Pasadena Senior Olympian’s Tradition of Attending Every Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena Since 1948 To Continue

Pasadenan and Senior Olympian Donald Leis’ tradition of attending the Rose Bowl game without fail year after year will continue on Jan. 2.

“Definitely [I will attend] until I fall dead,” the 90-year-old told Pasadena Now.

“Officially, he has been to 74 consecutive Rose Bowl games in Pasadena, the first in 1948 when his father bought him a ticket for $5 and the last, the Jan. 1, 2022 game between Ohio State and Utah, where the ticket cost $268. (The 2021 Rose Bowl was in Texas because of Covid). 

No one in the world has been to more Rose Bowl games than Don Leis,” a sports newsletter reported earlier this year. 

On Monday Jan. 2, Utah Utes and Penn State Nittany Lions will go up against each other in the 2023 Rose Bowl game. 

Leis said he will be rooting for Utah.

“I’m for Utah because I saw them last year and they barely lost to Ohio State last year at the Rose Bowl. So this year I’m for them all the way.”

Following the Rose Bowl game, Leis said he always heads to the three-quarter-mile-long hill next to the clubhouse, where he jogs over the hill as the crowd huffs and puffs their way to their parking spaces.

The Senior Olympian, who has earned over 500 medals in his career, will head to the hill again this year after the game. 

“I do that every year and it seems like for the last 15 or 20 years people have been huffing and puffing going up that walkway because it’s quite a steep grade.” 

“And I always say if I do not make it to the top and I have to stop, that’ll be the end of my track and Senior Olympics and US Masters Track and Field, which I’ve been in for 24 years if I can’t make it to the top.”

Background

Born and raised in Pasadena, Leis’ first Rose Bowl experience was in 1946. 

To be able to watch his first Rose Bowl game, Leis and cohorts tried digging a hole under the fence around the Rose Garden on their way to the stadium tunnels. “The security people grabbed us by the collar and said, ‘Hey, you guys are out of here’,” he recalled. 

In the following year, he tried to deliver newspapers to be able to watch the game.

“As soon as everybody was in their seats, we dumped the papers into the bushes and then ran in and sat in the end zone,” Leis recounted.

Leis got his first ever Rose Bowl ticket in 1948.

“That was USC against Michigan,” he recounted. “I remember that one well because it was the first paid ticket my dad gave me in the northeast end of the Rose Bowl.” 

Leis said he still has the ticket in an interview with Pasadena Now two years ago. 

If he had to pick his favorite Rose Bowl game, he pointed to a contest with one of this year’s contestants, Wisconsin, against local favorite USC. The 1963 matchup that was the 49th Rose Bowl Game.

“Wisconsin came back and almost beat USC, but USC did win,” Leis said in 2020. “That was a good game.”

Going to the Rose Bowl game has always been part of Leis’ life.

“I just continue and that’s part of my life basically because I was born and raised right here in Lamanda Park, which is East Pasadena.” 

The 2023 Rose Bowl  would be Leis’ 75th Rose Bowl game. It was supposed to be his 76th game, but he missed the 2021 Rose Bowl which was held in Texas. 

That was the first and only time he missed the event. 

“I hope to continue seeing the Rose Bowl game,” he concluded. “It’s still the granddaddy of them all.”