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Bobby Bell, Ricky Ervins, Tommy Prothro, and Art Spander to be Inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame Class of 2016

Published on Thursday, August 25, 2016 | 11:56 am
 

The Tournament of Roses today announced that Bobby Bell, Ricky Ervins, Tommy Prothro, and Art Spander will be inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame as the Class of 2016.

The Rose Bowl Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place on January 1, 2017 outside of the Rose Bowl Stadium, one day before the kickoff of the 103rd Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual. This year’s game will feature the top available teams from the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences and will take place on January 2.

The Rose Bowl Hall of Fame was established in 1989 to pay tribute to members of the Rose Bowl Game who have contributed to the history and excitement of the game, and those who embody the highest level of passion, strength, tradition and honor associated with The Granddaddy of Them All®.

“We are thrilled to welcome these four amazing individuals to the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame,” said Tournament of Roses Executive Director Bill Flinn. “This year’s class represents the wide range of exceptional talent we’ve seen associated with our game and we’re honored to add them to our distinguished list of inductees.”

Bobby Bell, a defensive lineman from the University of Minnesota, played in both the 1961 and 1962 Rose Bowl Games. The Gophers won the 1962 Game, 21-3, against the UCLA Bruins, which was also the last appearance in the Rose Bowl Game by the Gophers. While in college, Bell was a two-time All-American and a winner of the 1962 Outland Trophy, honoring the top interior lineman in the country. Bell went on to a successful professional football career, playing for the Kansas City Chiefs from 1963 to 1974, where he was a Super Bowl IV Champion against the Minnesota Vikings. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame. Bell earned his degree from the University of Minnesota in 2015, fulfilling a promise to his father that he made when he was 18.

Ricky Ervins grew up down the street from the Rose Bowl Stadium and attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, Calif. He had a successful collegiate career as running back at the University of Southern California. Ervins’ touchdown run at the 1990 Rose Bowl Game helped the Trojans top Michigan, 17-10, and he was named the game MVP. He ran for 126 yards on 30 tries in the Rose Bowl Game and also caught 5 passes for another 44 yards. Ervins appeared in two other Rose Bowl Games (1988, 1989) and ranks 12th on the all-time USC rushing list with 2,337 yards on 488 carries (4.8 avg.) and 17 touchdowns. Ervins’ had a five-year career in the NFL with the Washington Redskins (1991-1994) and the San Francisco 49ers (1995). He helped the Redskins to their Super Bowl XXVI Championship and was the game’s leading rusher.

Tommy Prothro’s connection to the Rose Bowl Game spans as both an athlete and a coach, having played quarterback for the Duke Blue Devils in the 1942 Rose Bowl Game and served as head coach for Oregon State University in the 1957 and 1965 Rose Bowl Game, and the University of California, Los Angeles in the 1966 Rose Bowl Game. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the 1942 Rose Bowl Game, which is the only Rose Bowl Game to have been played outside of Pasadena. The game was contested in Durham, North Carolina, following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Protho’s Rose Bowl Game victory came in 1966, when UCLA upset Michigan State, 14-12, during his first season as head coach for the Bruins. Prothro’s overall record as a head coach in college football is 104-55-5. In 1971, Prothro moved to professional football as head coach of the Los Angeles Rams and later, the San Diego Chargers. Prothro, who passed away in 1995 after a three-year battle with cancer, is also a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Art Spander is an award-winning American sports writer who has attended 63 consecutive Rose Bowl Games and covered the last 53 as a journalist. Spander began his career at United Press International in Los Angeles in 1960. In 1963, he began covering sports full time in 1963 for the Santa Monica Outlook as the beat writer for the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1965 he moved to the San Francisco Chronicle, where he covered golf, football, baseball and basketball. Spander became the lead sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner in 1979, where he still has a column to this day. In addition to his newspaper/online writing work, Spander is a frequent commentator on sports talk radio and contributor to various sports magazines. Born in Los Angeles, Spander is a graduate of Dorsey High School and attended the University of California, Los Angeles.

With the addition of this year’s class, the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame includes 121 inductees over its 27-year history. Inductees are honored with a permanent plaque that includes their name and year of induction at The Court of Champions at the Rose Bowl Stadium, they are featured during the Rose Parade® presented by Honda®, and are recognized on the field during the Rose Bowl Game.

 

 

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