Rose Bowl celebrates 100th birthday
The grand daddy of them all is celebrating a special milestone Friday.
The Rose Bowl has reached its 100th birthday on Friday after opening to the public on Oct. 28, 1922.
The Pasadena and Southern California landmark has been the host to many historic college football games, World Cup matches and was the host for the Super Bowl in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
Now it has served as the host for UCLA's football team and is the site for the annual Rose Bowl Game and plenty of soccer exhibition games and concerts.
In the summer, the Rose Bowl is host to one of the biggest firework shows in Southern California on 4th of July. In August, many So. Cal sports legends and celebrities got together to celebrate the Rose Bowl's anniversary. Figures like former UCLA basketball star Bill Walton, and former Bruin and NFL defensive back James Washington.
While the Rose Bowl may not be the oldest venue in America, it's certainly one of the most iconic.
"This is where all football players, soccer players, concerts want to perform here at the world-famous Rose Bowl," Sam Hodson told CBSLA Reporter Lauren Pozen.
Built in the 1920's, America's stadium is recognized as a national historic landmark. It originally looked like a horseshoe shape in its early years, before the full bowl was completed in 1928.
Its centennial anniversary also marks another special event. USC football and Cal faced off for the first football game on the field.
That's why one of the stops on the Rose Bowl tour holds even more significance on its 100th birthday.
The 1922 locker room is the exact place where the players got ready for the first game back in the 1920s. Restored in 2017 as a museum, the locker room now holds all the artifacts from all the different events that make up the stadiums rich history for the last 100 years.
"Back then football teams may have had 15 to 20 players. Back in those days you had to play both offense and defense so the teams were smaller," Hodson said.
There's certainly nothing small about the Rose Bowl and its 100th birthday.
"That's why they call it the granddaddy of them all. 100 years, happy birthday Rose Bowl Pasadena California," Eric Langly, who was touring the Rose Bowl on Friday, told Pozen.
Tonight, landmarks across Los Angeles like LAX and the coliseum will be lit up in gold to celebrate the Rose Bowl's big day.
