Great Rose Bowl Hoax

The 1961 Rose Bowl game is memorable possibly more for an incident that occurred during the halftime intermission than for the game play on the field. We chat about the story of the Great Rose Bowl Hoax in this episode.

The Rose Bowl, played on Monday, January 2, 1961, contained a fascinating secondary story. That year, the Washington Huskies were pitted against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. At halftime, the Huskies led 17–0, and their cheerleaders took the field to show the spectators in the stands in a card stunt, a routine involving flip cards depicting various images for the audience to raise. However, several students from the California Institute of Technology altered the card stunt shown during the halftime break by making the Washington fans inadvertently spell out CALTECH.
The prank has been described as the "greatest collegiate prank of all time" and received national attention. NBC broadcasts the game to an estimated 30 million viewers across the United States. One author wrote, "Few college pranks can be said to be more grandly conceived, carefully planned, flawlessly executed, and publicly dramatic" than the Great Rose Bowl Hoax, as it is now called.

Caltech 1961 Rose Bowl Hoax 03 Jan 1961, Tue Los Angeles Mirror (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com

It was a well-devised plan by the pranksters. The CalTech conspirators sent a contingent to Washington, disguised as reporters, to gain intel on how the Husky cheerleaders would set up the system of cards. The flattered cheer team was more than pleased to share their complex strategy to achieve the large Rose Bowl crowd's participation in their school spirit. The fake reporters took copious notes and returned to plot out their devious plan of halftime sabotage. It must have taken hours or preparation, but the conspirators carefully made their replacement cards, which were the same size and shape as the Washington cheerleader prepared ones. The plot thickened when the CalTech students learned that the Husky cheer squad was invited to Disneyland on the Saturday before the Monday, January 2 game. This was their opportunity to gain entrance into the hotel room of the Washington head cheerleader and place the forged cards in place of the 2,232 originals. When the Huskies cheer squad called out the signal numbers to Washington supporters, a Beaver head appeared rather than the expected Husky emblem in one section, while the word "CALTECH" replaced the planned "HUSKIES." All was caught by the live coverage of the NBC broadcasters who had been in contact with the University of Washington to televise the well-planned school spirit.

Caltech Conspirators Create Card Chaos 03 Jan 1961, Tue The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California) Newspapers.com

The banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the California Institute of Technology Great Rose Bowl Hoax on January 2, 1961, by an Unknown author

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites :

The Great Rose Bowl Prank of 1961, an Article Written by Alan Bellows in 2005

03 Jan 1961, Tue Los Angeles Mirror (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com

03 Jan 1961, Tue The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California) Newspapers.com