Not that there is much more to say about Monday's 32-18 rout of Michigan by USC in the Rose Bowl will prevent me from saying more.
But I really don't have any profound thoughts. Just observations.
The teams combined for 60 yards rushing (48 for USC and 12 for Michigan). I don't know if that's the lowest combined total in the Rose Bowl, but I imagine that it has to be pretty close. The NCAA says the bowl game record for fewest yards rushing is 51 by Utah and Oregon in the 1994 Freedom Bowl. Utah won that one 16-13. In the 1977 Bluebonnet Bowl, USC and Texas A&M combined for a bowl game record 864 rushing yards. The Trojans won 47-28.
Some USC fans sitting in front and behind me were from Mexico. They really got into "Conquest", a song first heard in the 1947 film "Captain from Castille", starring Tyrone Power and featuring Cesar Romero as Cortes. The film ends with Cortes leading the Spaniards on to Tenochitlan to go take care of the Aztecs. The song was composed by Alfred Newman, whose nephew Randy attended UCLA.
The folks at the Rose Bowl really like you to call the game on January 1, "The Rose Bowl Game" instead of just "The Rose Bowl." Presumably, this is to differentiate it from the stadium and to prepare you for the BCS Championship game in 2010. Interestingly, the whole name "bowl" to denote a postseason football game comes from the fact that the Rose Bowl is shaped like a bowl (it's modeled after the Yale Bowl) and when the Rose Bowl opened in 1923, it was pretty much the only postseason football game and the name stuck. Now the people who gave us the word "bowl" don't want you to use it.
"Stairway to Heaven" should not be played by a marching band. Ever. Please take note of this University of Michigan. Thank you.
Nevertheless, the Rose Bowl halftime show is stil just two marching bands. The pregame show is pretty much just two marching bands also. There's no "American Idol" pseudo-star trotted out to sing the National Anthem. You've got to appreciate that.
The entrance gates to the Rose Bowl usually have prerecorded announcements by the PA announcer telling you about exiting and re-entering the stadium. For UCLA home games, sometimes you get to hear the soothing tones of Karl Dorrell alternating with Ethel Merman singing "Everything's Coming Up Roses!" But since George Lucas was the Grand Marshal of the Rose Parade, the entrance/exit announcements were all C3P0 type announcements with R2D2 sounds also.
Michigan fans are relatively quiet. And that was even before the game.
USC has now won 29 bowl games if you count the 1925 L.A. Christmas Classic (a win over Missouri) as a bowl game. Alabama has 30 bowl wins. And presently, USC has a head coach, something Alabama doesn't have right now.
The key to enjoying your Rose Bowl game experience: use the bathroom before kickoff.
September 1 at the Coliseum! The Vandals have lost seven straight to the Trojans. The last one was in 1929. Five losses at the Coliseum, one in Moscow, and one in the Rose Bowl.
The 1922 game was an early run through for the new stadium.
Somewhere in the back of my brain, I think I knew that the Rose Bowl was modeled after the Yale Bowl. But, as someone who grew up about 10 miles due south of the Rose Bowl and then went to Yale, I always got the feeling that the Yale Bowl reminded me of the Rose Bowl — which is why I've always had the warm fuzzies for the Yale Bowl. Cosmic.
"Stairway to Heaven" may not make a good marching band tune, but "Sympathy for the Devil" works surprisingly well, IMHO.
I agree with Bob about halftime shows. Two bands, no bullhockey. Gives me the warm fuzzies, too.
Michigan fans are always quiet. Michigan stadium is known in the Big Ten for how quiet it is, unlike the Horseshoe and Camp Randall stadium with their insane fans. Let me just say Bob, you are very lucky to not have had to attend a Rose Bowl featuring Ohio State.
13
In 2010, Ohio State will want to play in the BCS Championship Game, played at the Rose Bowl. They will not want to play in The Rose Bowl Game, which means they wouldn't be playing for the national championship.
Something tells me this is not the last time we'll be hearing about the Rose Bowl from Bob...
http://tinyurl.com/yg7bmr
No pun intended.
You'd make a decent Ja(y)son. Tall, but probably a little on the thin side...
Idaho
The 1922 game was an early run through for the new stadium.
"Stairway to Heaven" may not make a good marching band tune, but "Sympathy for the Devil" works surprisingly well, IMHO.
I agree with Bob about halftime shows. Two bands, no bullhockey. Gives me the warm fuzzies, too.
Those Ohioans just don't come out here for some reason.
In Communist Russia, football plays you!
Thank you, I'll be here all week.
Also, "Stairway to Heaven" should not be played by any band, ever, anywhere, including Led Zeppelin, and including on the radio.
11 I'll bet the folks from The Ohio State University would love to play in The Rose Bowl Game in 2010.
At least we don't have to hear any more whining from Ann Arbor about their deserving a BCS rematch with OSU.
In 2010, Ohio State will want to play in the BCS Championship Game, played at the Rose Bowl. They will not want to play in The Rose Bowl Game, which means they wouldn't be playing for the national championship.
The Sweater Vest will lead them.
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