The first New Year's Day game in Rose Bowl stadium was the 1923 game between Southern California...
The first New Year's Day game in Rose Bowl stadium was the 1923 game between Southern California and Penn State. The Trojans bested the Nittany Lions 14-3 in front of 43,000 who showed up to see the game in the brand-new horseshoe-shaped venue. Over at the SB Nation main page The Historical takes a look at the story of this famous stadium and how it came to be built. It is a monument to the sports' first great era and, in it's own way, is as emblematic of that time as much as billion-dollar television contracts are of today's.