On the eve of a backyard brawl with hated arch rival Michigan State in East Lansing, green and white may be all that is on the minds of the Michigan football team. But a victory tomorrow will inevitably begin talk of Pasadena Roses.
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| Photo courtesy of Bentley Historical Library Fullback Bob Perryman tries to beat Arizona State's defense in the 1987 Rose Bowl. Unfortunately for Michigan fans, the Wolverines fell to the Sun Devils 22-15. |
The list of Michigan football greats who have played in the sacred game reads like a college football hall of fame roster: Anthony Carter, Dan Dierdorf, Mark Donahue, Desmond Howard and Tyrone Wheatley.
Ever since 1947, the bowl has pitted the best of the Big Ten against the best of the Pacific Ten.
But the days of the giants of the Midwest battling the best of the West appear numbered.
The 1998 Rose Bowl will be the final game that will automatically match the regular season Big Ten and Pacific Ten winner. After that game, the winners of those conferences will be eligible to compete for the national championship under the rules of the College Bowl Alliance. The Rose Bowl will then alternate with other Alliance bowls for the right to host the national championship game.
A Field in Pasadena
The Rose Bowl started in 1902, but took a 14-year hiatus and did not resume until 1916 at the Tournament Park in Pasadena, California.
The game got its name in 1922 when a veteran newspaper reporter, Harlan "Dusty" Hall, took over Tournament of Roses press agent responsibilities. Hall coined the new stadium built for the purpose of a college football bowl game the "Rose Bowl" after Pasadena's pre-existing Rose Parade. The stadium's name was officially announced before the first bowl game was held there on Jan. 1, 1923.
The stadium originally held 57,000 spectators and was shaped like a horseshoe, open on the south end, much like Columbus' Ohio Stadium. It originally cost $272,198. The tournament financed the stadium by offering ten-year subscription tickets for $100 apiece. The stadium's official capacity is now listed as 100,000, but a record crowd of 106,869 jammed the stadium for the 1973 Rose Bowl.
While Rose Bowl spectators on-hand witness the drama of the bowl, football players said competing in "The Granddaddy of Them All," which is an official and trademarked nickname, leaves a lasting impression.
Former Michigan wide receiver Derrick Alexander has been to three Rose Bowls. For him, the Rose Bowl was a longtime ambition.
"It was always something I wanted to do, even before I came to Michigan," said Alexander, who now plays for the National Football League's Baltimore Ravens.
"When you get out there, you can tell it's special," Alexander said.
Former Wolverine tailback Tyrone Wheatley agreed the Rose Bowl was the pivotal point of the college football season. Wheatley traveled to Pasadena with the Wolverines in 1991 and 1993 Rose Bowls, and now plays for the NFL's New York Giants.
"It's very important. The Rose Bowl is the reason for playing the season," Wheatley said.
Bill Morrison, a recruitment coach for Michigan who was on the sidelines when Michigan won the 1993 Rose Bowl, agrees the contest holds something different from other bowls.
"The pageantry of the whole thing and the parade - it's a special thing," Morrison said.
Rose Bowl fans also react to the game with strong appeal, as the game draws 100,000-plus to the stadium annually and millions to their living room couches for the New Year's Day battle.
"The game is always highly rated," said Nancy Atkinson, assistant public relations officer for the Tournament of Roses. "Last year's game was rated No. 1 above the national championship (game)."
Last year, 54 million people across the country watched Ohio State edge Arizona State on TV, while some 110 million tuned in around the world.
Atkinson also said the Rose Bowl creates unnatural geographical rivals in ways no other bowl game does, pointing to the intense rivalries between the Wolverines and the Washington Huskies and the maize and Southern Cal.
"It's almost an automatic rivalry," Atkinson said. Fans from a team's home state and surrounding region come together on game day to foster the rivalry and add support to their team, she said.
The history of those rivalries make the Rose Bowl unique.
"The past players that played in it make it very special," said Vada Murray, who played on both the 1988 and 1989 Michigan Rose Bowl teams and is now a police officer with Ann Arbor Police Department. "The history of it makes it special."
Mike DeBord, the current offensive coordinator for the Wolverines, was part of the coaching staff in 1993 and agrees that the Rose Bowl holds a special distinction.
