Sport Prophecy
Traditions all have a starting point…and sometimes they come to a close. The tradition of a Rose Bowl football game between the Big Ten and Pac-12 (and their earlier conference iterations) stretches back over 100 years.
While the name of the game will carry on as a College Football Playoff game, the last Rose Bowl in the traditional configuration was already played on January 1, 2023, between Utah and Penn State.
With the dissolution of the Pac-12 and expansion of the Big Ten, the traditional East/West Rose Bowl matchup is no more. The Big Ten now stretches “as far as the east is from the west”—no doubt a nod to Psalm 103.
In this time of fluctuation in college football, it is fitting to look back at the “Granddaddy of Them All.”
The first game was played in 1902, then called the Tournament East-West football game, between Michigan and Stanford. The Rose Bowl name first appeared in 1923 when USC beat Penn State. The Nittany Lions were actually invited the year before, but they had a December game in Seattle against the Washington Huskies so they didn’t want to take two cross-country train trips in the same month.
Washington also frequented the Rose Bowl, playing a total of 15 times. The Huskies bested the #1 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers in the 1961 Rose Bowl. It was after that game that my grandfather, a Minnesota season ticket holder, promised his family a trip to Pasadena should the Gophers return to the game the next year.
The Gophers finished second in the Big Ten in 1962 but received a repeat Rose Bowl invite after Ohio State backed out when the faculty voted to focus on academics over athletics.
My grandfather had the Rose Bowl tickets in hand, but the family trip never materialized. As a backup he rented a color T.V. to watch the first Rose Bowl to be broadcast in color. Likely the first color T.V. on Ulysses Street—even if it was only for a day!
With the close of one tradition, perhaps a new one will emerge. Maybe the newfound Big Ten will arrange itself into Eastern and Western divisions. The winner of each division could then play each other in a championship game and even hold it at the Rose Bowl. And if that is the case I’ll be there…or at least will watch it on a color T.V.