ROSE BOWL

formally Pasadena Tournament of Roses oldest American postseason college football contest, held annually in Pasadena, Calif., U.S., on New Year's Day (or January 2, if New Year's Day falls on a Sunday). Each Rose Bowl game is preceded by a Tournament of Roses Parade, or Rose Parade, which is one of the world's most elaborate and famous of annual parades. The first festival, originally called the Battle of Flowers, was held on Jan. 1, 1890, under the auspices of the Valley Hunt Club and consisted of local citizens decorating their carriages and buggies with flowers and driving over a prearranged route; the parade was followed by amateur athletic events. From 1897 on, the tournament was conducted by a newly established Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association. In 1902 the first football game was held (between the University of Michigan and Stanford University) in Tournament Park; but chariot races and other contests were thereafter substituted, and football was not introduced as the annual contest until 1916. The Rose Bowl stadium opened in 1922, ready for the 1923 game. Originally, the championship team of the Pacific Coast Conference simply invited a winning team from anywhere in the eastern United States. Since 1947 participation has been limited to teams of the Big Ten Conference (in the Midwest) and the Pacific Coast (later Pacific Eight, then Ten) Conference. The morning parade now consists of about 60 floats of intricate design, elaborately decorated with flowers and illustrating some aspect of the parade's theme of the year. Interspersed among the floats are marching bands and costumed horses and riders; and included in the five-and-a-half-mile-long procession are a grand marshal and a Rose queen.