Rose Bowl Trivia
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59 free Rose Bowl trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Rose Bowl is the oldest bowl game in college football, the stadium that hosted five Super Bowls and both a men's and a women's World Cup final, and the New Year's Day parade that all of it was invented to pay for. This Rose Bowl trivia quiz covers every side of it: the 1902 game so lopsided that Pasadena switched to chariot and ostrich races for thirteen years, the wartime year the game moved to North Carolina, the Big Ten versus Pac-8/10/12 tradition, the BCS and Playoff eras, and the parade's floats, grand marshals and B-2 flyover. The questions run from easy ones any college football fan can get (which city, which nickname, which broadcaster coined it) to expert-level records, sponsors and stadium history. It works for a New Year's Day watch party, a tailgate or a college football trivia night. Every answer was checked against the Tournament of Roses record and Wikipedia's game-by-game history before publishing, and each question carries a citation to the page it came from.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city is the Rose Bowl Game traditionally played?
Pasadena
Pasadena's Rose Bowl stadium sits in the Arroyo Seco, about 10 miles north-northeast of downtown Los Angeles; the city owns the stadium while the Tournament of Roses runs the game.
Q 02Which broadcaster gave the Rose Bowl its nickname, "The Granddaddy of Them All"?
Keith Jackson
Keith Jackson, ABC's voice of college football for decades, popularised the nickname and called his last game at the 2006 Rose Bowl before retiring.
Q 03In what year was the very first Rose Bowl game played?
1902
The first game was played on 1 January 1902 as the Tournament East–West football game; football then vanished from the festivities until 1916, when it returned for good.
Q 04After the 1902 blowout, what did the Tournament of Roses stage instead of football for 13 years?
Chariot and ostrich races
Chariot and ostrich races filled the gap from 1903 until football returned; the festivities once even pitted a camel against an elephant, and the elephant won.
Q 05Which school beat Brown 14–0 in the 1916 game, football's return to the Tournament?
Washington State
Washington State beat Brown 14–0 on a muddy field on 1 January 1916, the game that brought football back to the Tournament of Roses for good.
Q 06Why was a football game added to the New Year's festivities in 1902?
To help pay for the Rose Parade
To help pay for the Rose Parade, which had begun in 1890, the Tournament of Roses added a football game to its New Year's programme to draw crowds and cover the growing costs.
Q 07The trophy given to the winning team is named for which family of Tournament of Roses presidents?
Leishman
It is named for William L. and Lathrop K. Leishman, two former Tournament of Roses presidents.
Q 08Where were Rose Bowl games played before the stadium opened, near the Caltech campus?
Tournament Park
Tournament Park, beside the Caltech campus, hosted the games until the stadium opened; its temporary wooden stands could not safely hold the crowds of more than 40,000 the game was drawing.
Q 09The Rose Bowl stadium's design was modeled on the football bowl of which university?
Yale
The Yale Bowl in New Haven, opened in 1914, was the model for the stadium's design, and even the name 'Rose Bowl' was a nod to the then-unusual name of the New Haven venue.
Q 10Because of fears of a Japanese attack after Pearl Harbor, the 1942 Rose Bowl was played in which state?
North Carolina
North Carolina hosted the wartime game: Duke invited Oregon State to its home stadium in Durham, where the Beavers won 20–16, and the game returned home the next year.
Q 11Where was the 2021 Rose Bowl, a Playoff semifinal, played after COVID-19 forced its relocation?
AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas
AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys, took the game after state officials would not allow even players' families to attend; it was only the second time the game had left its home.
Q 12From 1947 to 2023, the Rose Bowl matched the Big Ten champion against which conference's champion?
Pac-12
Pac-12 champions (earlier the Pacific Coast Conference, AAWU, Pac-8 and Pac-10) met the Big Ten's under a deal first honoured in the 1947 game, a 45–14 Illinois win.
Q 13In which year did the Rose Bowl join other bowls to form the Bowl Championship Series?
1998
Q 21Georgia's 54–48 win in the 2018 Rose Bowl semifinal was the first Rose Bowl decided how?
In overtime
In overtime — the second period of it — Sony Michel's 27-yard touchdown run settled the 54–48 semifinal; the 2024 semifinal was the next Rose Bowl to need extra time.
Q 22Which two players are the only ones to have started in four Rose Bowl games?
