The 1923 Rose Bowl, played on January 1, 1923, was an

American Football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

. It was the 9th

Rose Bowl Game The Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 (New Year's Day) at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2. The Rose ...

. The

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ' ...

defeated the

Penn State Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The interco ...

14-3.

Leo Calland Leo Blakely Calland (February 24, 1901 – March 17, 1984) was an American football and basketball player and coach who later became a San Diego city parks administrator. He was the head football coach at Whittier College the University of Idah ...

, a USC guard, was named the Rose Bowl Player of the Game when the award was created in 1953 and selections were made retroactively.2008 Rose Bowl Program
, 2008 Rose Bowl. Accessed January 26, 2008. It was the first bowl game appearance for both the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

and

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

football teams. It was also the first Tournament of Roses football game held in the newly constructed

Rose Bowl Stadium The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium located in Pasadena, California. Opened in October 1922, the stadium is recognized as a National Historic Landmark and a California Historic Civil Engineering landmark. At a modern capacity of an all-s ...

, although games had been played in it prior to this game.

Stadium

The game now known as the Rose Bowl Game was played at

Tournament Park Tournament Park is a park and athletics venue in Pasadena, California, United States, northeast of Los Angeles. Currently maintained by the California Institute of Technology, it was simply known as the "town lot" before being renamed "Tournament ...

until 1922 when it was known as the "Tournament East-West football game". Organizers of the

Tournament of Roses The Rose Parade, also known as the Tournament of Roses Parade (or simply the Tournament of Roses), is an annual parade held mostly along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, Pasadena, California, United States, on New Year's Day (or on Mon ...

realized that the temporary stands were inadequate for a crowd of 40,000+, and sought to build a better, permanent stadium. The Rose Bowl was designed by architect

Myron Hunt Myron Hubbard Hunt (February 27, 1868 – May 26, 1952) was an American architect whose numerous projects include many noted landmarks in Southern California and Evanston, Illinois. Hunt was elected a Fellow in the American Institute of Archi ...

in 1921. His design, as well as the name for the stadium, was influenced by the

Yale Bowl The Yale Bowl Stadium is a college football stadium in the northeast United States, located in New Haven, Connecticut, on the border of West Haven, about 1½ miles (2½ km) west of the main campus of Yale University. The home of the American footb ...

. The Arroyo Seco (translation "dry stream") was selected as the location for the stadium. The Rose Bowl was under construction from 1921 to 1922. A number of regular season games were played there before the actual Tournament of Roses football game to try out the new stadium. USC had actually already played three games in the new stadium: USC lost to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in the very first game in the stadium on October 28, 1922, and defeated

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

and

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

in the new stadium to close out their season. The

Olympic Club The Olympic Club is an sports club, athletic club and private social club in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. First named the "San Francisco Olympic Club", it is the oldest sports club, athletic club in the United States. Established o ...

also played a football game there. The stadium was dedicated officially on January 1, 1923.

Teams

Penn State Nittany Lions

In the 1921 season, Penn State was 8–2–0 with wins over Navy, Georgia Tech, and Washington. In the 1922 season the Lions opened with wins over St. Bonaventure, William and Mary, Gettysburg, Lebanon Valley. By mid October they were viewed as a likely candidate to be invited to play in the Rose Bowl. On October 21, the Nittany Lions got their fifth straight season win against Middlebury for their homecoming game. Penn State was officially extended an invitation by the Tournament committee, and they accepted. The Lions tied Syracuse 0–0 at the

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...

in New York city in front of their largest seasonal crowd to date, 25,000. Then the Nittany Lions lost to Navy 0–14 in Washington D.C., breaking a 30-game undefeated streak on November 3. Despite the loss, the Tournament selection committee re-affirmed its choice. They beat Carnegie Tech, but the Tournament committee still faced controversy. They re-affirmed their decision again. The Nittany Lions then lost to in-state rivals Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh.

