Today's Tidbit... The 1920 Rose Bowl Parade
Watching the Rose Bowl is among my first football memories. Each year, it grew dark in the Midwest as the Rose Bowl came on TV, while Pasadena remained sunny and inviting. I liked it. Earlier in the day, we had watched the Rose Bowl Parade as a penance of sorts for the day filled with college football. It was a wonderful world.
Anyway, at some point in the past, I acquired a batch of RPPCs of the 1920 Rose Bowl Parade. Since I have nothing better to share with you today, you get to experience parts of the 1920 Rose Bowl Parade.
They didn’t call it the Rose Bowl Parade then. The 1920 game occurred at Pasadena’s Tournament Park, where they slapped up bleachers for a game on New Year’s Day in 1902, and did not host another tournament game until 1916.
The first Tournament game played in the Rose Bowl came in 1923, when the Tournament of Roses Stadium received its “Rose Bowl” nickname shortly before the game.
Still, what we now call the 1920 Rose Bowl game and parade were special, in part because college teams returned after two years of military teams playing the games during the war.
New Year’s morning in 1920 broke with bright blue skies flecked with light clouds, as parade fans waited for Grand Marshall, George G. Morgan, to blow his whistle, starting the parade on Orange Grove Avenue.
They honored veterans’ groups, including the Grand Army of the Republic, which filled two trucks with Civil War veterans. Veterans of the Spanish-American War and WWI marched.
The locals who organized the Tournament of Roses helped lead the parade, often decorating their private vehicles.
Civic organizations included the Pasadena Pioneers Association, whose members qualified for membership by having lived in Pasadena by 1883.
Pasadena’s YWCA also marched, carrying a banner.
As in previous years, the parade included floats sponsored by Pasadena hotels, banks, and other businesses. Nearby Southland communities also had floats promoting themselves. There was Burbank’s Key of Opportunity.
The state champion Long Beach Poly high school football team.
And Los Angeles Mayor Snyder and his wife appeared.
Each Pasadena school entered a float, and each Pasadena High School class did as well. The freshmen class entry had class members dressed as infants rolling down the street in a large crib.
Young maidens rode on the senior class float. Male class members walked alongside, dressed as butterflies.
After the parade, the town’s attention turned to Tournament Park and the football game. The Harvard Crimson and Oregon Webfoots were on the menu that year before a crowd that included Charlie Chaplin and other silent movie stars — no word on what Chaplin thought of the game.
Harvard outscored Oregon 7-6, contributing to the Ivy League’s 2-1 record in Rose Bowl games. The Ivy League now participates in the FCS playoffs, so a member is unlikely to reach the Rose Bowl any time soon, meaning the league’s positive record will stick around for a while.
Enjoy tomorrow’s parade and slate of games.
Reminder: While the Rose Bowl is a legendary venue and game, some Rose Bowl-related legends are not true. No matter what you’ve been led to believe, Keith Jackson did not originate the “Granddaddy of the All” phrase.
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I have to assume the Bowl and the Tournament were named after the horticulture class the Pasadena area specialized in...
Great history.
I recently watched the early 50s movie 'That's My Boy'. If you haven't seen it, it's a great time capsule of college football. All the equipment, two-way playing, and aesthetics of the sport from that time. There's a Sammy Baugh reference, and a glancing reference to the Rose Bowl (if I remember right).