Here are 15 reasons why UCLA should not abandon the Rose Bowl

Here are 15 unsolicited and heavily nostalgic reasons why the UCLA Bruins should not leave the Rose Bowl for the glitz and glitz of SoFi Stadium:

• Because the late legendary broadcaster Keith Jackson called the Rose Bowl “the granddaddy of them all.” And it is.

• Because there’s a statue of Terry Donahue, the late legendary Bruins coach, who was there as a player, assistant coach or head coach in six of the Bruins’ 12 Rose Bowl appearances. Donahue remains the winningest coach in Pac-10 Conference history with 151 wins. (Note: The Pac-10, which became the Pac-12, no longer exists. From the days of leather helmets, until 2024, the Pac-10 was a conference of major West Coast universities, featuring players who sometimes went to class because they didn’t have to fulfill their marketing obligations to the advertisers and alumni who paid them handsomely to do so. This was also before the people who ran the conference saw gold in “those hills” – meaning Chicago, where there are no hills but there is Big Ten central office, Money talks and the Pac-12 at the time was all ears.)

A statue of the late, legendary UCLA football coach Terry Donahue stands outside the Rose Bowl.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

• Because the Rose Bowl was built in 1922 for $272,000, about the current cost of renovating your kitchen in San Dimas. The first Rose Bowl game at the venue took place in 1923 and it remains the 20th largest stadium in the world and the 11th in the country.

• Because when the 1993 Super Bowl was played at the Rose Bowl, Michael Jackson took the stage at halftime and, joined by thousands of children – and a nation captivated by emotion – sang, “We Are the World… We Are the Children…” and “Heal the World.” It was a stunning performance from an international superstar and remains the most-watched halftime show (133.4 million viewers). After that, the Super Bowl halftime show became a big deal, as we all know by now. Next: Bad Bunny.

Michael Jackson performs on stage during the Super Bowl halftime show on January 31, 1993, while his white shirt billows in a cloud of smoke.

(Rusty Kennedy/Associated Press)

• Because in 2007, Sports Illustrated called the Rose Bowl the No. 1 college sports venue in the country. Yes, it was almost 20 years ago, but you know what they say about good wine.

• Because, with few exceptions, New Year’s Day has always dawned in Pasadena like a real estate agent’s dream. Warm and sunny, the mountains sparkle in the distance. People walking around in shirt sleeves. Around 5 p.m. Eastern time, televisions turn on, people from Kansas to Connecticut stare out their windows at piles of snow, and the next morning, phones ring off the hook at real estate offices from Pasadena to Pacoima. Southern California’s population explosion has for years been blamed on beaches, orange groves and local celebrities. The Rose Bowl deserves a mention.

• Because in 2006, in the national championship game between Texas and USC — one of the best title games between two of the best college football programs ever — the Longhorns’ Vince Young took a direct throw on fourth down and five with 18 seconds left and USC leading, 38-33, and raced eight yards into the end zone for a 39-38 lead. He was greeted there with a hug from the enormous Longhorn mascot, just before a Longhorn two-point conversion made the final score, 41-38. USC had its chance a few minutes earlier to keep the ball on a short yardage play and run out the clock. It failed, and to this day Trojan fans want to ask coach Pete Carroll why, on the play where LenDale White was stopped, superstar running back Reggie Bush was on the bench.

• Because during the final of the 1999 Women’s Football World Cup, played in front of 90,185 spectators, a world record for women’s sport and decided by penalty against China, American star Brandi Chastain scored the winning kick. Then she celebrated by ripping off her jersey, leaving only her sports bra, and creating a celebratory photo and souvenir that remains iconic in the history of women’s sports around the world. There’s a statue of Chastain and that moment at the Rose Bowl.

Brandi Chastain, with her jersey removed, celebrates after her penalty gave the United States a victory over China in the 1999 Women’s World Cup final at the Rose Bowl.

(Los Angeles Times)

• Because in the fall of 1995, Northwestern football coach Gary Barnett, when his team was on a roll that few people took seriously because Northwestern had always been a Big Ten doormat, encouraged his team to “take Purple to Pasadena.” This mainly created laughter and jokes. The newspaper’s sports editor told Helene Elliott, his paper’s columnist and enthusiastic alumna, that if his team made it to the Rose Bowl, he would “run around the newsroom naked.” Surprisingly, Northwestern was successful, ultimately losing a close Rose Bowl game to USC. Elliott, acting for the common good, refused to collect his promise.

