60 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 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city is the Rose Bowl Game traditionally played?
Pasadena
The game is played in the Arroyo Seco, about 10 miles north-northeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city of Pasadena co-owns the Rose Bowl name with the Tournament of Roses.
Q 02Which broadcaster gave the Rose Bowl its nickname, "The Granddaddy of Them All"?
Keith Jackson
Jackson called the game for ABC for decades. A statue of him was unveiled at the stadium's Rose Plaza in December 2019.
Q 03In what year was the very first Rose Bowl game played?
1902
It was billed as the Tournament East–West football game. Football then vanished from the festivities until 1916, when it returned for good.
Q 04The 1902 game was so lopsided that Stanford quit in the third quarter. Which team beat them 49–0?
Michigan
Fielding H. Yost's 1901 Michigan team finished 11–0. Yost had coached Stanford the season before.
Q 05After the 1902 blowout, what did the Tournament of Roses stage instead of football for 13 years?
Chariot and ostrich races
The festivities also once featured a race between a camel and an elephant. The elephant won.
Q 06Which school beat Brown in the 1916 game and has not won it since?
Washington State
Washington State's win predates the Pacific Coast Conference. As of 2026 the Cougars have not won a Rose Bowl since.
Q 07Why was a football game added to the New Year's festivities in 1902?
To help pay for the Rose Parade
The parade came first, in 1890, and the game was a fundraiser for it. Today the game is the far bigger business.
Q 08The 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 09Where were Rose Bowl games played before the stadium opened, near the Caltech campus?
Tournament Park
It was about three miles southeast of the current stadium. Its temporary stands could not handle crowds above 40,000.
Q 10The Rose Bowl stadium's design was modeled on the football bowl of which university?
Yale
Architect Myron Hunt designed it in 1921. Even the name "Rose Bowl" was a nod to the then-unusual name of the New Haven venue.
Q 11Because of fears of a Japanese attack after Pearl Harbor, the 1942 Rose Bowl was played in which state?
North Carolina
Duke invited the game and Oregon State to its home stadium in Durham. Oregon State won, and the game returned home the next year.
Q 12Where was the 2021 Rose Bowl, a Playoff semifinal, played after COVID-19 forced its relocation?
AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas
The state denied a request to admit some fans, so the CFP moved the game to the Dallas Cowboys' stadium. It was only the second time the game left Pasadena.
Q 13From 1947 to 2023, the Rose Bowl matched the Big Ten champion against which conference's champion?
Pac-12
Q 21Which team lost the 2017 Rose Bowl 52–49 to USC, setting the record for most points by a losing side?
Penn State
The 101 combined points capped a shootout that has since been remembered as one of the greatest Rose Bowls ever played.
Q 22Georgia's 54–48 win in the 2018 Rose Bowl semifinal was the first Rose Bowl decided how?
In overtime
It took double overtime. The 2024 semifinal became only the second Rose Bowl to need extra time.
Q 23Which two players are the only ones to have started in four Rose Bowl games?
Archie Griffin and Brian Cushing
The pairing began with the Big Nine–Pacific Coast Conference deal for the 1947 game, UCLA versus Illinois. UCLA, USC, Minnesota and Illinois had all voted against it.
Q 14In which year did the Rose Bowl join other bowls to form the Bowl Championship Series?
1998
For the first time the Rose Bowl agreed to release the Big Ten or Pac-10 champion if they were ranked No. 1 or No. 2.
Q 15Who played in the 2002 Rose Bowl BCS title game, the first since 1946 without a Big Ten or Pac-10 team?
Miami and Nebraska
Nebraska's selection was controversial because Oregon was ranked No. 2 in both polls, and the Cornhuskers hadn't even played in their conference title game.
Q 16The 2006 Rose Bowl drew the biggest college football TV audience since which 1987 bowl game?
Fiesta
USC came in on a 34-game winning streak with two Heisman winners; 35.6 million people watched the Longhorns beat them.
Q 17Which Texas quarterback was named Rose Bowl Player of the Game in both 2005 and 2006?
Vince Young
He is one of only four players to win the award twice, alongside Bob Schloredt, Charles White and Ron Dayne.
Q 18Which team was the first from a non-automatic-qualifying conference to play in the Rose Bowl in the BCS era, in 2011?
TCU
The 12–0 Horned Frogs of the Mountain West beat No. 5 Wisconsin 21–19, satisfying a 'first time' clause in the BCS agreement.
Q 19Which two teams met in the 100th Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2014?
Michigan State and Stanford
The Spartans won 24–20. It was also the first Rose Bowl in which the anthem was performed by singers rather than a marching band.
Q 20Whose 29-game winning streak did Oregon end in the 2015 Rose Bowl, the first Playoff semifinal?
Florida State
Oregon won 59–20. The Seminoles were also the first ACC team ever to play in the game.
Griffin's Ohio State went from 1973 to 1976 under Woody Hayes; Cushing's USC went from 2006 to 2009 under Pete Carroll.
Q 24Which is the most frequent Rose Bowl matchup, played for the eighth time in 2007?
USC vs Michigan
USC leads that Rose Bowl series 6–2. USC–Ohio State is next, with seven meetings.
Q 25Which two current Big Ten members, both of which joined in 2014, have never appeared in a Rose Bowl?
Maryland and Rutgers
Nebraska has played in the game twice, but never as a Big Ten member. Both losses (1941 and 2002) came before it joined.
Q 26The 1956 Rose Bowl set a mark that still stands: what share of all US TV households watched it?
41.1%
NBC carried the game from 1952 to 1988. As the number of bowls multiplied, ratings slid until NBC gave up the rights when its share fell below 20.
Q 27The 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 28Which company became the Rose Bowl's first 'presenting' sponsor in 1999?
AT&T
Unlike other bowls, the sponsor was tacked on as a presenter rather than into the game's title. Sony's PlayStation 2 took over in 2002 and Citi from 2003 to 2010.
Q 29Which company became the first to sponsor two New Year's Six bowls at once with the 2021 Rose Bowl?
Capital One
It also sponsored the Orange Bowl. The 2022 game was branded for its Venture X travel card.
Q 30The Rose Bowl long kicked off at 2 p.m. PT. What visual is a key part of its tradition?
The sun setting on the San Gabriel Mountains
In 2026 the kickoff moved an hour earlier, to 1 p.m. PT, so it would not push back the Sugar Bowl.