Political Gumbo: The Name Game

The Rose Bowl Game, the Grandaddy of Them All, is the oldest college bowl game in the nation.

It’s also one of the oldest traditions in Pasadena, and the name and the brand need to stay in Pasadena.

I get it: The College Football Playoffs have a right to say where the game should be played.

That is a horrible name, by the way. Why name the organization after the event? Seems like the word committee should be in there.

Either way, they don’t own the rights to the Rose Bowl Game, which belongs to the City Council and the Tournament of Roses Association.

The Master license agreement (MLA) between the city of Pasadena and the Tournament of Roses sets forth the terms and conditions under which the annual Rose Bowl Game is staged.

Not only that, the tournament’s license to use the Rose Bowl facilities includes the right to stage additional Rose Bowl events as long as they are related to the staging of the Rose Bowl game or the Rose Parade.

Of course, there are costs associated with using the stadium.

That said, the Rose Bowl Operating Co. (RBOC) and the Tournament should get UCLA, the facility’s main tenant, and a Big Ten opponent into the stadium on Jan. 1 and stage a Rose Bowl Game.

Yes, it can be done. 

The MLA states the city and the tournament determine the conditions of when the game is held.  

The city and the nation need to see the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2021, if only to show the world that we are going forward with traditions in place. 

Personally, I’d go a step further and tell the families of the players to put on T-shirts saying “Let Us In” and show up inside the stadium to protest the governor’s order as they sat 20 feet apart with masks on, of course. But I don’t expect the City Council to go that far.

Simply put, we cannot allow COVID-19 or CFP, an organization we may want to consider leaving, to cancel The Grandaddy of Them All. 

The game has been kicking around since 1902 when 8,500 people fought to obtain the 1,000 seats at Tournament Park (now a park and athletic venue at Caltech) to see Michigan destroy Stanford 49-0.

The game was a disappointment to all but the most devoted fans. Ironically, somebody had the idea to replace that boring game with polo matches in 1903. 

Can you imagine? They were bored. Nobody wants to see football. Hell, they want to see polo!

After that went over like a three-day-old biscuit, chariot races led the way on New Year’s Day, according to a 2016 Pasadena Weekly article with no byline, but it reads like Uhrich wrote it. Don’t get me started on the new owners of PW erasing the bylines of former reporters that worked there.

Anyway, according to that story, football made its comeback in 1916, when Washington State beat Brown University 14-0 in a game that received national newspaper coverage.

Throughout the years, the Rose Bowl game continued to garner large crowds and media attention, becoming an essential part of the Tournament of Roses festivities and Pasadena.

It should stay here. It may not be an essential business, but it is an essential tradition.

Keep the name home.