The Real New Years Eve Party.....

It May Not Be In The Inland Empire But Hundreds Of People Who Live In The IE Have Been Affected In One Or Another By This New Years Event For The Past 100 Years...The Event I Write About Is The Rose Parade And The Rose Bowl.
 
The First Tournament Of Roses Was Staged In 1890 By Members Of Pasadena'S Valley Hunt Club, Former Residents Of The East And Midwest Eager To Showcase Our New Home'S Mild Winter Weather. A Professor Charles Holder Boasted That People Back East Were Buried In Snow, And Since He Was The Newly Elected President Of The Valley Hunt Club His Voice Was Heard In Every Major Paper West Of The Mississippi River.

He Went On To Say That We Want Our Area To Grow, To Prosper With New People Moving Out To The Sun And The Beaches. He Forgot To Mention The Mountain Snows And The Heavy Rain That Did Occur As Well And The Population Grew At An Astounding Rate. A New Gold Rush Was On Except This Time It Was A Land Rush For New Orange Groves And Vineyards.

During The Next Few Years, The Festival Expanded To Include Marching Bands And Motorized Floats. The Open Fields That Now Make Up The Rose Bowl, Had Not Heard Of Football Yet And Instead Ostrich Races, Bronco Busting Demonstrations And A Race Between A Camel And An Elephant (The Elephant Won). Camels At The Time Were Quite Common As The Us Army Had Experimented With Using Camels Crossing The Deserts Instead Of Horses. Eventually Reviewing Stands Were Built Along A Parade Route, That At The Time Was About 4 Blocks In Length. Eastern Newspapers Began To Take Notice Of The Event, And In 1895, The Tournament Of Roses Association Was Formed To Take Charge Of The Festival, Which Had Grown Too Large For The Valley Hunt Club To Handle. Over 25,000 People Had Attended That Years Festivities And The Newly Formed Tournament Of Roses Association Took Advantage Of The Situation.

In 1902, The Tournament Of Roses Decided To Enhance The Day’S Festivities By Adding A Football Game. The First Post Season College Football Game Ever Held. Stanford University Accepted The Invitation To Take On The Powerhouse University Of Michigan, But The West Coast Team Was Flattened 49-0 And Gave Up In The Third Quarter And Walked Off The Field. The Lopsided Score And Unsportmanslike Conduct Showed By Stanford, Prompted The Tournament To Give Up Football In Favor Of Roman-Style Chariot Races. In 1916, Football In The Form Of The Pack 12, Returned To Stay And The Crowds Soon Outgrew The Stands In Tournament Park. William L. Leishman, The Tournament’S 1920 President, Envisioned A Stadium Similar To The Yale And Harvard Bowls And In 1923 The First Great Modern Football Stadium, On The West Coast, Was Completed In Pasadena’S Arroyo Seco Area. The New Stadium Hosted Its First New Year’S Football Game In 1923 And Soon Earned The Nickname “The Rose Bowl.”

The Tournament Of Roses Has Come A Long Way Since Its Early Days. The Rose Parade’S Elaborate Floats Now Feature High-Tech Computerized Animation And Exotic Natural Materials From Around The World. Although A Few Floats Are Still Built Exclusively By Volunteers From Their Sponsoring Communities, Most Are Built By Professional Float Building Companies And Take Nearly A Year To Construct. The Year-Long Effort Pays Off On New Year’S Morning, When Millions Of Viewers Around The World Enjoy The Rose Parade.
    
Nicknamed “The Granddaddy Of Them All” The Rose Bowl Game Has Been A Sellout Attraction Every Year Since 1947. That Year’S Contest Was The First Game Played Under The Tournament’S Exclusive Agreement With The Big Ten And Pac-10 Conferences. The 1998 Rose Bowl Game Was The 52Nd Anniversary Of That Agreement, The Longest Standing Tradition Of Any Collegiate Conference And A Bowl Association. Now, As Part Of The Bowl Championship Series, The Rose Bowl Has Hosted The National Championship Game Between The Top Two Teams In The Nation In 2002 And 2006, And Will Host The National Championship Again In 2010.

I And The Upland High School Marching Band Actually Were Invited To March In The 1964 Rose Parade And The Half Time, But I Had To Move With The Family Up To Running Springs So I Missed Out. But Upland, Alta Loma, Fontana'S Eisenhower High, Riverside Community College, Usc At San Bernardino, And Several Other Local Marching Bands, Drum Corps, Equestrian Units From Victorvill And Apple Valley Have All Marched The Long 6 Miles Of The Rose Parade And In The Half Tike Shows Before They Became So Hi-Tech.

Also The City Of Ontario, Has Had The Honor Of Winning Two Awards For Parade Floats. The First Was In 1912 And Was Called The "Casa Blanca" Honoring Ontario'S Long Spanish History And The Then Current Truck Crops Grown In The Ie.

In 1941, The Last Parade Held Before Wwii Began, The Float Was Called "America" The Overall "America First" Theme Of The Rose Parade That Year.

This Year, The Riverside Community College Marching Tiger Band Has Been Invited To March In The 2009 Rose Parade And At Half Time. Way To Go, Enjoy The Day.

In Fact I Hope That All Of You Have A Happy New Years And Enjoy The Rose Parade And The Rose Bowl. Once Again It Will Feature Usc And Penn State. Should Be A Great Game.

Gary Hall, The Ghostpainter