Rose Bowl Game® History
"The Rose Bowl Wins Again"
By Judy O'Sullivan

The Rose Bowl Game and Rose Parade entwine like a garland of roses. But sports fans around the globe who yawn their way through Jan. first's floral extravaganza, stay wide awake come game time.

The is the "Granddaddy of All Bowl Games--80-plus-years-old and still kicking. Every major bowl game traces its lineage back to Pasadena. For more than half a century the Rose Bowl Game has been a simple do-or-die play-off between the PAC-10 and the Big Ten.

It's very straightforward. College teams representing the West and the Midwest vie for the championship and only grumpy fans truly care who wins by the time the post-party ends--be it celebration or wake. (The conferences are tied 25 games each.) What counts, whether you're in the stadium or an armchair, is enjoying the day, the game, the Goodyear blimp, the Royal Court, the bands, the sunshine and if you're lucky the attar of roses.

For going-on 83 years this gridiron classic remains constant in the otherwise confusing world of post-season match ups where even games and corporate sponsors get confused. But Pasadena's annual pigskin contest hasn't always been this easily defined.

The first time the Tournament of Roses tried football in 1902, the event fell short like a badly thrown touchdown pass. Touted as an East vs. West play off, Coach Fielding "Hurry Up Yost" and his boys in blue from the University of Michigan pulverized Stanford 49-0 at Tournament Park on property now belonging to Caltech. Surrendering to the Wolverine captain, the gentlemanly Stanford captain said, "If you are willing, we are ready to quit." (With a bone fracture in his leg, Teddy Roosevelt's second cousin played guard for Stanford.) Fourteen years passed before western teams felt like taking on another cross-country foe.

Then a rash of football fervor broke out in the east and midwest and the Tournament Association hated sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for an invitation to join the fun. They just knew they could organize a better competition than anybody east of the Rocky Mountains. Couldn't argue with the Southern California climate. The association organized a well-planned day, again at Tournament Park, with ample "bleacher seating." Ironically it rained.

Only 8,000 turned up to watch William "Lone Star" Dietz lead Washington State to a 14-0 win over Brown. Undaunted, Dietz paced on the sideline clad in top hat, striped pants, swallowtail coat, spats and cane. Brown guard Wallace Wade said, "We were overconfident and took the game as a lark, even attending the parade first." The association lost $11,00 due to the nasty weather.

They shrugged and carried on. The following year, Jan. 1, 1917, dawned sunny and mild. Balmy. Perfect football weather. Over 25,000 eager fans angrily protested a lack of comfortable seating. Oregon defeated Pennsylvania 14-0. The west could hold its own. And more importantly, draw crowds. It was time to build a stadium.

The wealthy civic fathers hired famed architect Myron Hunt suggesting he design a copy of the Yale Bowl. The site? The wild and rocky Arroyo Seco--a dump site full of bootleggers booty and rusted-out cars, a stone's throw from Suicide Bridge. The local business and professional leaders actually traded Tournament Park for this worthless land and were called "foolish."

The association put together a financial package by pre-selling subscriptions, 210 box seats for $100 each guaranteed the first ten years. An additional 5,000 seats provided another five. When finished, the bowl was deeded to the city, which then leased it back to the association for the annual game.

Hunt, a popular member of The Valley Hunt Club which he also designed, was busy changing Pasadena's cityscape. The former La Canada Biltmore--now Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, Polytechnic School, Five Acres Boys' and Girls' Aid Society residences, the Huntington Art Gallery and Library and Occidental College are his. He worked with Elmer Grey of Pasadena Playhouse fame on the latter two. But it was the stadium seen round the world that brought Hunt international acclaim.

Hunt gave Pasadena an eternal bouquet with the Rose Bowl. The graceful structure, silvery in the sunlight, the name scripted in green scrawl beneath a giant rose, is one of the most recognizable signature-stadiums around. Built in 1922, based on Greek models, construction followed an elliptical design that permitted undisturbed sight lines from each of the original 57,000 seats (almost double now). The final cost ran slightly over budget at $272,198.26.

Most everyone tells a Rose Bowl story. In 1925, Notre Dame, coached by Knute Rockne, with the legendary "Four Horsemen" defeated Glenn "Pop" Warner's Stanford team 27-10. The fighting Irish attended early mass before the game at St. Andrew's and "prayed for victory"--an unfair advantage according to some Stanford fans, presently senior citizens.

"Wrong Way Reigels," Roy Reigels of Cal Berkeley recovered a fumble and ran the wrong way in 1929. Dubious immortality

Now home to the UCLA Bruins for almost 16 years, the Rose Bowl hosted the 1932 Olympics and provided a soccer site for the 1984 Olympics.

A state-of-the art addition, a three-level Press Box with 38 luxury-seats attracted the 1993 Super Bowl, and 1994 World Cup Soccer. (Not to mention numerous rock concerts.) The Press Box spans the length of the football field and features 22 executive-suites, 14 club-suites and a fully equipped press area, accommodating 1,100 on the three levels.

The Rose Bowl, despite face-lifts, continues to mean down-home college football at its purest to loyal fans and millions of international TV viewers each New Year's Day. Truly, a rose by any other name is the memorable stadium in Pasadena's now park-like Arroyo Seco.

Famous Firsts