Silver Lake & Rose Bowl

Wow!  This is a terrific, 1921, shot of Silver Lake Blvd.  I used to drive this lane so frequently with my dad to my brother's house in Los Angeles.  At night the drive was stunning because the lights from the homes on the rim of the lake would mirror off the lake itself.  Spectacular, really.  We would take this route from Virgil Avenue up to the Glendale Freeway the over to the 134.  The traffic was lighter and the scenery was better than the industrial 10 Freeway before we got to the winding Pasadena Freeway that we connected to the Foothill Freeway, the 210.

And there are others. 

Panoramic view of the 1923 Rose Bowl Game between Penn State and USC.  

My dad took me to the USC v. Michigan Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 1977.  I felt out of place.  I was not a big fan of either team, but it was the Rose Bowl and I was supposed to feel something historic, something momentus.  Just wasn't feeling it. Still it was exciting, and you could lose yourself in the competition. It was a low-scoring game, USC: 14, Michigan, 6.  Pittsburgh Panthers, the year of Tony Dorsett, won the national championship. As my dad and I walked from his parked car on the plateau overlooking the ravine of the Rose Bowl we crossed paths with other fans and Dad shot out "USC could use Tony Dorsett today, eh?" The guy gushed in the affirmative.  The following year, 1977, Notre Dame under Dan Devine's helm went on to win a national championship.

The Fighting Irish won the title by defeating the previously unbeaten and No. 1 ranked Texas Longhonrs in the Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas, Texas by a score of 38-10.

I liked being with my dad, being his companion in the things he loved. He loved USC football if only to see them lose if their loss gave Notre Dame a boost in the ratings.  Nah, he loved USC on their own merit.  He grew up near the Coliseum when he was a kid. We attended scores of Rams games with tailgate parties of beer and pop and burritos from Pedro's on Del Mar.  That place is gone.  Talk about the loss of memories.  But as to the Coliseum, who can forget that?  The smell of hotdogs, peanuts, popcorn, beer on tap, cigars and men's urinals is endurable.  

There's got to be other events, no?

Did not know that the very word "bowl" as it is used for New Year's Day tournament football games across the country originated from the Rose Bowl here in Pasadena.  So there's that influence. 

The history of the bowl game began with the 1902 Tournament East-West football game, sponsored by the Tournament of Roses Association between Michigan and Stanford, a game which Michigan won 49-0.  The Tournament of Roses eventually sponsored an annual contest starting with the 1916 Tournament East-West Football Game.  With the 1923 Rose Bowl it began to be played at the newly completed Rose Bowl Stadium, and thus the contest itself became known as the Rose Bowl Game.  The name "bowl" to describe the games thus comes from the Rose Bowl Stadium.  Other cities saw the promotional value for tourism that the Tournament of Roses parade and Rose Bowl carried and began to develop their own regional festivals which included college football games.  The label "bowl" was attached to the festival name, even though the games were not always played in bowl-shaped stadiums.

Keep reading . . . .  It is a fascinating read.