"What makes it special is that it's the result of a championship," said DeBord, referring to winning the Pac Ten or the Big Ten. DeBord added that the championship grows out of months of dedication as entire season's effort comes down to one game.
Bill Dufek, a former offensive tackle who also appeared in both the 1977 and 1979 Rose Bowl games, said the bowl game itself is just part of the experience.
"You get to get out of the cold and go to California in December," Dufek said, now an agent for State Farms Insurance in Ann Arbor. "It was a good experience."
Ra-Mon Watkins who played defensive back on the 1989 and 1990 Rose Bowl teams said his best memories weren't from the game itself but instead the days that preceded it.
"We went out past curfew - the stories about that part of the Rose Bowl cannot be told," said Watkins, who now works as a sales representative for Varsity Ford in Ann Arbor.
Alexander said one of his favorite memories of the Rose Bowl was a time when he and the entire Michigan football team went out to a restaurant and had a contest to see who could eat the most barbecued ribs.
Another year, the entire Michigan football team went out to a Los Angeles Lakers game, he said.
"You don't get to do that at every bowl game," Alexander said.
Perry Clark, a retired Rose Bowl columnist for the Petosky News Review in Michigan, agreed that the game is unique among its peers.
"I think it's special for several reasons," Clark said. "Going to the Rose Bowl was it for college football."
Clark added a final word on the bowl's meaning for Michigan.
"It didn't seem like New Year's Day if Michigan wasn't in the Rose Bowl."
The Sweetest Smell
Wheatley said the Rose Bowl was the sweetest prize that college football offered.
"It feels so good to get there, and then to win it just means that you achieved the ultimate goal that is set each season by every Big Ten football team," Wheatley said. "Unfortunately, because the Big Ten isn't part of the (Bowl) Alliance, we don't always have a shot at the national title, so reaching the Rose Bowl is the ultimate goal.
"The Rose Bowl is what we have to strive for," Wheatley said. "If we can go out to Pasadena and beat the Pac Ten school, we have to be in the picture for the national title."
Wheatley's teammate on the Giants and former Michigan standout Amani Toomer agrees that the Rose Bowl is what each Wolverine strives for.
"It is definitely the ultimate goal every year," Toomer said. "Every Wolverine wants to get to Pasadena - no matter what."
Some of the veterans said the greatness of the Rose Bowl said coming up short in the contest much worse.
"To go out there and lose - it's one of the worst feelings," said Alexander, whose teams lost the 1990 and 1992 Rose Bowls. "I hate to lose."
Alexander may know disappointment in the Rose Bowl, but he did extract a little revenge by winning the bowl game his senior year against the Huskies.
"You go out there to win the game," Alexander said. "It's one of the biggest games in college football."
Dufek's two trips to Pasadena both resulted in loses. But Dufek remembers the games' intensity.
"They were all really close games," Dufek said of his two loses to Southern Cal. "They were really great games."
Coach Morrison said in any bowl game, the team is never satisfied with being runner-up.
"It doesn't matter what bowl game you're playing in, you always hate to lose," said Morrison who experienced a loss in Pasadena in 1992. "All losses you take hard."
Morrison also knows the thrill of winning the Rose Bowl.
"Beating Washington in 1993 was a big win," Morrison said. "It's a special thing."
Watkins said he remembers that special feeling when the Wolverines won in 1989.
"I remember the ecstatic feeling we all had," said Watkins.
"I remember when we sang the 'Victors' after winning the Rose Bowl. It was a whole different chorus," said Watkins, adding that he's never sung it that way before, and hasn't heard the "Victors" sung that way since.
A Devastating Loss: Schembechler's last bowl game
Michigan has played in a total of 16 Rose Bowls, and in the majority of those, it was legendary Coach Bo Schembechler who led them into battle.
"(Michigan) holds the distinction of the most trips (to the Rose Bowl)," Atkinson said. "Bo Schembechler has brought the most teams to the Rose Bowl."
Not all of those trips have been great for the Wolverines, however, including Schembechler's last game, which was a 17-10 loss to Southern Cal.
"It was very important we win that Rose Bowl," Murray said. "We wanted to do our best to send him off (properly)."
