National Register visit 186: The Rose Bowl. This New Year’s Day, the Michigan Wolverines and the Alabama Crimson Tide face off at the Rose Bowl, perhaps the most storied stadium in all of college football. Or so I’m told. I actually don’t care about sports, when other kids were watching the game with their dads, I was doing ISRAELI FOLK DANCING.But look, even for an organized sports luddite like me, the impact of the Rose Bowl is undeniable. And as it turns out, the stadium’s origin story and construction history are pretty fascinating.
For example, did you know that:
🤔The site of the Rose Bowl used to be a city dump?
🤔Originally the Rose Bowl wasn’t a full bowl - Myron Hunt’s original design looked like a horseshoe, with the entire southern section left open for a running track?
🤔Michigan played in the very first Rose Bowl Game in 1902, 20 years before the stadium was built (and they trounced Stanford, 49-0)?
🤔In 2003, the NFL was considering building an underground parking lot below the Rose Bowl?
And furthermore, were you aware of these two factoids:
🤔The locker rooms for competing teams are identical, down to the historic photos mounted on the walls, with the exception of the team logos above the water fountain?
🤔The red seats they had for decades used to fade to a pinkish color in the baking sun, so now they just use pink seats?
I wasn’t allowed to get video of the field while I was on their recent holiday tour, but that’s just grass and paint anyway. What you’re really here for is the concrete, the rocks, and the industrial-strength pylons that support the upper tiers, right? I got plenty of footage of that.
I'm visiting all the landmarks in LA County listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Read more about this one and many more at etandoesla.com...
All photos via LA Public Library except where noted:
📷Rose Bowl Game, 1923 (Huntington Library)
📷Early Rose Parade, 1902
📷First Tournament football game
📷Tournament of Roses chariot races, 1908
📷Rose Bowl, aerial view
📷New Year's Day at the Rose Bowl, 1925
📷Fireworks over the Rose Bowl, 1982
#rosebowl #collegefootball #wolverines #crimsontide #michigan #alabama #thisplacematters #footballstadium #sportshistory