On and around every New Year's Day, the top college football teams face off in postseason "bowl games," one of which is the National Championship game. Of all the bowl games, the Rose Bowl, held in Pasadena, California, in early January—usually on January 1—is the oldest and the most fabled.

In 1902, business leaders in Pasadena sponsored a football game that would match a top West Coast team against one from back East. With eighty-five hundred fans looking on, the Michigan Wolverines smashed Stanford, 49–0. Disappointed in the loss by the local team, the Tournament of Roses committee did not follow through on a second contest. The next Rose Bowl was held fourteen years later, when Washington State bested Brown, 14–0—and the game has been played every year since. Starting in 1924, contests have been held in the Rose Bowl stadium, with attendance often topping one hundred thousand...