The 49th Rose Bowl Game

It is the first Rose Bowl where the top two teams in the country meet to play each other! The Wisconsin Badgers faced the USC Trojans. Our guest in this episode is author and historian Matthew DiBiase, who has been on the program recently to chat about his Lords of the Gridiron: College Football's Greatest Coaches, that put the spotlight on the top coaches of all time in the college. Matthew brings his wealth of knowledge to the table to help us understand the 1963 Rose Bowl game.

It was a pre-BCS and FCS dream to have a Number 1 versus Number 2 match-up when USC met Wisconsin in the 49th annual New Years' game in Pasadena. It was the first time the top two teams met in a post-season bowl event. Expectations were high because the Rose Bowl game would decide the national championship. Wisconsin, led by quarterback Ron Vander Kelen, scored 23 points in the fourth quarter. Was it enough for the comeback win? Let’s look at this game.
The first quarter saw the offenses trade touchdowns, USC on a Pete Beathard throw to Ron Butcher, followed by a Badger 1-yard rush by fullback Ralph Kurek. The following three scores on either side of the intermission were all the Trojans. Ben Wilson and Ron Heller runs to the goal line chalk and a Beathard pass to Hal Bedsole of 57 yards, all followed by Lupo kicks. Two more Beathard TD passes were interrupted by a Wisconsin Vander Kelen 17-yard run and subsequent Kroner Kick.
Just after Beathard connected on his fourth touchdown pass with 14:54 left in the game, his Trojans were looking pretty good with USC up 42–14. Then Vander Kelen led the Badgers, putting together one of the greatest comebacks in college football history. This rally scored 23 unanswered points in the fourth quarter but fell shy of the Wisconsin deficit. The final score of the game was  42 to 37 USC over the Badgers. For their efforts, quarterbacks Beathard and Vander Kelen were named the Rose Bowl co-Players of the Game.

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 Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of Rosa rosada con hojas by COAmaker17 & Football helmet.svg by Simanek combined with a photo of roses by Darin Hayes