The Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, is one of only two venues in the world to soon be a host venue for three different Olympic Games (1932, 1984 and 2028). The other venue is the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. A 96-year run. Quite a legacy.
I am biased but I think the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena California is the greatest setting in the world to watch a college football game (or a soccer match, or a Coldplay concert for that matter). This historic venue is nestled in the Arroyo Seco (“dry stream” in Spanish) canyon against the base of the San Gabriel Mountains.
A Brief History Lesson
The Arroyo Seco was one of the Los Angeles River tributaries explored by Captain Gaspar de Portola, a Spanish officer and the first governor of California, in the late summer and fall of 1770. He named the stream Arroyo Seco, because for all the canyons he had seen, this one had the least water. The Arroyo Seco region can be considered by historical accounts as the birthplace of Pasadena.
By 1821 the area passed from Spanish to Mexican control. The Arroyo Seco was then a part of the Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual, a 14,000-acre Mexican land grant given to Juan Mariné, a retired artillery lieutenant.
The Arroyo Seco was later incorporated as a part of the city of Pasadena in 1886. The town had been settled beginning in the 1870’s by many well-to-do families coming from Indiana (The Indiana Colony) and soon thereafter wealthy easterners via the railroad drawn to the climate.
1922: The Rose Bowl Is Born
Construction of the Rose Bowl began in January 1922 and was completed by October. The first football game would be played there in January of 1923 between the University of Southern California (USC) Trojans and the Penn State Nittany Lions. USC won 14-3.
But this was not the first Rose Bowl. It was the ninth. Rose Bowl football games had already been played in Pasadena since 1902. Organized by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association (the folks who had started the Rose Parade in 1890) and titled the East-West Tournament Game, the game had grown in popularity until by the twenties there were 40,000 spectators watching on temporary, rickety stands at Tournament Park adjacent the California Institute of Technology.
Designed by famed Southern California architect Myron Hunt, the Rose Bowl would be modeled after the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut which had opened in 1914. It was horse-shoe shaped and held 57,000 spectators for that first game in 1923. There is consensus today that the Rose Bowl was the first postseason college football game ever played. It also predated the world series.
By 1927, the games were finally broadcast live via radio. The first televised game happened in 1952. The first coast-to-coast TV broadcast in color came 10 years after that. The broadcast world brought the Rose Bowl its famous nickname. The late, great broadcaster Keith Jackson is credited with coining the term, “The Granddaddy of Them All.” A statue of him now stands outside of the structure.
The 1932 Olympic Games
The 1932 Games were held against the backdrop of the global Great Depression. At that time also travel to Los Angeles from other countries was limited to ship transport mainly. As a result of these two factors many nations did not attend. Only 37 countries sent teams versus 46 countries in 1928 in Amsterdam. President Herbert Hoover elected not to attend. Organizers of the LA Games were therefore constrained to use existing facilities around the city wherever possible to control costs instead of building new venues. The only new facility for these games would be the swimming stadium built next to the LA Memorial Coliseum.
At the 1932 Games the Rose Bowl would host (of all things) track cycling events. A large wooden velodrome track was constructed within the stadium and a total of four cycling events would be held there: 1. The 4-Man Team Pursuit 2. The 1,000 Meter Time Trial 3. The Match Sprint and 4. The Tandem Match Sprint. Seating was 75,000 but the stadium was mostly empty with events sparsely attended. 66 riders from 13 countries competed with Italy winning the most medals (5) and Dunc Gray winning Australia’s first cycling gold medal in the Time Trial. At sixteen Otto Luedeke of the U.S. would be the youngest rider in the field.
The 1984 Olympic Games
For these games the Rose Bowl would be selected to host the men’s soccer tournament. Only the top sixteen nations would qualify to send teams. But a Soviet Union-led boycott by the so-called Eastern Bloc nations severely affected the 1984 participants. Czechoslovakia, East Germany, the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria all qualified but sadly leaders chose not to let their athletes compete.
Also in 1984 for the first time professionals would be allowed to compete for their countries. As a result, in spite of the boycott all matches were well attended. In fact for the final between France and Brazil, which France would win 2-0, the crowd of 101,799 would be the largest crowd to witness a soccer match in U.S. history. This record would stand for 30 years until 2014 when it was broken at Michigan Stadium in a match between Real Madrid and Manchester United.
The 2028 Olympic Games
As of March 25, 2025 The Rose Bowl has been approved again to be the host venue for soccer semi-final and final matches. However this time both men’s and women’s matches will be held there.
“Pasadena is proud to be a Venue City supporting the Host City of Los Angeles for the 2028 Games and we look forward to welcoming the world to the iconic Rose Bowl Stadium. We will ensure all visitors enjoy the best Games experience possible with all our City has to offer,” stated Pasadena Mayor Victor M. Gordo.
