THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN'S LEGACY AT AMERICA'S STADIUM

HELP US HONOR MICHIGAN'S LEGACY AT THE ROSE BOWL STADIUM

The Rose Bowl Stadium, which is approaching its centennial birthday, has had so many iconic moments over the past near-century and that history began with and has since been inextricably tied to Michigan Football.  Over the past several years, America’s Stadium has become a ‘walking museum’ of sorts with statues, historical markers, and more.  Now, the Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation, the venue’s 501c3 organization, is focused on enhancing this experience even further through selected projects that are curated to educate and inspire patrons when they visit throughout the year.   To that end, and consistent with the rich shared history and values of the Rose Bowl and Michigan Football, we are in the midst of an effort to realize the completion of the following two Michigan-based projects has two components to honor the Wolverines in Pasadena:

• A Historical Marker inside of the Rose Bowl Stadium recognizing Bo Schembechler as the preeminent head coach in Rose Bowl Game history, having coached on the sidelines in ten versions of the Granddaddy of Them All.
• A Statue outside of the Rose Bowl’s front entrance honoring the 1902 East-West Football Game in which Michigan, led by Fielding H. Yost, won its first national championship and highlighting college football’s first-ever bowl game which took place in Pasadena in 49-0 a win over Stanford.  This will be one of just four total statues on the entire Rose Bowl property, joining the following three monuments dedicated to the most significant moments and individuals in Rose Bowl history that also embody the values inherent to the legacy of the Rose Bowl Stadium:
  • Keith Jackson (to be dedicated on December 14, 2019)
  • 1999 Team USA Women’s World Cup Champions and Brandi Chastain (dedicated in July 2019)
  • Jackie Robinson (dedicated in Nov. 2017)

Our goal is to ensure that the projects are conceived and executed in a manner that aligns the integrity, tradition, values and history of both Michigan Football and the Rose Bowl.  To that end, the Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation has already received the enthusiastic endorsement of both the University of Michigan Athletic Department and Coach Schembechler’s estate for these projects.  As a valued member the Michigan Family and a fan of college football, we hope you will join us in this effort to celebrate the Michigan Football tradition and its unique place in the 150-year history of college football whose postseason began in Pasadena back in 1902.

ABOUT THE COACH BO SCHEMBECHLER HISTORICAL MARKER: Click Here to View the Project Renderings 

“The Team, The Team, The Team.”  That was Bo Schembechler’s winning philosophy over the course of his 27 years as a collegiate head football coach.  Schembechler used that philosophy to build successful teams out of individuals, to make men out of boys, and to create a coaching legend out of a prep football all-stater from Barberton (Ohio) High School. 

Bo’s loyalty to Michigan was matched only by the success of his teams which enabled him to achieve a career record at Michigan of 194-48-5 (making him the winningest coach in Michigan history) and an overall career record of 234-65-8 (a figure that placed him fifth in all-time victories at the time of his retirement). 

Schembechler’s Michigan teams won or shared 13 Big Ten Conference titles, resulting in Bo coaching in more Rose Bowl games (10) than any other head coach in the history of the Granddaddy of the Them All. Bo retired after the 1990 Rose Bowl as the winningest active coach in all of college football and one of the most revered head coaches in history.  In recognition of his immense contributions to the Rose Bowl and the game of college football, Schembechler was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993.

ABOUT THE 1902 EAST-WEST STATUE AT THE ROSE BOWL STADIUM, CELEBRATING THE FIRST POSTSEASON COLLEGE FOOTBALL BOWL GAME AND MICHIGAN'S VICTORY: Click Here to View the Project Renderings

Originally titled the "Tournament East-West Football Game," and now known at the Rose Bowl Game, Michigan defeated Stanford in dominating fashion, 49-0, on January 1, 1902. The Wolverines' win completed an undefeated season and earned Michigan its first-ever national championship.

Played at Tournament Park in Pasadena, near what is now world-renowned Caltech, an estimated 8,500 fans saw Fielding H. Yost's first "Point-a-Minute" team overwhelmed the opponent, resulting in a Stanford concession with eight minutes remaining in the game. The Michigan win completed one of the most impressive seasons in college football history as Michigan outscored its opponents 550-0 en route to a 11-0 record.

Given the lopsided outcome of the game, the Tournament of Roses Association thought that an annual football game might not be appealing to spectators. As such, the following year football was replaced by chariot racing and it would be another 16 years before the Tournament of Roses would feature a post-parade football game.

For Michigan, the 1902 game was the catalyst of an unprecedented five-year run of success from 1901-05 in which Yost's Wolverine teams played 56 consecutive games without a loss, won four national championships, captured four conference titles and outscored their opponents 2,821 to 42. The 1902 game represented Michigan's lone "Rose Bowl" appearance until 1948 when the Wolverines returned to Pasadena and won another national title

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