[photo credit: Pasadena Heritage]
The preservation nonprofit is leading two docent-guided tours through the landmark on June 21, in an event it has titled “Kick a Football on the Rose Bowl Field, Father’s Day Stadium Tour.” According to Pasadena Heritage’s event listing, the route moves through spaces most visitors never see and ends on the field, where participants can kick a football. Proceeds support the organization, which was founded in Pasadena in 1977.
The two tours run at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tickets are $65 each, available through the Zeffy ticketing service linked from pasadenaheritage.org. Spots are limited, NBC Los Angeles reported. Pasadena Heritage members can request a discount code by emailing Nick@pasadenaheritage.org. Tickets, the organization notes, are nonrefundable.
Designed by architect Myron Hunt and opened in 1922, the Rose Bowl has been in continuous use ever since and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It is also a California Historic Civil Engineering landmark. The first Tournament of Roses game at the stadium was played on Jan. 1, 1923, and the venue has been the home of UCLA Bruins football since 1982. Over the decades it has hosted five Super Bowls, Olympic soccer and two World Cup finals, and its modern seated capacity is about 89,702.
In its event materials, Pasadena Heritage frames the tour as a study of the building’s endurance. “Designed by Myron Hunt, the building has evolved over the decades, shaped by changing needs, careful upgrades, and a long tradition of stewardship that’s kept it both relevant and remarkably intact,” the organization writes in its description of the event. It describes the tour as a look at the Rose Bowl as a place — how it works, how it has changed, and what has taken place there.
Pasadena Heritage is among the older preservation groups in Southern California and, by its own account, the second-largest in the state, with more than 2,000 members. It is closely tied to the stadium’s own story; the organization was part of the community effort decades ago that resisted a remodeling plan that would have threatened the Rose Bowl’s landmark status.
The tours depart from Rose Bowl Stadium, 1001 Rose Bowl Drive. Members seeking the discount code can email Nick@pasadenaheritage.org; general questions can be directed to Pasadena Heritage at info@pasadenaheritage.org or (626) 441-6333.
The Rose Bowl has stood in the Arroyo Seco for more than a century. For one Sunday, the parts of it that have witnessed a century of games will be open to the public.
