It Wasn’t a Rosy Beginning for This Game 90 Years Ago

It began 90 years ago today, this event called the Rose Bowl game.

Except on Jan. 1, 1902, there was no Rose Bowl stadium. The game was played at Tournament Park in Pasadena, where 8,000 people watched from bleachers. The Michigan-Stanford game was called the “First Tournament East-West Football Game.”

In 1901, Tournament of Roses officials bought 14 “country acres” at the corner of Wilson and California streets (now part of the Caltech campus) in Pasadena for $6,300 and set it aside for New Year’s Day sports events.

The teams marched in the Rose Parade on their way to the game, Stanford in cardinal sweaters and Michigan’s famed “point-a-minute team” in maize-and-blue sweaters.

Michigan won, 49-0, and officials reported a profit of $4,000. But Tournament of Roses officials decided that West Coast football wasn’t competitive with that played elsewhere, and the sport was dropped until 1916. In the interim, the tournament’s featured New Year’s Day sports attraction was chariot racing.

By 1920, Tournament Park seated 30,000 but needed repairs. Instead, land was acquired in the Arroyo Seco, and at a cost of $272,198.26, a 57,000-seat stadium was built for the 1923 game.

Harlan Hall, a Pasadena Star-News reporter, is credited with pinning a name on the new stadium: The Rose Bowl.

Dessie’s last ride: Britain’s most popular racehorse, 12-year-old Desert Orchid, has run his last race. “Dessie” was retired Friday, the day after the horse took a nasty fall.

Dessie tumbled three fences from home in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park in Whitsbury, and somersaulted.

“It is a sad day for us, but we’re happy he is retiring sound,” Owner Richard Burridge said. “The years have caught up with him and his enthusiasm is not quite matched by his skill.”

Desert Orchid earned $1.2 million, winning 34 of his 70 races.

Playing through: Golfer Bill Biehl was shot in the chest last Sunday, but it didn’t keep him from finishing his round.

A bullet fired from somewhere along the San Joaquin River struck Biehl as he was playing the 14th hole at Riverside Golf Course in Fresno. The .22-caliber slug didn’t penetrate, although it broke the skin below Biehl’s heart and drew blood.

Biehl, 50, said he won’t quit playing the public course even though others have often reported random bullets whizzing near them, fired by sportsmen along the river below.

Trivia time: When did unbeaten, untied teams last meet in the Rose Bowl game?

Ticket man: A suburban Detroit sportswriter wanted to know how ticket sales were going for Sunday’s Detroit Lion-Dallas Cowboy playoff game, so he called the Lions’ ticket office at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich.

“Lions’ ticket office,” boomed a voice on the phone. Then the reporter asked if the game was a sellout.

“Well, this is Wayne Fontes,” said the Lions’ coach, who happened to be in the ticket office. “I want you to do everything you can to help us sell these tickets.”

Trivia answer: It was 1931, when Alabama (9-0) beat Washington State (9-0), 24-0.

Quotebook: San Diego Charger lineman Burt Grossman, on teammate Leslie O’Neal: “He brings a Louis Vuitton briefcase with him to the locker room. Looks good, but there’s nothing in it except maybe his own football cards.”