Posts tagged Rose bowl at FanHouse

"Old School" is the College Football FanHouse's irregular look back at the rich history of college football, usually through the medium of embeddable flash video. Check out the Old School archive for more famous plays and infamous hair.

The Rose Bowl became an exclusively Big Ten-Pac-10 affair in 1947 and remained that way until the BCS came into being, but before that the PCC, the Pac-10's forerunner, took on all comers from out east. Alabama was actually a frequent participant, appearing in six Rose Bowls.

These are what pass for highlights from the 1938 edition against Cal; someone actually says "and how":



Apparently, in 1938 off tackle runs qualified as devious trickery.

Amazingly, this stands as Cal's most recent victory in the Rose Bowl. Alabama would make a final appearance in 1946, defeating USC 34-14.

Quote the Penn State coach last week:

"To be frank with you, I don't know what the reasons are not to have a playoff," Paterno said during a speaking appearance in Pittsburgh. "You can talk about missing class and all that kind of stuff, (yet) you see basketball go on forever. You have a lot of bogus excuses.

Now, far be it from me to lay into one of college football's most decorated coaches, but Joe Paterno's argument itself is bogus. First of all, he cites exactly one argument against a playoff here, that of the game becoming a two-semester event and taking student-athletes away from the classroom.

I don't personally buy into that argument either, since there are much better ones against a playoff. But it isn't "bogus". I hate to bring up that childhood example but it fits so we'll run it: if your friends go and jump off a bridge, do you jump as well? The answer is of course not. Just because college basketball's jumped off that bridge doesn't justify college football doing the same.

Furthermore, Paterno's being patently dishonest. Most of the time I see public arguments against a playoff, they have little to do with the academics. Even the conference commissioners are starting to cite other quite solid reasons besides the academics charge.

Examples? After the jump.

FanHouse is counting down the 10 best, 10 worst, and 10 weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.

There are a lot of firsts and onlys on this list, but this one surprised even me. Only one Big Ten team has ever won back-to-back Rose Bowls, and it didn't happen way back in the 1950s. In fact, it happened less than ten years ago. When the Wisconsin Badgers won in 1999 and 2000, they became the first and so far only Big Ten team to do so.

Now, it's important to remember that prior to the early 1970s the Big Ten had a rule forbidding any team from going to the Rose Bowl in two consecutive seasons. Once that rule was lifted, Ohio State went to Pasadena four straight years (1973 through 1976) but only won once, in 1974. Not to be outdone, Michigan then went to, and lost, three straight Rose Bowls themselves. Throughout the 1980s no Big Ten team would make consecutive West Coast swings. Michigan split their 1993 and 1994 Rose Bowls, but it looked as if no Big Ten team would ever win the thing in back-to-back years

But they didn't count on ... one man.

FanHouse is counting down the 10 best, 10 worst, and 10 weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.

Howard Stern could take over for Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News. Your cat could win the Nobel Prize in physics. Guns 'N Roses could actually release Chinese Democracy. Those are three things which seem as unlikely now as Northwestern's 1995 Rose Bowl run seemed at the time.

Northwestern had occupied a certain niche in the Big Ten's ecosystem, that of the perennial homecoming date. The Wildcats could be counted on to show up sometime between late September and late October to provide an all but guaranteed W for the returning alumni. And as long as they still played football in Evanston, every Big Ten team knew that no matter what other outrageous fortune befell them, they wouldn't go winless in the conference unless it was one of those years Northwestern just wasn't on the schedule.

A lot of coaches sacrificed large parts of their careers coaching in Evanston, trying to face up to the challenge of turning around a football team that hadn't won a conference title since 1949. But not even legitimately good coaches like Lou Saban, Ara Parseghian, and Dennis Green could accomplish anything with the Wildcats. So how did Gary Barnett do it?

Good stuff here. USC mic'd up the ultra-caffeinated coach for its in-house fan websites, then released excerpts onto YouTube. Solid video from beginning to end.

