On Friday, February 14, 2014, Arcadia Rotary toured Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Stadium and learned about the improvements made in the course of its renovation.

Driving through the West Parking Lot (Lot F), we parked at Gate F and assembled with other Arcadia Rotarians.

Tony Parrille then led us through the gate into the Terry Donahue Pavilion. This $84.4 million premium seating pavilion (said to be the centerpiece of the historic stadium’s $181.5 million renovation) is now substantially complete, with all levels ready to be used for major events.

We took the elevator up to the Acura Level, There to the west we had a view of the golf course and to the east viewed the stands across from us with the football field below. In the north lounge we picked up our box lunches and brought them to our tables. After dining in the north lounge, we met our tour guide Kim.

Kim took us up the elevator further to the next (Bank of the West) level where we sat in the northern press boxes. From there we could see the tunnels that would bring the teams onto the field. The southeast tunnel was for the home team (UCLA or Pac 10), and the southwest tunnel was for the visiting team.

The grass on the field Is a combination of Bermuda and Winter Rye. Around the field, a walkway is being constructed. Between the walkway and the eastern and western stands, the plan is to install rose gardens. (One could not avoid wondering what would happen to a football player running toward the sidelines to catch a pass, if he kept going and found himself in the midst of, and being scratched by, the thorns of the Rose Bowl stadium’s rose gardens.)

We were then brought down to the original locker room dating from 1922 when the stadium was first used as the locale of the Rose Bowl game. We marveled at the small size of the locker room by today’s standards although it was intended to take care of the needs (dressing, showering, etc.) of an entire team.

Then those of us who could negotiate a series of steps were taken to the south end of the stadium where we went downstairs and toured first the home team (UCLA, Pac 10) locker room (lined with blue and gold framed pictures of great UCLA players), and then the visiting team locker room (lined with historic photos of past Rose Bowls, including the 1961 “Great Rose Bowl Hoax” [more about this later]). These locker rooms with separate shower and restroom facilities were many times the size of the 1922 locker room we had left.

Finally we walked back upstairs and had revisited a few historic matters – such as the 1929 Rose Bowl game between Cal and Georgia Tech, in which Roy Riegels (a Cal player) ran the wrong way. It seems that halfway through the second quarter, Riegels (an All American lineman) picked up a Georgia Tech fumble only 30 yards from the Yellow Jackets’ end zone. Riegels pivoted, somehow became confused and ran 69 yards in the wrong direction. Roy’s team-mate Benny Lom chased Riegels, screaming at him to stop and caught up with Riegels at California’s 3-yard line. When Lom tried to turn Reigels around, a wave of Georgia Tech players swept over them and Reigels was tackled back to Cal’s 1-yard line.

Having completed the tour, we then thanked Kim and her assistant, got back into our vehicles and left.

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The Rose Bowl is known as the first and “granddaddy” of all post-season football games. How then did it acquire this status? By way of a little background. the Rose Bowl is tied closely to the history of Pasadena, the Valley Hunt Club, the perceived need to encourage immigrants from the east coast to come to California (then considered underpopulated), the Tournament of Roses Association, and strangely perhaps, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

In 1886 Pasadena became the second incorporated city of Los Angeles County. In 1888 the Valley Hunt Club was founded by Charles Holder, a former Massachusetts resident and zoology professor. The Club was made up of early Pasadena immigrants who were former residents of the east coast and Midwest. In the winter of 1890, Holder and his Valley Hunt Club founded the Tournament of Roses Festival to promote Pasadena as a warm-weather destination to snow-bound residents of the east coast and mid-west. In 1895, when the festival grew too large for the Valley Hunt Club to handle, the Tournament of Roses Association was formed to take over its responsibility.

From 1890 to 1902, under the warm California sun. the Tournament featured chariot races, jousting, foot races, polo and tug-of-war and also included ostrich races, bronco busting demonstrations and a race between a camel and an elephant. During the next few years, the festival expanded to include marching bands and motorized floats. Reviewing stands were built along the Parade route, and Eastern newspapers began to take notice of the event.

Then in 1902 the Tournament of Roses Association added the first official Rose Bowl football game. Because Stanford lost to Michigan 49-0, football was not resumed until 1916. Instead, between 1903 and 1916, the Tournament featured Roman-style chariot races inspired by the literary classic Ben-Hur. Football was permanently reinstated as part of the Tournament’s traditions in 1916.

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Perhaps by now you are wondering what all of this has to do with Cal. Tech.

Between 1890 (the Festival’s founding) and 1923 (when the Rose Bowl stadium opened), the site for the Tournament events (chariot racing, football, etc.) was Cal Tech’s athletic field. Originally known as the “town lot,” it was renamed Tournament Park in 1900. Tournament Park is just south of the Cal Tech campus, It is at the southern end of a block bounded on the north by E. California Boulevard, on the west by Wilson Avenue, and on the east and south by Arden Road.

Cal Tech’s Tournament Park was the site of the first Rose Bowl football game in 1902 and the second to the eighth such games from 1916 to 1922.

In 1923 the present Rose Bowl stadium opened and Cal. Tech,’s Tournament Park (which had a capacity for 43,000 people) lost its athletic fame. Nevertheless, after 1923 Tournament Park continued to be the locale for Caltech’s own football team. Unfortunately, its disastrous 1977 season caused the school to drop football.

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In light of depth psychology, is it any wonder that loss of Cal Tech’s historic connection to the Tournament of Roses and the Rose Bowl game would create a need for revenge (or at least a subtle reminder of its historic role)?

That reminder took the form of “the Great Rose Bowl Hoax.” This was the first of three such hoaxes, which occurred respectively in 1961, 1984, and 2014 (this year).

The first and most notable hoax was in the 1961 Rose Bowl which pitted Washington vs. Minnesota. A Cal Tech engineering student Lyn Hardy and his “Fiendish Fourteen” resented the fact that Cal Tech was being ignored in Rose Bowl festivities. They managed to get their hands on an instruction sheet used to guide the card stunts of the Washington Huskies rooting section. They made alterations to one portion, and returned it to the unsuspecting Washington cheerleaders. At halftime, an estimated 30 million viewers witnessed the Washington rooting section card stunts spell “CALTECH” instead of “HUSKIES” and show the Caltech Beaver mascot instead of the Washington Husky.

A second Caltech hoax took place at the 1984 Rose Bowl when a group of students altered the scoreboard in the 3rd quarter, As a result, instead of showing the UCLA Bruins leading Illinois by 38 to 9, the scoreboard had Caltech leading its rival, MIT, 38 to 9.

A third such hoax occurred this year in the 2014 Rose Bowl (in which Michigan State took on Stanford),. For this year’s Rose Bowl, Caltech students built a large white sign overlooking the stadium, reading “PASADENA”. Just before halftime, they turned on lights on the sign spelling out “CALTECH”.]

Do not judge Cal Tech too harshly. 1923 was a bad year for the school. After all, it “lost the Rose Bowl” – not merely a game to another team, but the event itself to another site, i.e., the Brookside Park area (where the present Rose Bowl stadium is located).