ROSE BOWL A DREAM COME TRUE
Be it ballplayers or band members, Pasadena is a big deal
PASADENA, CALIF. — Dreams will come true Monday amid the San Gabriel Mountains. Memories to last a lifetime. A New Year’s Day tradition spanning more than a century commences before tens of thousands who have come from various locales, near and far, to this glorious setting. The Oklahoma brand will be front and center in this timeless American classic.
And in the afternoon, there’s even a football game.
OU and Georgia play in the Rose Bowl on this New Year’s Day, with a 4:10 p.m. CST kickoff and a berth in the national championship game on the line. But as regal and as grand as the Pasadena football tradition, the Pasadena parade tradition is even moreso. And the Sooners’ appearance in the bowl game means the Pride of Oklahoma marches in the Rose Bowl Parade along famed Colorado Boulevard.
“One of the premier marching band events in the world,” is how Brian Britt, director of the Pride, describes the New Year’s Day staple. He said musicians grow up dreaming of marching in the Tournament of Roses parade. “They know it’s a really special experience.”
The same is true for the Sooner football team, of course.
Some of the players didn’t realize the tradition and spectacle of the game in the iconic stadium that sits in
Arroyo Seco about 10 miles north of downtown Los Angeles
“Honestly, coming to the game I didn't know how big of a deal it was,” said All-American offensive tackle Orlando Brown. “I wasn't a kid that grew up watching college football, so I looked at the Rose Bowl as any other bowl. I understood it was prestigious, but I haven't gotten into college football until I started getting recruited in high school. After being here for a few days and realizing how big it is, man, I'm excited.”
Lincoln Riley, in his first year as OU’s head coach, knew of the Rose Bowl’s status as the Granddaddy of Them All long before he got to Norman.
“You can still hear Keith Jackson announcing the game; ‘Live from Pasadena,’” said Riley, who grew up in Muleshoe, Texas. “It was
always the game I probably enjoyed watching the most, honestly. But, yeah, kind of growing up in Big 12 country, it always seemed a little far out there as far as having an opportunity to play in it. And you knew it wouldn't come up often.”
There was a time when Big 12 and Southeastern Conference schools had no chance to play in the Rose Bowl. From 1946 through 2002, the Rose Bowl matched Big Ten and Pac-12 (or its predecessors) teams. But the advent of a two-team playoff system opened the possibility of teams from other leagues experiencing the Rose Bowl.
In 2002, Nebraska and Miami played in the Rose Bowl national championship game. The next season, through a loophole in the now-defunct Bowl Championship Series, the Sooners were sent to the Rose Bowl when Big Ten champ Ohio State made the Fiesta Bowl national title game.
Fifteen years ago, the OU contingent was treated well by Rose
Bowl hosts, and a good time was had by all. But clearly, there was a sense that Rose Bowl officials would have preferred a Big Ten school to the Sooners. It has taken the Tournament of Roses, a tradition-laden organization, awhile to adjust to the new college football order.
“I think there’s a lot of truth” to that, said Scott Jenkins, chairman of the Rose Bowl Management Committee.
The Rose Bowl’s affiliation with the Big Ten and the major West Coast conference goes back to 1902, when Michigan and Stanford played in the first Rose Bowl. The Tournament of Roses embraced the Pac-12 predecessors because of geography and embraced the Big Ten because of culture. Early Pasadena was a haven for Midwest transplants and even was called Indiana Colony before it was named Pasadena. The Wrigley House, once the winter home of Chicago magnate Bill Wrigley, now is the Tournament of
Roses headquarters. The historic Gamble House was the winter home of Cincinnati’s David Berry Gamble of Proctor & Gamble fame.
“Tradition is very important for the Tournament of Roses,” Jenkins said. “We claw to hold on to our traditions. Most of us tend to have more affiliations with the Pac-12 and Big Ten.”
Forgive the Tournament of Roses for not fully embracing the Sooners 15 years ago. If MichiganAlabama replaced OUTexas in the Cotton Bowl some year, would State Fair of Texas officials be giddy about it?
But OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said the Rose Bowl reception this time is much different.
“That was the beginning of the change in college football and they were just experiencing it,” Castiglione said. “This is as big a game as they’ve ever had. Matchup is brand-new, the fan bases are robust, can’t beat it.”
The Rose Bowl has
grown a little more used to infidels. Florida State of the Atlantic Coast Conference played Oregon three years ago in a Rose Bowl semifinal. TCU of the Mountain West Conference played Wisconsin in the 2011 Rose Bowl. Texas of the Big 12 played in back-toback Rose Bowls, against Southern Cal in 2006 and Michigan in 2005.
And heck, with conference realignment, it’s possible that even a Pac-12/Big Ten matchup could be an old Big 12 showdown of Nebraska-Colorado.
“Everything’s got to give a little,” Jenkins said. “But I think there’s a good balance here of keeping the bowls in good shape. This system has worked out pretty well. There’s a different kind of excitement that comes with these two schools.
“They’ve never played, only been to the Rose Bowl once (Georgia in 1943). So they bring an enthusiasm and fans that are just scarfing up this experience. Sunny southern California, go out to
the beach and see Santa Monica, to go to Disneyland, to go out to Hollywood, to go shopping on Rodeo Drive. It’s fun to share the new enthusiasm of these people. We tend to feed off the enthusiasm of our guests. This is fun for us.”
Sunday, Jenkins was at the Rose Bowl when a Georgia fan approached and thanked him for all that the Tournament of Roses does, that this experience was on his bucket and a dream come true. “I’ve heard that repeatedly from our new friends at Oklahoma and Georgia,” Jenkins said.
So Monday, The Pride of Oklahoma will proclaim its pride in Oklahoma by strolling Colorado Boulevard with repetitions of singing “Oklahoma!,” playing “Oklahoma!,” resting during a drum cadence, resuming with “Boomer Sooner” and concluding with “OK Oklahoma.”
Then a different pride of Oklahoma will play a football game that will be long remembered by the fans of two states.