More History Dedicated at Rose Bowl Saturday

Michigan blue and maize blended with Pasadena sunshine as two new markers were added to the Rose Bowl’s living museum on Saturday: a bronze statue commemorating the 1902 Tournament East—West football game between Michigan and Stanford — the contest that eventually created the modern bowl system — and a historical plaque honoring Glenn E. “Bo” Schembechler, the legendary Wolverines coach who brought his teams to Pasadena 10 times.

Hosted by NFL RedZone’s Scott Hanson, the dedication drew Michigan athletic officials, former players, and members of Schembechler’s family.

Dedan Brozino, president of the Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation, called the pairing of the two monuments “a reminder that the Rose Bowl is more than a stadium — it’s a living museum of athletic achievement, personal legacy and national tradition.”

The 1902 game — a 49-0 Michigan romp over Stanford at Tournament Park, what is now Caltech — was celebrated as the spark that led to the stadium’s construction two decades later.

“This is the game that created bowl games,” Hanson told the crowd, noting that this would be only the sixth on the grounds.

Mark Leavens, president of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, traced the matchup to a Michigan alumnus serving as parade president in 1902, tipping the selection to his alma mater and beginning the “granddaddy of them all,” as dubbed by the late ABC Sports announcer Keith Jackson.

If the statue looked back to the sport’s beginnings, the Bo Schembechler marker cast its gaze across a career that shaped generations.

Warde Manuel, Michigan’s athletic director and a former defensive end under Schembechler, called him “one of the special people in my life… without him I wouldn’t be here today.”

Former teammates and players echoed that sentiment, saying his greatest victories came not on the scoreboard but in the lives he helped mold.

Dick Caldarazzo, an offensive lineman from Schembechler’s first Michigan team in 1969, recalled grueling practices and “three-a-days” that pushed players to their limits.

“What we didn’t realize,” he said, “was that yes, he was molding us into the team, the team, the team… and laying the foundation for each one of us to be successful after our playing dates were over.”

Randy Winograd, a Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation board member and Michigan alumnus, told a story of an anonymous classmate who met Schembechler by chance in 1975 while walking his dog.

The coach’s brief words left such an impression that the man spent the next five decades, in his own words, trying to live “in a fashion that would cause Bo Schembechler to be proud of him.”

Other tributes were more personal still.

Former quarterback Rich Hewlett described how, after his wife was diagnosed with cancer, Bo and his wife, Kathy, invited Hewlett’s young sons to sit with them in his Michigan Stadium box, talking football and making them feel at ease for an afternoon.

“That was Bo’s way of supporting not only my family, but letting my sons know that someone was thinking about them,” Hewlett said.

John Wangler, quarterback of Michigan’s 1981 Rose Bowl champions, remembered Bo’s intensity — “you either get better or you get worse; you never stay the same” — and his quiet political influence, including lobbying to change NCAA rules in 1975 so that more than one team from a conference could attend bowl games.

For Cathy Schembechler, who closed the ceremony, the day’s honor belonged not to her late husband alone.

Speaking in what she believed would have been his words, she deflected credit to “the young men who played for me… and the coaches who joined me with the attitude that more could be accomplished as a group than as an individual.”

One statue marked the birth of the bowl tradition; the other, the man who helped define it for Michigan.

Together, they added Michigan chapters to the Rose Bowl’s century-old story — one rooted in history, loyalty, and the enduring power of “The Team, The Team, The Team.”

Saturday, August 9, 10:00 a.m. Rose Bowl Stadium, 1001 Rose Bowl Dr, Pasadena
(626) 577-3100 www.rosebowllegacy.org