usc played their regular season games in the rose bowl.
usc played their regular season games in the rose bowl.
who plays their regular season games in the rose bowl?
usc
heading into the final game of the 1966 season vs. usc, ucla was 2–1 in conference games, 8–1 overall and ranked #5 in the country. the bruins, featuring a "dream backfield" of all-americans gary beban and mel farr, lost only one game, at rainy washington, 16–3, where huskies' head coach jim owens had devoted his entire season to beating prothro. ucla had beaten uw the season before, 28–24, with prothro's trick play, the z-streak in which a receiver trots towards the sideline like he's going out of the game and then runs a streak pattern unguarded by the inattentive defender. usc was 4–0 in conference and 7–1 overall, having lost to the unranked miami hurricanes. the bruins and trojans played a different number of conference games due to uneven scheduling caused by new aawu members oregon and oregon state and schedules made years in advance. it was widely assumed that only losses would be considered and the winner of the 1966 ucla-usc game would go to the 1967 rose bowl. ucla star quarterback gary beban broke his ankle the week before in a win over stanford, but backup norman dow, making his first and only start at quarterback, led ucla to a 14–7 win. that left usc with a 4–1 conference record (7–2 overall) and #5 ucla with a 3–1 conference record (9–1) overall. due to their win over usc, it was widely assumed ucla would get the rose bowl berth. however, a vote the next monday among the aawu conference athletic directors awarded usc the rose bowl berth. it was speculated that the directors believed beban could not play for ucla in the rose bowl due to the broken ankle, thereby giving the big ten conference representative, purdue, a better chance to win. as it turned out, beban could have played. but a bigger reason was that this was to make up for 1964 when oregon state was voted in ahead of usc. the coach of oregon state in 1964 was prothro. another speculation was the vote was against ucla out of pure jealousy by the rest of the conference, which voted 7–1 for the clearly inferior team. this vote deprived prothro of being the first coach to earn three consecutive rose bowl berths and ucla athletic director j. d. morgan called it a "gross injustice" and the "a dark day in ucla and aawu athletic history." inflamed ucla students who had gathered for the rose bowl celebration rally, took to the streets of westwood in protest and actually blocked the 405 freeway for a short time. ironically, morgan was the force behind establishing a tie-breaking method adopted by the conference one year later in which only loss column counted; the first tiebreaker was head-to-head results, followed by overall record. if there was still a tie, the rose bowl berth would go to the team that had not played in the rose bowl the longest. but it was too late for ucla. in their final game, usc made the aawu decision look bad by losing at home in the l.a. coliseum to notre dame, 51–0. they went on to lose the rose bowl as well to purdue, 14–13, finishing the season at 7–4.
1966 ucla bruins football team
for many years, the rose bowl had the largest football stadium capacity in the united states, eventually being surpassed by michigan stadium (107,601). the rose bowl's maximum stated seating capacity was 104,091 from 1972 to 1997. some of the seats closest to the field were never used during this time for ucla regular season games, and were covered by tarps. official capacity was lowered following the 1998 rose bowl. slightly different figures are given for the current capacity, for the lower level seats behind the team benches are not used for some events since the spectators can not see through the standing players or others on the field. ucla reports the capacity at 91,136. the tournament of roses reports the capacity at 92,542. the 2006 rose bowl game, which was also the bcs championship game, had a crowd of 93,986. in the 2011 contest between tcu and wisconsin, the listed attendance is 94,118. as of 2008, the rose bowl is the 11th largest football stadium, and is still the largest stadium that hosts post-season bowl games. for concerts held there, the rose bowl holds almost 60,000 people. the stadium's 2014 remodeling removed the lower "lettered row" seats on each side behind the players' benches and provided access in and out of the stadium for the lower sections of the rose bowl, restoring its original design.
rose bowl (stadium)