I had a good laugh hearing one of the sideline officials telling Carroll he's going to be strict with the sidelines as he doesn't want a "Texas incident".

Notable: Carroll's ear-to-ear grin as his team starts chanting in the locker room several minutes before kickoff. A gameday official wishing him good luck and then thanking him, as a longtime Jets fan. Yikes. Finally, towards the end, some extra-curriculars happen after a USC interception and Carroll rushes to the scene to restore order (really!).

For some reason USC didn't want the video to be embedded, so follow this link to see the entire scene.

Ha! Only in the world of delusion maybe.

But seriously: The Las Vegas Sports Consultants, the group that sets opening lines for the casinos, ended the year ranking USC as the top team in all of college football, ahead of BCS and Associated Press champion LSU.

With the loss to Stanford, USC really has no claim to anything other than the Pac-10 and Rose Bowl Championships it did earn. However, I can't help but wonder if Auburn can shamelessly claim they were the 2004 "People's National Champions" (snicker), is it fair for USC to claim they're the 2007 "Bookies' National Champions"?

Why did the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission reject USC's offer on Wednesday to conditionally accept an agreement to allow the Trojans to play in the Coliseum?

When we first heard of USC's "put up or shut up proposal," we thought it was brilliant, because to reject the plan would require that the Coliseum Commission admit that not even its members had faith in their ability to deliver on their promises to the University.

Many observers say that the Coliseum Commission is reluctant to hand over the keys to the building to the University.

"It's not only about money," Coliseum General Manager Pat Lynch told the LA Times. "It's about everything."

Does "everything" include a plan to bring the Minnesota Vikings to Los Angeles?

After considering last week's proposal by the Coliseum Commission to enter into a long-term lease with USC, have the public entity raise the funds for stadium improvements, and promise no NFL team would come to the venerable Los Angeles Stadium, USC responded Monday with a "Thanks, but..." counterproposal.

In a letter to Coliseum manager Pat Lynch, USC's lead negotiator Todd Dickey lays out a groundwork for compromise--enter into an agreement to let the Coliseum sell naming rights to the stadium, raise the money, and meet specific goals over ten years for improving the stadium. If the Coliseum Commission fails to make the deadlines, they'd be in breach of contract with the University and the deal would revert to the Master Lease that USC has wanted all along.

After being admonished last week by the Rose Bowl Operating Company to grow up and negotiate with the University of Southern California, the Coliseum Commission, which oversees the storied stadium where the Men of Troy play football came back with a counter-proposal of half-measures.

According to WeAreSC, the Coliseum Commission is offering a plan which would give USC a shorter-term contract to play at the Coliseum than the University is asking for, with no structural improvements to the Stadium. Their only real concession is to guarantee that no NFL team will be playing in the Coliseum. While they're at it, why not guarantee no NBA, Major League Baseball or Bundesliga team will play there, because those scenarios are just as likely to happen!

Although the Los Angeles Times is reporting that L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are working to forge a deal, it seems apparent to observers of the negotiation that is Schwarzenegger wanted a deal to happen, he could use his leverage with his three commission appointees to vote with Villaraigosa's two voters and strike a deal. Hopefully the Mayor will get a chance to bend the action-hero Governor's ear and prompt the Governor to terminate these drawn-out talks!

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came out before today's meeting of the Coliseum Commission to map a strategy for achieving peace between the stadium officials and their main tenant--the University of Southern California Football team.

In a letter to the Commission, Villaraogosa outlines a seven point strategy to keep the Trojans from inking a deal tomorrow with the Rose Bowl Operating Company.

Sounding unlike someone who went to college in Westwood, the Bruin Mayor says, "I believe that the future of the Los Angeles Coliseum is inconceivable without USC and I, therefore, urge the Coliseum Commission to immediately negotiate a long-term agreement with the University of Southern California."