By Rosalinda
Morgan
The annual Rose Parade and Rose Bowl football game
is an all-American tradition on New Year’s Day.
Long before the radio was invented much less the TV in 1890, members of
the Pasadena’s Valley Hunt Club wanted to celebrate the mild winter weather in
California where roses were still in bloom in January. They were eager to tell the world about their
paradise. They were from the East and
Midwest who moved to California and discovered the nice mild winter weather in
Pasadena. Dr. Charles Frederick Holder
declared at a club meeting that “In New York, people are buried in snow. Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges
are about to bear. Let’s hold a festival
to tell the world about our paradise.”
The first floral festival on New Year’s Day was
attended by more than 2000 people and was patterned after the Battle of the
Flowers held in Nice, France. The
festival included a modest procession of flower-covered carriages with
afternoon games of foot races, tug-of-war contests, bicycle races, ostrich
races, polo matches and other contest on the town lot. There was even a race between a camel and an
elephant. The elephant won. Eventually, the contest was replaced by the
best of college football. The town lot
was then renamed Tournament Park in 1900.
The first football game was played in 1902 between Stanford University
and the University of Michigan with Michigan winning 49-0. Due to such defeat, the Association dropped
football in favor of chariot races.
Then in 1916, football came back to stay. In 1920, a new stadium was built which the
local newspaper called the Rose Bowl. On
January 1, 1923, the Tournament held the first Rose Bowl game. Today, the festival starts with a parade that
includes matching bands, high-stepping equestrian units and spectacular
animated floats covered with million flowers from all over the world. Volunteers called petal pushers work hand in
hand with professional designers to make this event a huge success. This was followed by the Rose Bowl where the
championship collegiate football teams of the Pac-12 and the Big Ten conference
meet for the showdown of the Granddaddy of them all.
In the early years, few teams arrived in flower
decorated carriages which gave Dr. Holder the idea to change the name of the
festival to “Tournament of Roses”. By
1895, the festival had gotten so big that it was difficult for the Valley Hunt
Club to handle so the Tournament of Roses Association was formed. Today the Tournament of Roses Association
headquarters is housed at an Italian Renaissance-style house, thanks to the
generosity of the famous chewing-gum manufacturer, William Wrigley Jr. whose
favorite pastime was watching the parade.
The 18,500 square foot mansion designed by architect G. Lawrence Stimson
with a 4-1/2 acres rose garden is located two blocks south of the starting
point of the parade and was bequeathed to the city of Pasadena upon Mr.
Wrigley’s death in 1958 with the stipulation that it be used as the Tournament’s
permanent headquarters.
From the humble beginning, the 126th
Rose Parade presented by Honda with the theme, “Inspiring Stories,” will start at 8:00
a.m. (PT) on Thursday, January 1, 2015. The Tournament of Roses has selected Els Hazenberg,
Steven Wood Schmader and Eddie Zaratsian to be float judges for the 126th Rose
Parade. The Rose Parade expects to be watched by millions on
television in more than 100 countries plus a million of spectators along the
parade routes.
The Rose Parade will be followed by the 101st
Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual at 1:30 pm PT (4:30 pm ET)
between the No. 2 CFP-ranked Oregon Ducks,
champions of the Pac-12 Conference, and the No. 3 CFP-ranked Florida State
Seminoles, champions of the ACC Conference. The
101st Rose Bowl Game will mark the first-ever meeting between the Ducks and the
Seminoles. The winner of the Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game will earn
a spot in the first-ever College Football Playoff National Championship, which
will take place on January 12, 2015 in North Texas. The game will be televised
nationally on ESPN with Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Heather Cox calling
the action.