Watkins also played in that Rose Bowl.
"Bo didn't show his disappointment," Watkins said. Schembechler came into the locker room and told the players that they had left everything on the field that day, he said.
The Wolverines lost that historic game partly because of at least three questionable calls by the referees, but mostly because a Michigan team with proven ability did not play to its potential.
The contested calls included a mysterious blocked punt and a holding penalty that was ambiguous enough to first be ruled an illegal block below the waist, and then after on-field deliberation by the officials, changed to a holding penalty.
"We ran a fake punt. The runner got just enough for a first down," Watkins said.
However, the play was called back on the holding penalty.
"(The holding call) just wasn't right," Watkins said.
But tough calls aside, at the team's own door was laid the fact that Bo Schembechler's immaculate defense had given up an incredible 359 yards.
Morrison coached with Schembechler during his last game.
"They wanted to win his last Rose Bowl, but (Schembechler) never said that," Morrison said. "He never wanted you to win one for him."
The team was emotionally decimated by the loss. At the game's end, 235-pound Michigan linebacker Alex Marshal was in tears.
Morrison believes that game was a case of the football team getting distracted from the media attention.
"They made such a big thing about it out there," Morrison said. "It was a distraction."
Reaching the Rose
When Michigan linebacker Sam Sword intercepted Iowa quarterback Matt Sherman's wobbly pass with 38 seconds left in the game last Saturday, an old, yet familiar scent encompassed Michigan Stadium. It wasn't the smell of autumn in Ann Arbor or marshmallows in the student's section.
It smelled a lot like roses.
"We've been playing great," Alexander said of this year's squad, but was quick to caution, "they got some tough games ahead."
Toomer said the 1997 Wolverines are playing inspired football.
"We definitely have a good shot this year," Toomer said. "With that big win over Iowa and hopefully a win against Michigan State, they can pick up momentum heading right to Pasadena."
"They are playing so great right now," Toomer added. "If they keep playing as well as they are now for the rest of the season, I have no doubt in my mind they'll win the national championship."
Toomer also said he believes there is pressure on this Wolverines team because Michigan has not been back to the Rose Bowl since 1993.
"There is mounting pressure since we haven't won it in the past couple years," Toomer said.
Murray said the quality of Big 10 opponents may make an undefeated season a pipe dream for all schools.
"I think they have a very good shot at going to the Rose Bowl," Murray said, but added, "I think whoever wins the Big Ten will have a loss."
Dufek agreed with the possibility of this year's Wolverine team going to the Rose Bowl because they play well as a team, a quality that is important to any Rose Bowl team.
Watkins said those teams were successful because of "the camaraderie, the respect we had for one another. Whatever we did we did it all together."
Could this year's team be Pasadena bound?
"Potentially, they could go, the league's tight," Dufek said. "This weekend's another big hurdle."
69 More Days
Former players and coaches had mixed reactions to the monumental change that will allow Big Ten and Pac Ten winners to play for the national championship instead of making an annual trek to Pasadena.
"It doesn't change the integrity of the game itself," Atkinson said.
Taking the two conferences' champions began in 1947 and is the longest standing tradition of any collegiate conference and a bowl association. The 1998 Rose Bowl will be the 52nd anniversary of this tradition.
"It will still be the Big Ten and the Pac Ten champions," Atkinson said, unless one of those teams has to play in a different bowl for the national championship.
The Rose Bowl itself will host the national championship game in 2002. That means that there is a possibility, for the first time in 56 years, that neither a Big Ten or Pac Ten team will participate in the game.
Some disagree with the decision to buck tradition.
"I think the Rose Bowl should have been kept the way it was because of tradition," Debord said.
Clark said not having a Pac Ten and Big Ten team would take away from the game. "That will be awful to me."
- Daily Sports Writer Jordan Field contributed to this report.
Photo courtesy of Bentley Historical Library
Michigan Coach Bo Schemblecher holds up the Rose Bowl trophy after beating Southern Cal, 22-14, on Jan. 2, 1989 in Pasadena, Calif.
Photo courtesy of Bentley Historical Library
The Rose Bowl, in Pasadena, Calif., was built in 1922 for $272,198.26, to host the bowl game of the same name.
10-24-97
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