Rose Bowl memorable moments

Michigan State-Stanford on Jan. 1 will mark the 100th Rose Bowl. Among the most notable games:

Fielding Harris Yost is synonymous with Michigan athletics. But he could have been a legend at Stanford, instead of the coach whose Wolverines laid the lumber to his former team en route to a 49-0 victory in the inaugural Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 1902.

Yost was the Stanford head coach for the 1900 season (7-2-1). However, the university passed a rule requiring its coaches be Stanford graduates; Yost was a West Virginia alum.

Hence, Stanford had three head coaches between 1901-05 with a combined record of 43-32-5. Meanwhile, Yost was at Michigan reeling off a 56-game unbeaten streak and a 55-1-1 record while outscoring opponents 2,821-42 in his first five seasons.

Yost finished 165-29-10 with six national championships in 25 seasons (1901-23 and 1925-26) at the Wolverines’ helm. During the same stretch, Stanford had eight head coaches and was 79-23-8. (The university dropped football in favor of rugby from 1906-17 and did not field a team in 1918 because of World War I.)

After Michigan routed Stanford the Tournament of Roses officials opted for anything -- including chariot races and ostrich races -- that wasn't football. But the "Tournament East-West football game" returned to the girdiron on Jan. 1, 1916, and has been played every year since.

The second Rose Bowl pitted Washington State against Brown -- but football wasn't the only thing on the Cougars' agenda. Borrowing from the adage that fact is stranger than fiction, Washington State head coach William "Lone Star" Dietz and his players spent their mornings as extras during the filming of Brown of Harvard then practiced in the afternoon. (They were paid $100 for their Hollywood efforts.)

The life of Dietz was worthy of a book, and Tom Benjey wrote it: Keep A-Goin': The Life of Lone Star Dietz.

As for the game, Washington State scored two second-half touchdowns to blank Brown 14-0.

Notably, Brown's Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard rushed for 47 yards on 13 carries. He was the first black to appear in the Rose Bowl and was the first black named to the Walter Camp All-America team.

(Gamers, check out Madden NFL 09 and Madden NFL 10; Pollard shows up in the Hall of Fame feature.)

The 1925 Rose Bowl was Notre Dame’s inaugural postseason game. It also was a matchup of legendary coaches: Knute Rockne (and the famed Four Horsemen: Jim Crowley, Elmer Layden, Don Miller and Harry Stuhldreher) vs. Pop Warner, who was in his first season as the Stanford head coach.

Stanford had eight turnovers in the game, including three returned for touchdowns by Notre Dame – a 20-yard fumble recovery plus 70- and 78-yard interception returns.

Notre Dame’s Layden rushed for one touchdown and had both of the interception-return TDs as the Irish won 27-10 to cap a national championship season.

Warner would lead Stanford for nine seasons and compile a 71-17-8 record, including 1-1-1 in the Rose Bowl and capped the 1926 national championship season with a 7-7 tie against Alabama in the bowl.

Rockne went on to win back-to-back national titles with the Irish in 1929 and ’30 before his death in a plane crash on March 31, 1931.

Chaos reigned in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Among the decisions made by the U.S. government: no large public gatherings on the west coast -- and that included Pasadena, Calif.

On Dec. 16, Duke offered to play host to Oregon State at its home stadium in Durham, N.C. The stadium seating was only 36,000, so bleachers were hauled in from North Carolina's  Kenan Stadium and Riddick Stadium at NC State. The 56,000 tickets were sold out in 72 hours.

The game was tied at 7 at halftime. Oregon State's Bob Dethman tossed two third-quarter touchdowns -- including a then-Rose Bowl-record 68-yarder to Gene Gray -- as the Beavers upset Duke 20-16. (Dethman also intercepted a pass in the waning moments to seal the victory.)

After the game, Duke head coach Wallace Wade enlisted in the armed forces. During the Battle of the Bulge in 1945, Sam Czech, who played for Oregon State in the 1942 Rose Bowl, shared food with a soldier who had not eaten in two days; the fellow solider was Wade. In 1967, Duke renamed its football stadium in Wade's honor.

