A Brief History of the Rose Bowl

New Year's Day College Football Tradition for Over A Century

Dec 16, 2008

The Rose Bowl game, a part of Pasadena, California's Tournament of Roses, was first played in 1902, and has been played annually since 1923.

The history of the Rose Bowl Game is, of course, closely intertwined with Pasadena, California’s Tournament of Roses, a festival originally staged in 1890 to promote the town and draw new residents from the snowy east. The festival included the famous parade as well as events like “bronco busting” and ostrich races and, in 1902, a football game.

The “Tournament East-West Football Game” featured local Stanford University versus midwest powerhouse Michigan, and was the first post-season college football game in history. After the Wolverines stomped the locals 49-0, it was decided that perhaps chariot races would be more entertaining for the following year.

Rose Bowl Stadium Hosts First Game January 1st 1923

By 1916, however, with the popularity of college games on the rise, football returned to the Tournament of Roses for good. Those early games were played in “Tournament Park”, which soon could not handle the annual increase in crowds. A new stadium, based on Yale University's bowl-shaped stadium was built in Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco area, hosting its first game on January 1st, 1923. The “Rose Bowl” --the “grandaddy of them all”-- has been played on New Year’s Day ever since.

For several years following its inception, the Rose Bowl was the only postseason or bowl game played. Not until 1935 did three more bowls appear: Miami’s Orange Bowl, New Orleans’ Sugar Bowl, and El Paso’s Sun Bowl. Two years later Dallas’ Cotton Bowl was added.

More than a hundred bowls have come and mostly gone, but these five are considered the “original” bowls, having been played annually for more than 70 years. The Rose Bowl, of course, leads the group. In 2008/09, 34 bowl games will be played between December 20th and January 8th.

Big Ten-PAC 10 Exclusive

In 1947, the Tournament of Roses formed an exclusive agreement with the Big Ten and PAC-10 (then the Pacific Coast Conference) to host the champions of those conferences in the Rose Bowl. It was the first and remains the longest standing tradition between any conference(s) and bowl association, although it is no longer exclusive.

For many years, the Rose Bowl was considered the national championship of college football, simply by virtue of the strength of the two conferences. But as other conferences grew stronger, particularly in the south and east, that changed. Now the Rose Bowl is one of four rotating hosts of the BCS National Championship Game, and will host it next in 2010.

Michigan Trounces But USC Dominates

Strangely enough, the two biggest Rose Bowl blowouts were both by Michigan, by the same score: In the very first game in 1902 vs Stanford and in the 1948 game vs USC, both by a score of 49-0. Michigan has gone on to win the game 8 times.

The University of Southern California Trojans (USC), however, have won the most Rose Bowl games, with 23 victories in 32 appearances. USC has a chance to further improve their record when they play Penn State in the next Rose Bowl (2009). The date of that game? January 1st!

The copyright of the article A Brief History of the Rose Bowl in College Football is owned by Dale Van Every. Permission to republish A Brief History of the Rose Bowl in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.