The 1962 Rose Bowl, played on January 1, 1962, was the 48th Rose Bowl Game. The Minnesota Golden Gophers defeated the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

, 21–3.

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

champion

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

declined the invitation to play in the Rose Bowl. Days after the conclusion of the regular season, the university's faculty council voted 28–25 against participation in the Rose Bowl. They were under no contractual obligation to accept the invitation following the demise of the Pacific Coast Conference after the

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

season. Minnesota, the runner-up in the Big Ten, was then offered the "at-large" invitation, and accepted. Minnesota quarterback

Sandy Stephens Sanford Emory Stephens II (September 21, 1940 – June 6, 2000) was an American college football player and civic leader. Stephens was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area city of Uniontown, Pennsylvania and is best known for his career as a c ...

was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game.2008 Rose Bowl Program
,

2008 Rose Bowl The 2008 Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi, the 94th Rose Bowl Game, played on January 1, 2008 at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, was a college football bowl game. The contest was televised on ABC, the 20th straight year the network ...

. Accessed January 26, 2008. It was broadcast on the

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television network and was the first national color television broadcast of a college football game.

Teams

University of Minnesota Golden Gophers

The Gophers had gone to the Rose Bowl the previous year as the #1 team in the nation and lost to the Washington Huskies. In 1961, the Gophers actually finished in second place in Big Ten Conference play. Minnesota had a loss to

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

, and a Big Ten loss to

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

in their rivalry game. Ohio State was the Big Ten champion, but because of a faculty council decision to emphasize academics over athletics, the Buckeyes turned down the Rose Bowl berth.Tim Brady
The Road to the Rose Bowl
Minnesota Magazine, University of Minnesota Alumni Association. September 8, 2003 Ironically, Minnesota would not have received the Rose Bowl invitation if they had, in fact, been the 1961 Big Ten champion and the conference had a formal agreement with the Rose Bowl for the 1961 and 1962 games, since the Big Ten had a "no-repeat" rule in effect until

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

. The Gophers were led by

, the first African American All-American quarterback. However, he was not the first African-American starting quarterback in a Rose Bowl (this distinction goes to Charles Fremont West of Washington & Jefferson, forty years earlier in 1922).

UCLA Bruins

In the regular season, UCLA had lost at both

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

and Ohio State earlier in the season. They also lost to Washington, but managed to beat USC during one of the few rainy games in the

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

Game summary

The weather was sunny, and Minnesota wore their home maroon jerseys, with white helmets and white pants, while UCLA also wore their home powder blue uniforms with gold pants. Using the

single wing In American and Canadian football, a single-wing formation was a precursor to the modern spread or shotgun formation. The term usually connotes formations in which the snap is tossed rather than handed—formations with one wingback and a han ...

offense, UCLA struggled against the Gophers, netting only one field goal to open the scoring in the first quarter. Minnesota had 21 first downs to UCLA's 8, and the Gophers held the Bruins to 107 total yards, while gaining 297 yards on 66 plays. Stephens rushed for 46 yards on 12 carries, including two rushing touchdowns, and was 7 for 11 in passing for 75 yards.

Scoring

First quarter

* UCLA — Bobby Smith kicks 28-yard field goal. UCLA 3–0 * Minnesota — Sandy Stephens dives over from one-yard line. Tom Loechler kick. MINN 7–3

Second quarter

* Minnesota — Bill Munsey goes over from three-yard line. Loechler kick. MINN 14–3

Third quarter

* No scoring

Fourth quarter

* Minnesota — Stephens runs over from two-yard line. Loechler kick. MINN 21–3

Statistics

Aftermath

This is Minnesota's only Rose Bowl win and its most recent appearance. Through the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

season, Minnesota has gone the longest in the Big Ten conference without playing in the Rose Bowl game. Sandy Stephens was named the Most Valuable player, and became the first African American to get the award. Both head coaches in the game were

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

graduates who had played under legendary coach

Robert Neyland Robert Reese Neyland (; February 17, 1892 – March 28, 1962) was an American football player and coach and officer in the United States Army, reaching the rank of brigadier general. He served three stints as the head football coach at the Univ ...

Game facts

All-American defensive tackle

Bobby Bell Bobby Lee Bell Sr. (born June 17, 1940) is an American former professional football player who played as an outside linebacker and defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the College Football ...

played in both the 1961 and 1962 Rose Bowls for the Gophers. He later played in two Super Bowls with the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The ...

, I and IV, winning the latter in January

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

References

{{Historic college football games Rose Bowl Rose Bowl Game Minnesota Golden Gophers football bowl games UCLA Bruins football bowl games 1962 in sports in California January 1962 sports events in the United States