening of Blue Wahoos Stadium, an idea was broached to move the annual Soul Bowl youth football event to the bayfront venue.

Blue Wahoos owner Quint Studer led the discussion. It presented a dramatic change from the game's rotation between Legion Field and Magee Field.

“Let’s do it,” he said.

That decision was recognized and celebrated at the recent 33^rd Soul Bowl when Studer was presented the cherished Community Service Award during the on-field, Unity Circle gathering of community leaders between age division football games.

The event has featured five games between the Southern Youth Sports Association (SYSA) Tigers and East Pensacola-Magee Field Rattlers. Studer’s award presentation elicited applause from both sides.

“We always honor someone, who has been a significant participant with impact on the Soul Bowl. We would not be here today (Oct. 4), if not for Quint Studer,” said Lumon May, an Escambia County Commissioner, who the founder and executive director of SYSA, which has impacted thousands of children from its community area in west Pensacola.

“I get a lot of credit for doing work for his game at the stadium, but it’s because Quint Studer had the vision to bring it downtown and let everyone enjoy downtown,” May said. “Before this game started (at Blue Wahoos Stadium) we didn’t have Bruce Beach, we didn’t have a lot of things downtown.

“We have a lot of great things happening downtown and in Pensacola and that’s because Quint ignited it. I am happy to be on his team.”

Humbled by the award, Studer addressed the crowd at Blue Wahoos Stadium and pointed out how the stadium was always designed to a be a multi-purpose, community gathering place.

“I think we’ve done that,” he said.

For the first time in 10 years, the East Pensacola Rattlers claimed the 2025 Soul Bowl trophy by winning three of the five games, ranging from ages 5-6 through 13-14.

But the game outcomes are only a small part of the experience at the Soul Bowl. It has created lifetime memories for the youthful players, along with a reunion of friendships among the people attending the game and setting up the tailgate tents that envelope the seating bowl.

“This is what a field like this on our waterfront and downtown is supposed to be,” said Pensacola mayor D.C. Reeves. “It brings our community together whether it’s baseball, whether it’s a concert, whether it’s the Soul Bowl.

“And you see how many kids are having fun here whether they’ve been here 100 times at this stadium or one time. You support facilities like this to give children, families, coaches, an opportunity to say they played on this field and enjoyed community assets.”

Reeves has unique perspective from being a former sports writer at the Pensacola News Journal who once wrote stories about the Soul Bowl.

He said Studer’s game-changing decision to help create the Community Maritime Park, along with a stadium to house a Major League Baseball affiliate team like the Blue Wahoos, has been immeasurable.

“As someone who worked for him for seven years and I’ve known of him for the better part of my life, I cannot think of someone else who has put this city and this community first more than Quint Studer,” Reeves said. “This is someone who is not from here. He has no obligation to do anything he’s done – whether that’s the Children’s Hospital, the community events at Maritime Park, the stadium, countless other things that people don’t know about that I was fortunate enough to know that Quint and Rishy did for this community.

“So, any award for his philanthropy and his investment in this community is well deserved.”

This year’s Soul Bowl was preceded the night before by the First City Bowl, designated this time as the fifth annual Mayor’s Bowl clash between Pensacola High and Booker T. Washington – the two public high school teams within the city.

The Washington Wildcats won 30-20 to reclaim the Mayor’s Bowl trophy that PHS won for the first time in 2024. In the game, PHS took a 14-0 lead before Washington surged ahead.

It was the third consecutive year that a high school game was played at Blue Wahoos Stadium. Both back-to-back football events began a busy October at the stadium.

This weekend, a private company outing with Kuhn Realty occurs Saturday, followed by the Oct. 12 Pensacola Half-Marathon and Pensacola 5K Run and Walk, organized by RunPensacola.com. The distance runs will begin and end at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

The following week on Oct. 18 is the sold-out fall baseball exhibition game featuring Florida State against Mississippi State.