1984 Rose Bowl

The 1984 Rose Bowl game, played on January 2, was the 70th Rose Bowl game. The UCLA Bruins defeated the Illinois Fighting Illini by a score of 45-9. Rick Neuheisel, UCLA quarterback, was the Most Valuable Player. He completed 22 of 32 passes for 298 yards and four touchdowns. Neuheisel, who was named head coach of Bruins in December 2007, threw two touchdown passes to his eventual predecessor as Bruin head coach, Karl Dorrell. The game was played on January 2, as New Year's Day fell on a Sunday.

Scoreboard prank

A prank played by students from the California Institute of Technology altered the scoreboard display, an incident reminiscent of the Great Rose Bowl Hoax of 1961. A pair of Caltech students evaded security at the Rose Bowl, hacked into the electronic system and installed a computer that could be remotely controlled to alter the display on the stadium's digital scoreboard. During the game, the students from Caltech remotely altered the scoreboard display to show the teams playing in the game as Caltech and M.I.T., in place of UCLA and Illinois.^[1] One of the prank's perpetrators had received approval from his Caltech professor for the prank, which earned college credit for the course "Experimental Projects in Electrical Circuits".^[2]^[3]

How they got there

See also 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season

Illinois opened with a loss to Missouri. The Illini then swept through the rest of their games including defeats of #4 Iowa, a 17-13 win over #6 Ohio State, and a 16-6 win over #8 Michigan. They became the first team in Big Ten history to defeat all nine of their conference opponents.

UCLA opened with a loss at Georgia, a tie with Arizona State and then a 42-10 loss at #1-ranked Nebraska. Starting quarterback Rick Neuheisel was benched after the Nebraska loss in favor of Steve Bono. On October 1, the Bruins lost to BYU to start the season 0-3-1. Bono was injured during the BYU game, and Neuheisel came back to finish the season. The Bruins then won five straight Pac-10 games, including a defeat of #11 Washington. The Bruins then lost at Arizona. They came back to defeat USC 27-17. A win by Washington State over Washington in the Apple Cup game put UCLA in sole possession of first place in the Pac-10. UCLA became the only four-loss team to play in the Rose Bowl.

Game summary

The game was the second Rose Bowl meeting between the two schools. They met in the 1947 Rose Bowl following the Big 10-PCC agreement in 1947. The game was played on a Monday due to the Rose Bowl tradition of not holding the Tournament of Roses Parade and Rose Bowl on a Sunday.

Quarterback Neuheisel and several other Bruins awoke with food poisoning that morning. Some UCLA players were unable to play, including starting defensive tackle David Randle, punter Kevin Buenafe and reserve defensive lineman Tory Pankopf.

Scoring

UCLA — Paul Bergmann, three-yard pass from Rick Neuheisel. John Lee converts.
Illinois — Chris White, 41-yard field goal.
UCLA — Kevin Nelson 28-yard run. Lee converts.
UCLA — Karl Dorrell reception touchdown on 16-yard pass from Neuheisel. Lee converts.
UCLA — Mike Young reception touchdown on 53-yard pass from Neuheisel. Lee converts.

UCLA — Dorrell, 15-yard pass from Neuheisel. Lee converts.
UCLA — Lee, 29-yard field goal.
Illinois — Thomas Rooks, five-yard pass from Jack Trudeau. Pass failed.
UCLA — Bryan Wiley, eight-yard run. Lee converts.

Aftermath

The loss by Illinois paved the way for the #5 Miami Hurricanes, who defeated the #1 Nebraska Cornhuskers in the 1984 Orange Bowl, to get voted national champions. Eventual Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster was the captain of the the Fighting Illini.

The international broadcast of the Rose Bowl also helped introduce the world to the audience wave, as UCLA and Illinois fans kept the wave going around the Rose Bowl stadium.

External links

References

^ Boese, Alex. The Great Rose Bowl Hoax. The Museum of Hoaxes, 2002. Accessed December 9, 2007.
^ "SPORTS PEOPLE; Prank Pays Off", The New York Times, January 4 1984. Accessed January 6 2008.
^ "Topics Getting the Message", The New York Times, January 5 1984. Accessed January 6 2008.

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