The 37th through 42nd Rose Bowls

A collection of abridged historical events in the early 1950s Rose Bowl games. The teams, the coaches and the scoring along with player of the game award selections.

Photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of Don Dufek tackled in 1951 Rose Bowl

January 1, 1951, marked the 37th Rose Bowl as the ninth-ranked Michigan Wolverines, champions of the Big Ten Conference, faced the California Golden Bears, winners of the Pacific Coast Conference. Pappy Waldorf was the head coach of the Bears, as Michigan was led by Bennie Oosterbaan. The Wolverines won their conference in dramatic style by upsetting rival Ohio State by scoring a 9–3 victory in the infamous Snow Bowl game, played in 21 inches of the white stuff in a freak blizzard in Columbus. Cal was the early favorite in this contest, as 
 it was the Bear's third consecutive trip to the Rose Bowl. Early on, it looked great for Cal as Pete Schabarum busted loose on a 77-yard run on the game's second play for an apparent TD. However, an illegal motion penalty nullified the score, and Cal lost a bit of Moxy. The Golden Bears got in rolling in the second quarter when Bob Cummings caught a 39-yard touchdown pass from Jim Marinos, but Les Richter missed on the extra point kick. This 6-0 Cal lead held up to the final quarter. That is when the Wolverine's heavy-duty running game started to take its toll on the Bears. Wolverine fullback Don Dufek punched the ticket on two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and was named the Player of the Game as Michigan rallied to win 14-6.

The 38th game in the Rose Bowl series was a bit of a blowout when the Illinois Illini of Roy Eliot banged around the Stanford Indians of Coach Chuck Taylor 40-7. Taylor was one of the famous Vow Boys from the decade earlier and marked the first time a person was in the Rose Bowl game both as a player and a head coach. The Indians did lead 7 to 6 on a Harry Hugasian touchdown until late in the third quarter. However, the Illinois offensive machine then scored 34 unanswered points, 27 in the fourth quarter. All-American runner Johnny Karras showed his talent by rushing for 58 yards and a touchdown for Illinois as part of the 434 yards of total Illini offense. Illinois running back Bill Tate was donned as the game MVP with 150 yards rushing and two scores.

Illinois Win Rewrites 02 Jan 1952, Wed The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware) Newspapers.com

Trojans turn back Wisconsin 02 Jan 1953, Fri The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, California) Newspapers.com

The 1953 Rose Bowl, played on January 1, was the 39th edition of the New Years' Day game. Wisconsin and head coach Ivy Williamson made their Rose Bowl debut ranked number 11 in the country with a 7-0 record. The Badgers would face the fifth-ranked USC Trojans of Coach Jess Hill. The defense was superb in this contest, as only one score was surrendered. A third-quarter TD by the Trojans proved to be the difference in this evenly matched game, USC 7-0. USC quarterback Rudy Bukich was named the Player of the Game. Future Heisman Trophy winner, Wisconsin running back/linebacker Alan Ameche finished the game with 133 rushing yards on 28 carries.

The 40th annual Rose Bowl game was a great ball game itself. January 1, 1954, card saw the Michigan State Spartans of Coach Clarence Munn playing against the Red Sanders-led UCLA Bruins. It would be the first time that the Spartans' standings would count in the Big Ten and also the inaugural time that the team would be Rose Bowl eligible.  Their 8-1 record made the Spartans co-champions with Illinois. However, Illinois had last appeared in the 1952 Rose Bowl, and it being MSU’s first, Big Ten rules dictated that the East Lansing school would head to Pasadena. The scoring in the game started on two Spartan miscues where they fumbled away the ball to UCLA, and Bruins capitalized on the opportunities with touchdowns. Michigan finally got on the board with under 5 minutes remaining in the first half. Spartan defensive standout Victor Postula batted down four Bruin passes during the contest.  The second half started turning MSU's way when head coach Biggie Munn's use of the "split-line offense" started paying dividends against the Bruins. Michigan State put together two long drives in the third quarter to lead 21–14. The Bruins defense did their part once again and forced yet another Spartan fumble, and UCLA scored to pull within a point at 21–20, but the PAT was no good. Michigan State made it a two-score game when Billy Wells returned a punt 62 yards for a touchdown with 4:51 left in the game. The final score was 28-20 Spartans. Billy Wells was chosen as the game’s MVP.

When the invitations were being sent out for the 1955 Rose Bowl, the Committee was a t first licking their chops. They could have a defacto National Championship game with a Number 1 versus Number 2 matchup on the slate. Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes entered the Buckeyes into his first Rose Bowl ranked first in the polls. A PCC short-lived "no-repeat" rule" prevented the  #2 UCLA from accepting an invite to the game. In their place was the 8-2 USC Trojans of Coach Jess Hill. Ohio State jumped out early and never looked back, cruising to a 20-7 victory over the Trojans. Ohio State quarterback Dave Leggett won the game MVP award, closely followed by Buckeye back Hopalong Cassady, who rushed for 92 yards.

The 42nd Rose Bowl game was a watershed moment in college football. The contest featured two of the day's most racially integrated college football teams, with six African American players for the Bruins and seven for the Spartans. This was a rematch of the 1954 Rose Bowl. Head Coach Duffy Daugherty, brought his Spartans to the dance. This time it was the Bruins who had the high ranking in the polls, with Michigan State garnering the invite because the Big Ten winner Ohio State could not make the repeat trip to the game by rule. The Californians came out swinging, as on the very first play from scrimmage, Bruin Jim Decker of picked off a pass from Michigan State quarterback Earl Morrall, and returned it to the Spartan 16-yard line. Bob Davenport dove into the end zone from two-yards out to give the Bruins a 7–0 lead.

Michigan State responded a quarter later second quarter, when they engineered an 11-play, 80-yard drive to to knot the score with sevens. Morrall made a 13-yard touchdown pass to Clarence Peaks that was set up earlier by Walt Kowalczyk's 30-yard run to the UCLA 17. 

MSU found their first lead of the day early in the fourth when  Peaks’ threw a 17-yard pass to John Lewis, who caught the ball on the 50 and ran through the Bruin defenders to pay dirt. UCLA answered back when quarterback Ronnie Knox connected with Jim Decker with a 47-yard pass play to the Spartan 7-yard line and three plays later, Doug Peters scored on a one-yard ISO dive. Michigan State won it when replacement kicker, Dave Kaiser made his first ever field goal attempt count from 41 -yards away with seven ticks of the clock remaining. The Spartans won the close ball game 17-14. Kowalczyk was rewarded with the MVP honors after the game.

Field Goal Late 03 Jan 1956, Tue The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington) Newspapers.com

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com.

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of  ROSE BOWL FOOTBALL GAME, VIEW NORTHEAST, 1923 - Rose Bowl Stadium, from Positive Image Photographic Services.

The other photo above is also from Wikimedia Commons and is of the Rose Bowl construction in 1921.After crowds out-grew Pasadena's Tournament Park, architect Myron Hunt drew up plans for the construction of the Rose Bowl stadium in 1920. On January 1, 1923, USC beat Penn State, 14-3, in the first Rose Bowl game. The stadium was enlarged several times, with the south end completed in 1928, taken by an unknown.