Rose Bowl Overview

The Rose Bowl is 100 Years Old! In celebration of this milestone we are covering the history of the stadium and the New Years Game game associated with it by gathering research from resources from some of the finest historians and authors in the gridiron realm. Timothy Brown of Football Archaeology joins us to get the kick off our 40 day celebration with a very appropriate overview of the Tournament of Roses classic and the origins of the annual football game,

The Rose Bowl is as iconic of a stadium and annual game as there is in American football. It started off as a sideshow entertainment for folks visiting the Tournament of Roses celebration held in Pasadena, California. The pagenat of sorts was developed in 1890 as a way of the city of Pasadena to show off their beauty and warm weather to visitors in a New Years Day celebration. The celebration soon included activities with the crops of nearby farms including flowers such as the roses grown in Southern California and rose soon became an early iconic symbol of the event. A parade to comemorate the advent of a new year helped in the celebration as well. The Rose Parade's official website states that ,

"In 1890, Valley Hunt Club members, led by Charles Frederick Holder, sponsored the first Tournament of Roses. The abundance of flowers, even in the midst of winter, prompted the club to add a parade before the competition, where entrants would decorate carriages with hundreds of colorful blooms."

The first football game of the Tournament of Roses was not played until 1902 and was called the "Tournament East–West football game", at a venue built in haste at Tournament Park. 

Pasadena's Tournament Park, approximately three miles (5 km) southeast of the current Rose Bowl stadium, near the campus of Caltech. Tournament Park was found to be unsuitable for the increasingly large crowds gathering to watch the game and a new, permanent home for the game was commissioned.

The Rose Bowl stadium, designed after the Yale Bowl in New Haven, hosted its first "Rose Bowl" game on January 1, 1923. The name of the stadium was alternatively "Tournament of Roses Stadium" or "Tournament of Roses Bowl," until the name "Rose Bowl" was settled on before the 1923 game.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: Timothy Brown and his FootballArchaeology.com website.

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of Scene from the late 1890's Tornament of Roses Parade. A Decorated carriage, "Tallyho", drawn by six black horses during the Tournament of the Roses Parade, ca.1895-1899
Photograph of decorated carriage, "Tallyho", drawn by six black horses at 313 South Spring Street during the Tournament of the Roses Parade, Pasadena, California, ca.1895-1899. At least seven fancy-dressed ladies with parasols and a driver are aboard. Could perhaps be the queen and court. Courtesy of USC archives and the California Historical Society.