The California Community Colleges Commission on Athletics, with the assistance of its system-wide corporate partner, Hyundai Motor America, and game sponsor Blue Diamond Almonds, instituted a state football championship contest featuring the best squads from the north and south in 1997. But there is a long history of gridiron state champions. From 1946 through 1966, the Junior Rose Bowl Committee selected a California representative to the game and those selections are recognized as the state champions by the J.C.Grid-Wire, the national authority on community college football. From 1967 to 1974, a state playoff system produced the California champion. Polls determined the state champ in 1975, then the Junior Rose Bowl, under Los Angeles Times sponsorship, returned in 1976 and 1977. The game, by then, had lost much of its appeal, however, and after the Times' withdrawal of its sponsorship, the COA returned to using polls to determine the state champion until instituting a title game. Here is a year-by-year listing of the state champions.
1946 — Compton (defeated Kilgore, TX in JRB, 19-0)
1947 — Chaffey (defeated Cameron, OK in JRB, 39-26
1948 — Compton (defeated Duluth, MN in JRB, 48-14)
1949 — Santa Ana (lost to Little Rock , ARK in JRB, 25-19)
1950 — Long Beach (defeated Boise, ID in JRB, 33-13)
1951 — Pasadena City (defeated Tyler, TX in JRB, 28-26)
1952 — Hartnell ( tied Bacone, OK in JRB, 20-20)
1953 — Bakersfield (defeated N.E. Oklahoma in JRB, 13-6)
1954 — El Camino (lost to Hinds, MS in JRB, 13-7)
1955 — Compton (defeated Jones, MS in JRB, 22-13)
1956 — Compton (lost to Arlington, TX in JRB, 20-13)
1957 — Cerritos (lost to Arlington, TX in JRB, 21-12)
1958 — Santa Monica (defeated N.E. Oklahoma in JRB, 30-12)
1959 — Bakersfield (defeated Del Mar, TX in JRB, 36-14)
1960 — Long Beach (City defeated Tyler, TX in JRB, 38-16)
1961 — Bakersfield (lost to Cameron, OK in JRB, 28-20
1962 — Santa Ana (defeated Columbia Basin, WA in JRB, 20-0)
1963 — Orange Coast (defeated N.E. Oklahoma in JRB, 21-0)
1964 — Long Beach City (defeated Cameron, OK in JRB, 28-6)
1965 — Fullerton (defeated Henderson, TX in JRB, 20-15)
1966 — Pasadena City (lost to Henderson, TX in JRB, 40-13)
1967 — Fullerton (defeated American River in playoff finals, 41-7)
1968 — Fresno City (defeated East Los Angeles in playoff finals, 16-7)
1969 — Fresno City (defeated Fullerton in playoff finals, 28-9)
1970 — Sequoias (defeated Fullerton in playoff finals, 24-21)
1971 — El Camino (defeated Santa Rosa in playoff finals, 48-14)
1972 — Fresno City (defeated Pasadena City in playoff finals, 21-7)
1973 — Fresno City/Los Angeles City (tied in playoff finals, 10-10)
1974 — East Los Angeles (defeated San Jose City, 33-14)
1975 — Orange Coast (poll)
1976 — Bakersfield (defeated Ellsworth, IA in JRB, 29-14)
1977 — Pasadena City (defeated Jones County, MS in JRB, 28-9)
1978 — Santa Rosa (poll)
1979 — DeAnza (poll)
1980 — Modesto (poll)
1981 — Sacramento City (poll)
1982 — Taft (poll)
1983 — Fullerton (poll)
1984 — Taft (poll)
1985 — Saddleback (poll)
1986 — San Jose City (poll)
1987 — El Camino (poll)
1988 — Bakersfield (poll)
1989 — Riverside (poll)
1990 — Taft (poll)
1991 — Palomar (poll)
1992 — Saddleback (poll)
1993 — Palomar (poll)
1994 — San Francisco (poll)
1995 — Long Beach City (poll)
1996 — Saddleback (poll)
1997 — Mt. San Antonio (defeated San Francisco in state champ., 34-31)
1998 — Palomar (defeated San Francisco in state champ., 30-21)
1999 — San Francisco (defeated Allan Hancock in state champ., 22-14)
