Needing a pause on our road trip north, we pulled into the parking lot of the Rose Bowl (a first for us).
The Rose Bowl is an American outdoor athletic stadium, located in Pasadena, California, a northeast suburb of Los Angeles. Opened in October 1922, the stadium is recognized as a National Historic Landmark and a California Historic Civil Engineering landmark.Just being there, even briefly, makes one feel something magical.While there, through its statuary, we met some pretty incredible figures who left their mark here. The first was Jackie Robinson. In 1939, Jackie accepted a scholarship to UCLA. Most days, he commuted between his home in Pasadena and the campus in Westwood while becoming the first UCLA student-athlete to earn varsity letters in four sports.Wearing jersey #28 on the football field, Jackie was one of four black players on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team; the others were Woody Strode, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett. The quartet played at a time when only a few black students played mainstream college football, making UCLA one of college football's most integrated teams. Jackie was named an All-American in 1941.Through this monument to a great athlete, we also learned all about the great man who was Jackie Robinson.We also met Keith Jackson, the King of College Football Broadcasting. Few telecasters have become as identified with a single sport to a national audience as Jackson with college football. The reason might be that he began in an era when every game wasn't televised, and we had only a few channels from which to choose. It might be that he served as the play-by-play man of the top games as college football soared to new heights American popularity. Or it might be it was as simple as Jackson was so good on the air.Our final introduction was to a pivotal event which occurred on July 10, 1999. On that date, the U.S. women's soccer team secured a win for the ages at the Rose Bowl. On a sweltering day before a sellout crowd of 90,185, the largest ever to watch a women's-only event, the U.S. posted a 5-4 shootout victory over China, with penalty kicks deciding what 120 minutes of scoreless soccer could not.When an unbeatable door was finally open for the U.S. to win it, Brandi Chastain seized that opportunity, booming her winning penalty kick into the upper right-hand corner. After making the shot, Chastain tore the jersey off her back, dropped to her knees in elation, and exulted in the moment. Her shirtless pose was transmitted all over the world and became an enduring symbol of female strength, skill and triumph. And has been captured in sculpture and on the cover of Sports Illustrated. It all happened here, at the Rose Bowl. What history.We both realized that one day we must return to America's Stadium and be a part of the magic and history which happens here. So very, very cool.
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