USC Trojans

The Trojans opened 5-0 to start the season. This was the first season of competition in the

Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (including a ...

for the USC Trojans. The first PCC conference game was against California. The very first game in the Rose Bowl stadium was the regular season contest on October 28, 1922, when Cal defeated

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

12-0. This was the only loss for USC, and California finished the season undefeated. Cal declined the invitation to the 1923 Rose Bowl game by vote of the associated students. This made the deciding games to be whether Cal would defeat Washington by more than 12, and whether USC would defeat Stanford on November 11. USC went on to beat Occidental and Stanford. The Trojans then played Idaho, and Washington State in the new Rose Bowl stadium and defeated both. The Trojans actually finished fourth in the PCC behind Cal, Oregon, and Washington. The PCC committee held a mail vote. The Trojans were given the berth on the basis of the defeat of Washington State and the tie between Washington and Oregon on Thanksgiving Day. The Trojans received six of eight conference votes.

Game summary

The 29-member Penn State traveling party left

State College, Pennsylvania State College is a home rule municipality in Centre County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is a college town, dominated economically, culturally and demographically by the presence of the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania Sta ...

, by train on December 19. They stopped in Chicago and the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

. They arrived in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

, on December 24. The Nittany Lions worked out in the Rose Bowl stadium, alternating with the Trojans. Lions coach Bezdek was noted for changing their play style frequently. The morning of the game on January 1, the team watched the

Tournament of Roses Parade A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

. The Lions left in several taxi cabs at 11 a.m. for the drive to the Rose Bowl, but as the 2:15 p.m. kickoff approached, the team was delayed by post-parade traffic. Only after the cab drivers drove over the lawns of local residents did the Penn State team finally reach the Rose Bowl stadium.Penn State football history When the team arrived, they found kickoff already had been delayed by 10 minutes. Penn State coach Hugo Bezdek and USC coach Gus Henderson almost came to blows as Bezdek successfully lobbied game officials for additional warmup time. The game finally started an hour late and ended in moonlight, with sportswriters lighting matches in order to finish their stories. Penn State scored first on a 20-yard drop-kick field goal by Mike Palm. Roy "Bullet" Baker rushed for 123 yards and one touchdown for the Trojans. The Lions were held to five first downs and 104 yards.

Scoring

First Quarter

*Penn State - Field Goal, Palm

Second Quarter

*USC - Touchdown Campbell, PAT Hawkins

Third Quarter

*USC - Touchdown Baker, PAT Hawkins

Fourth Quarter

no score

Aftermath

The nearby

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a mem ...

also was under construction during this time and would be completed in May 1923. It would become the home stadium for both USC and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

for decades until UCLA moved to the Rose Bowl for its home games in 1982. Penn State's share of the proceeds, $21,349.64, was directed toward the $2 million Emergency Building Fund and in particular the construction of Varsity Hall (now

Irvin Hall Irvin Hall was the first permanent building at Highland University in Highland, Kansas. It is the oldest building in Kansas still used for higher education. Planning The Highland Town Company offered to give the university forty-eight addition ...

) on campus. The game was the first USC game attended by

Giles Pellerin Giles L. (Bud) Pellerin (December 23, 1906 – November 21, 1998), nicknamed the Superfan or Super Fan, was an American telephone company executive, USC alumnus, and a fan of the University of Southern California Trojans (USC) college football ...

, at the time a high school student; Pellerin, who became known as the "Super Fan", would go on to attend 797 consecutive USC football games over a period of 73 years until his death at age 91 just outside the same stadium in 1998.Superfan Pellerin Passes Away: Trojan fan's streak ends Saturday at 797 straight games
Associated Press, November 21, 1998, Accessed December 1, 2008.

References

Bibliography

*Penn State football history (PDF copy available a
gopsusports.cstv.com
) *USC Trojans football media guide (PDF copy available a
www.usctrojans.com
* {{USC Trojans bowl game navbox Rose Bowl Rose Bowl Game Penn State Nittany Lions football bowl games USC Trojans football bowl games Rose Bowl January 1923 sports events