• Because covering the Rose Bowl was one of Jim Murray’s favorite days. He loved seeing and writing about the thick-legged, bulky players from places like Iowa and Wisconsin, coming to town to play against the USC or UCLA track team in football gear. He would love for a Trojan receiver to run his route, passing his defender like lightning, then stand in the end zone and signal for his quarterback to throw him the ball. So many lines in those moments. The Rose Bowl was also special to Murray, a rare Pulitzer Prize-winning sports writer for the Times, because each year with different teams came new local sports writers. Murray loved talking to the young writer from Keokuk, Iowa, or Madison, Wisconsin, who would inevitably go to the press to introduce himself before the game to his idol. Because Murray had suffered a detached retina and feared another, sometimes triggered, he was told, by any sudden movement of the head, the other Times staffers at the game had a discreet mission. One of them stood next to him with the evil eye, so any young journalists who approached him would do so on his good side.

• Because for golfers, there’s nothing like finding your ball in a sandbox, leaning against an empty beer can. This requires an explanation. The Rose Bowl is surrounded by the 36 holes of Brookside Golf Club. This is where Rose Bowl attendees – for UCLA games, Rose Bowl games, Super Bowls, football games – park their cars. They party, party, and eventually get in the game. That’s a big part of what makes the events at Arroyo Seco so special. It’s also a headache for workers who have to get the golf course ready for hundreds of rounds of golf the day after a match – sometimes just hours after a night game. The truth is that the people at Brookside do incredible work. They clean, rake and transform what was the site of dozens of football games and barbecues into a golf course. Tire marks from large motorhomes are smoothed out as best as possible. Piles of trash are collected. Brookside is not a goat path, as golfers sometimes call poorly maintained courses. But things fall through the cracks, and no one has yet determined whether a ball placed against an empty beer can be lifted and replaced or whether it’s a one-shot penalty.

Football fans flocked to Brookside Golf Course before UCLA hosted Washington in a Nov. 22 game.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

• Because during the 1987 Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl, the Times sports section decided to take excessive journalism to new heights. There were 14 permanent journalists, but also a new wrinkle. A famous author named Leon Uris, who had written the bestselling novels “Exodus” and “Trinity,” agreed, for $10,000, to write a story before the game between the New York Giants and the Denver Broncos and a story after the game. He performed well in the preview story and appeared ready and eager in the press box for the game. He sat between two Times legends, Murray and fellow columnist Jack Smith. Well, after the game was finished and all the stories from all the writers were sent in, only Uris’ story was missing. When approached, he showed that he had written about half a dozen paragraphs and was cursing his fate as a newspaper editor. “You sat me next to these two pros,” he said. “They write so fast and so well. I can’t do that. Do you have any idea how long it takes me to write my books?” With that, Uris, who died in 2003, left the press box at the Rose Bowl, never to be seen again.

• Because Pat Haden and JK McKay, great friends and each with a great sense of humor, teamed up for USC’s game-winning touchdown pass over Ohio State in the 1975 Rose Bowl and carried their version of the moment into hundreds of banquet speeches over the years. Haden: “I was coming back to throw a pass and I looked around and on one side was one of the greatest athletes and receivers in the history of the game, Lynn Swann. On the other side was McKay. So I threw it to McKay because he was the coach’s son (John McKay was the coach at USC).” JK McKay’s version: “I lined up, ran a great route and was wide open. It took forever for the ball to get to me and it was hard to catch because the quarterback was so small and you couldn’t catch him right out of the backfield. Most of the time I couldn’t tell if he was throwing the ball or kicking it.”

• Because in a packed house at the Rose Bowl before a 1994 FIFA World Cup match, Gov. Pete Wilson was introduced during the opening ceremonies and asked to speak. As soon as he was introduced, he was booed. Throughout his three-minute speech, he was booed. He had supported Proposition 187, which aimed to eliminate many services that undocumented immigrants then benefited from. Boos rocked the place before Colombia played and lost to Romania. Proposition 187 passed but was ultimately ruled unconstitutional.

• Because Stephen A. Smith, who reshaped American sports journalism from what you report to how you report it, came out in favor of moving UCLA to SoFi.