Gray, who had a TD catch for the Beavers, ultimately flew more than 30 bombing missions during World War II. In 1948, he suffered severe burns in a plane crash in Panama and both of his arms had to be amputated.

Duke's quarterback, Tommy Prothro, would go on to coach Oregon State (1955-64) and UCLA (1965-70) in the Rose Bowl. His Beavers lost the game in 1957 and '65, while the Bruins won the Rose Bowl in 1966.

For the first time in postseason bowl history the top two teams in the nation squared off, with No. 1 USC (10-0) facing second-ranked Wisconsin (8-1) on Jan. 1, 1963, in the Rose Bowl.

In his third season at the Trojans head coach, USC head coach John McKay made his first Rose Bowl appearance; he would finish his Troy tenure 5-3 in the “granddaddy of them all.” Wisconsin was led by Milt Bruhn, who had led the Badgers to the Rose Bowl after the 1959 season, a 44-8 loss to Washington.

USC led 42-14 with 14:54 remaining in the fourth quarter before Wisconsin quarterback Ron Vander Kelen rallied the Badgers to within five points, 42-37, as time expired. Eleven Rose Bowl records were set in this game, including Vander Kelen’s line: 33 completions, 48 attempts, 401 yards, three interceptions.

One footnote: USCs Marv Marinovich was ejected in the third quarter for elbowing Wisconsin’s Steve Underwood. … Yes, Marv – the father of future Trojans QB Todd Marinvich.

Another footnote: Wisconsin’s eight wins were its most in 20 years and the Badgers would not reach that number again until 1993, when Barry Alvarez’s team went 10-1-1 and won the Rose Bowl. … Alvarez was hired by Pat Richter, who had 11 catches for 163 yards in the 1963 Rose Bowl.

There’s a first time for everything – and the 1969 Rose Bowl marked the first of four Rose Bowl meetings between iconic head coaches Woody Hayes and John McKay.

Hayes’ Ohio State Buckeyes were No. 1 (9-0) while McKay’s USC Trojans were ranked second (9-0-1) with only a tie against Notre Dame to blemish their mark. The Buckeyes featured the “Super Sophomores” – John Brockington, Leo Hayden, Rex Kern, Jim Otis, Jim Stillwagon and Jack Tatum – playing their first varsity season. The Trojans were led by Heisman Trophy winner O.J. Simpson.

USC led 10-0 before Ohio State rallied behind two fourth-quarter touchdown passes from Kern to earn a 27-16 victory to secure Hayes’ fourth of five national championships. The Buckeyes forced five turnovers, including a fumble and an interception by Simpson.

Hayes and McKay would split their four Rose Bowl pairings, with Ohio State winning in 1969 and ’74 and USC getting the victory in 1973 and ’75. – both national championship years for the Trojans.

Speaking of first times, the 2005 Rose Bowl was the first time – and to date, only time – Texas and Michigan met on the gridiron. (The game also was the first Rose Bowl in which a Big Ten team did not face a Pac-10 opponent.)

No. 4 Texas was a BCS at-large team by .0102 points over fifth-ranked California, which was vying for the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 1958 season.

Knotted at 14 entering the third quarter, Michigan and Texas would trade blows during the second half en route to one of the most memorable finishes in bowl history.

The Wolverines led 31-21 in the fourth quarter before Texas QB Vince Young scored on a 10-yard run with 12:59 to play. Michigan answered with a field goal to go up 34-28. Young led Texas to another touchdown, capping the drive with a 23-yard scamper to give the Longhorns a short-lived 35-34 lead with 6:03 showing on the fourth-quarter clock.

Then, Michigan kicker Garrett Rivas booted a 42-yard field goal to give the Wolverines the lead 37-35. However, with 2:57 remaining, Young drove Texas 46 yards in 10 plays to set up a game-winning 37-yard field goal by Dusty Mangum as time expired.

Related:
• McKay, Griffin headline Rose Bowl's 'All-Century Class'