The First Rose Bowl – Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be

The Rose Bowl brings visions of a history of grand battles between football champions from two different regions. Struggles between two teams who are evenly matched both on the field and on the sidelines. The Rose Bowl is the “Grand Daddy Of Them All” when it comes to the bowl games and has always been a must-see football game for any college football fan… well, not always.

Before it was called the Rose Bowl it was called the Tournament East-West Football Game. In 1902 it pitted the University of Michigan (representing the East) against Stanford University (representing the west).

The game was never in doubt and the final score ended up being 49-0 in favor of Michigan. This was an embarrassing defeat for both Stanford and all west coast football fans. It could’ve been worse though… had Stanford not quit the game following the 3rd quarter.