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 California Institute of Technology students 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.