The Rose Bowl!

[Phil C]

A lot of tradition and history in this bowl which is the Granddaddy of all bowls since it was the first one started in 1903. It always had top teams and was considered "The Bowl" for many years! Being in California they nearly always chose the top team in the Pacific Coast States which was nearly always no problem because their was always a highly ranked team from that area. Then they would choose the top team that they could get from other regions for years and many classic games were fought their. They finally tied the Pacific Coast winner in the 1950s I think with the winner of the Big ten which had many more classic games in most cases. However it was watered down a little big because the Big Ten made the rule that no team could play in the Rose Bowl two years in a row even if they were conference champions. This was the beginning of it's demise as "The Bowl" game but still good games were played.

[Phil C]

For many years the big four bowl games were played on January 1 of each year which consisted of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA, the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, TX, the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, LA and the Orange Bowl in Miami, FL. Texas has played and won in all of them except for the Rose Bowl. This is why the Rose Bowl is special to Texas this year because it is a first. However the 1941 Texas team looked like it was going to be chosen to play in the Rose Bowl. They ran over seven straight opponents before two big upsets (a tie with Baylor and a td loss to TCU) did them in. There was one small consolation though because the last game of the season they got to play Oregon (a team that barely lost and missed out going to the Rose Bowl also but lost to the conference winner - Oregon State - by five points). Texas felt like a statement had to be made and man did they make it by about a 70 to 7 score! The game was played on December 6, 1941. The next day the USA was thrust into WW2 with the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[TigerShark]

Phil C, this was very interesting. Thank you for the insight.

I am just glad to see you write about something besides girls soccer.

[bullfrog_alumni_02]

phil is like a history book and a joke book all rolled into one! aslways great insight by him

[KTJ]

I think it's funny and cool when Phil responds to his own posts.

[Bulldog_12]

This will be a good game. What day and what time is the game at?

[CHSBaseball07]

This will be one of the strangest match ups in the country...i mean michigan and Texas never cross paths..lol...oh well

Phil is like a history book and a scoreboard as news happens...

Thanks Phil

[Phil C]

One famous Rose Bowl game was the 1925 game played after the 1924 season. Back then before the 70s the National Championship was awarded after the regular season and bowls didn't mean anything. Notre Dame had already been awarded the National Championship. Stanford was highly ranked also. The Iris had four great backs called the four horsemen and Stanford had the great Ernie Nevers who later played good pro football. Notre Dame won the game 24 to 10. Back then finals for fall exams did not take place till after the Christmas and New Year's holidays in January. The Irish took a train back to Indiana but due to delays and other problems the team got back late to campus and almost missed out on finals. For that reason Notre Dame refused to play in a bowl game for many years. They finally broke the drought and played in the Cotton Bowl in 1970 against Texas (Texas won). The joke was that it took Notre Dame 30 years to discover the airplane. :)

[Phil C]

was the 1920 Rose Bowl between Harvard and Oregon. Harvard won a defensive game 7 to 6. Seeing no need to push their luck Harvard never played in another bowl game which probably was a wise decision on their part. :)

[Phil C]

to play in the Rose Bowl was SMU in 1936. During 1935 SMU and TCU played the last game of the regular season and both were highly ranked and the winner was to be invited to the Rose Bowl. SMU won a close game 20 to 14 then played Stanford in the Rose Bowl losing a defensive struggle 7 to 0.

[CHSBaseball07]

Phil you are like a Sports History Book......I LOVE IT!

[PPHSfan]

They still have the best Parade. LOL