Archie Griffin and Brian Cushing
Griffin's Ohio State went from 1973 to 1976 under Woody Hayes; Cushing's USC went from 2006 to 2009 under Pete Carroll.
Q 23Which is the most frequent Rose Bowl matchup, played for the eighth time in 2007?
USC vs Michigan
In 1998 the Rose Bowl joined the three Bowl Alliance games to form the Bowl Championship Series, agreeing for the first time to release a Big Ten or Pac-10 champion ranked No. 1 or No. 2.
Q 14Which two teams met in the 2002 Rose Bowl, the first BCS title game there?
Miami and Nebraska
Miami and Nebraska met, the Hurricanes winning 37–14; Nebraska's selection was controversial because Oregon was ranked No. 2 in both polls and the Cornhuskers had not even played in their conference title game.
Q 15The 2006 Rose Bowl drew the biggest college football TV audience since which 1987 bowl game?
Fiesta
The 1987 Fiesta Bowl, a No. 1-versus-No. 2 title showdown, was the last college game with a bigger audience: 35.6 million watched Texas end USC's 34-game winning streak in the 2006 Rose Bowl.
Q 16Which Texas quarterback was named Rose Bowl Player of the Game in both 2005 and 2006?
Vince Young
Vince Young took the award in consecutive years, then in the 2006 game ran for 200 yards and three touchdowns, including the winner with 19 seconds left, against USC.
Q 17Which team was the first from a non-automatic-qualifying conference to play in the Rose Bowl in the BCS era, in 2011?
TCU
TCU, then a 12–0 Mountain West team, beat No. 5 Wisconsin 21–19 after a one-time BCS clause sent the highest-ranked non-automatic-qualifying team to the Rose Bowl.
Q 18Which two teams met in the 100th Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2014?
Michigan State and Stanford
Michigan State and Stanford met in the centennial game, and the Spartans won 24–20 behind Connor Cook's touchdown pass to Tony Lippett and a late goal-line stand.
Q 19Whose 29-game winning streak did Oregon end in the 2015 Rose Bowl, the first Playoff semifinal?
Florida State
Florida State, the defending national champion, saw its 29-game winning streak end in a 59–20 rout by Oregon, with Heisman winner Marcus Mariota at quarterback for the Ducks.
Q 20Which team lost the 2017 Rose Bowl 52–49 to USC, setting the record for most points by a losing side?
Penn State
Penn State led 49–35 in the fourth quarter before USC scored the last 17 points, Matt Boermeester's 46-yard field goal as time expired sealing the 52–49 shootout.
USC vs Michigan has been played eight times, from 1948 to 2007, with USC leading the series 6–2; USC–Ohio State is next with seven meetings.
Q 24Which two Big Ten members had never appeared in a Rose Bowl through the 2024 season?
Maryland and Rutgers
Maryland and Rutgers, the East Coast additions of 2014, had no Rose Bowl appearances; Nebraska had played twice, in 1941 and 2002, but both came before it joined the Big Ten.
Q 25Which network televised the Rose Bowl every year from 1952 to 1988?
NBC
NBC carried the Rose Bowl for 37 straight years, from 1952 through the 1988 game, before ABC took over the rights in 1989.
Q 26The 1962 Rose Bowl marked what broadcasting milestone for college football?
First game broadcast in color
The 1952 game had been the first nationally televised bowl; high definition did not arrive until the 2005 edition.
Q 27Which company became the Rose Bowl's first 'presenting' sponsor in 1999?
AT&T
AT&T became the first presenting sponsor in 1999, its name tacked on as 'presented by' rather than folded into the game's title as other bowls did; Sony's PlayStation 2 followed in 2002.
Q 28Which company became the first to sponsor two New Year's Six bowls at once with the 2021 Rose Bowl?
Capital One
Capital One already held the Orange Bowl's title sponsorship when it became the Rose Bowl's presenting sponsor in 2021, and the 2022 game was branded for its Venture X travel card.
Q 29Which sight is a celebrated part of the Rose Bowl's traditional 2 p.m. kickoff?
The sun setting on the San Gabriel Mountains
The sun setting on the San Gabriel Mountains behind the stadium, caught by the traditional 2 p.m. Pacific kickoff, is the game's signature televised image.
Q 30Who traditionally presents the Rose Bowl coin toss?
The parade's grand marshal
The parade's grand marshal, chosen each year by the Tournament of Roses president to lead the morning parade, traditionally tosses the coin at midfield before kickoff.