The Story of the Rose Bowl

The Story of the Rose Bowl — page 3
But it was more than just a parade in 1890 The festivities included games such as tug-of-war jousting and foot races A few years later the Rose Parade grew bigger It added parade floats with motors There were also ostrich races and a race between a camel and an elephant In 1900 the Rose Parade was shown in movie theaters throughout the country Once people from other states saw film of the parade many wanted to travel to California to see it in person By 1902 the Tournament of Roses Association was ready to add the emerging sport of football to the festival to attract even more visitors It wanted to include one team from the West Coast and an opponent from east of the Mississippi River The University of Southern California USC was the closest college football team to Pasadena but USC did not play an impressive schedule It played only one game against a college team in 1901 a 6 0 loss to Pomona College The University of California Berkeley was also close to Pasadena but only two of its nine wins were against college teams The association eventually chose Stanford as the team from West Coast Michigan was its opponent The first Rose Bowl game was held at the Pasadena town square which is now called Tournament Park In 1922 6