Indiana University Football: The Rose Bowl Story 1967

I. Coached team and exciting football to come from the bottom and emerge as champions. And with it and invitation to the Tournament of Roses and to the Rose Bowl to play top ranked University of Southern California. This is your stewardess on Continental Airlines charter flight number one. On the crew. It rained on departure in Indianapolis but in Los Angeles everything and

everyone was bathed in sunshine like the Rose Bowl queen and the princesses and the Tournament of Roses reception committee. Across Los Angeles the first taste of the freeway to Pasadena. Traditionally the first of a Thousand and One warm gestures is the introduction of the visiting coaches and players on the lawn of the Huntington Sheraton Hotel. And the Barnes tossed by the queen of the court.

Next a practice field and a workout for photography. The first day ended with dinner at Lowry a famous Los Angeles restaurant. The chef reported Indiana players had eaten two hundred and eighty nine pounds of prime ribs of beef. A fire truck fled the Indiana and southern California football team's done Disneyland's Main Street. It was their first meeting and it would be their last until New Year's Day in the Rose Bowl.

Santa could not miss the two Christmas parties held for the team the coaches and their families. The voices of players Kevin Duffy and brown Marx led sad to the place. Yes sir yes sir. Do you agree

that it was really here. To stay. To. Meet. A university party was Christmas Eve. They turned out of Rose's Committee on Christmas

Day entertained and gave specially engraved silver trays binoculars and other gifts to the players. Meanwhile back at the airport the first wave of Hoosier is to follow the team invaded Southern California. The cheerleaders and the singing losers. One of the 34 official university chartered flights in the gigantic airlift to bring Hoosiers to the Rose Bowl. And another planeload this time the famous marching hundred.

Performance at Disneyland to entertain the holiday crowd many of them home. It was a few restful moments in the beautiful

garden and. Only wood and a famous place not far from Grauman's Chinese Theater where famous feet and hands have left their mark. The team looks at actors and actors looked

at the team Darren McGavin misquoted the players to the set of a racing movie in which he stars. But now it was time for hard tough practice. With the arrival of the official Rose Bowl party Indiana's representation was about complete. It was to be the largest crowd of fans to follow a Big Ten university to the Rose Bowl. And it was done with a minimum of fuss by the IAU alumni association and student air to. The fog and smog delayed a few flights and not everything ran perfectly but overall it was

an amazing display of coordinated effort. While official headquarters for Hoosiers was the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles Ind. people were in hotels near the airport and Hollywood out in Pasadena and staying with friends and relatives throughout the whole of southern California. Keeping track of everybody and scheduling a rival's and tour trips was a full time job for the alumni association but somehow it was done thanks to the happy good nature of so many Hoosiers and the good hardworking club Rich Frank Jones and Bob Stephens and their alumni association staff. The. Heat I am. Yeah I am the owl. Yeah.

Uh. Huh yeah ok. OK. OK. Yeah. Yeah. Tournament of Roses hospitality was at every ham. Official dinners for the Big 10 the queen the president of the Tournament of Roses everybody and the singing which is where they're entertaining to Eat Eat the eat. Eat the eat. Eat. Eat

eat eat it the beat the beat. The only eat. Eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat. Eat. In southern California a little escape the visitors farmer's market and. The cable car.

Street. The original Spanish settlement for what is now Los Angeles. Hospitality continued apace. This is the famous Jonathan club breakfast in downtown L.A. at seven o'clock in the morning. But the members were delighted with the enthusiasm of president of a star John Pont and president of the IAU trustees Frank E. McKinney. The Pasadena club saluted I-You and USC at their annual kickoff luncheon attended by over 3000 fans in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Reception lines formed wherever people gathered. And on this occasion the Tournament of

Roses honored Senator Everett Dirksen parade the grand marshal and President and Mrs. Elvis J-Stars. Later the two guest walked in the beautiful Garden of the Tournament of Roses house. Reception's were everywhere at the Biltmore Hotel. Are you alumni and friends gathered for a late afternoon get together. Hollywood packed in over 2000 guests for the annual dinner of the

Big Ten Club of Southern California. The team and guests made up the largest crowd ever to attend the annual event. The singing Hoosiers. They're bright fresh talent to the Palladium. And I-you alumnus Hoagy Carmichael entertainer. You're. You're. Pershing Square in front of the Biltmore Hotel brightened up in the late afternoon on Sunday New Year's Eve with a marching hundred in a lively concert. For the football team in the past 10 days had been a unique experience. They

were honored guests in a strange land yet they had practiced harder than they had ever practiced before in their lives. For them. Nothing remains to be done in Southern California except to play USC in the Rose Bowl the following day. But for this afternoon. And for this night. The players and their coaches would be a world away in a monastery in the foothills beyond Pasadena. Away from reporters and writers and autograph hunters. New Year's Eve that tension was on the final preparation of the Tournament of Roses Parade Floats in warehouses and big garages scattered over Pasadena. While there were still many hours still parade time. There were thousands of blossoms yet to be played. In downtown Los Angeles the Biltmore was host to the largest New Year's Eve celebration in its history.

Thousands of Hoosiers crammed the halls in the lobbies to greet the new year and to toast a Cinderella team from Indiana University. All through the night's work went on in the float area millions of blossoms placed one by one in the proper place on each figure in each float. Then before dawn the floats began to move across town to their starting places. Early morning found spectators lining the streets hours before the parade was to begin field of Indianapolis shivered while she waited for the IAU floats on the roof. And promptly at 8:45 the grand marshal got to 79 the

Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade under way. President of the Tournament of Roses H.W. Bragg presided over this the greatest civic celebration. Yes.

It's game time. Hundred two thousand nine hundred forty six people are on hand for the 1968 Rose Bowl game record breaking. Indiana's Hoosier is well received and the University of Southern California Trojans will kick off. It's time to look like the Cinderella team is in the Rose Bowl and I kick off our yard. Yard. Yeah. Ya. Yeah. Yeah.

The the. One. Who. I usually was whispering. TO has to give the ball over to us see. That O.J. Simpson really is tough. Against a strong defensive team USC finally gets down to the six yard line. OJ takes it over the top to just sneak into the end zone for the catch the. USC finds the Hoosier defense mighty tough and late in the second quarter has to kick. A. Nice run back.

On. You all. On. Here come the fighting. Gonzo to butcher to the 10 yard line. But the Trojans just don't want little Cinderella to get across the line so I you know decides to kick. And it's a tight three ball game at the end of the first half. Director Frederic get to skate the spectators and the TV audience right performance at halftime. And combined the Indianapolis 500 with my use 1967 race from rags to

roses with racers carrying the colors of Indiana's three major football team. Indiana won the race. All three teams were ranked among the top 10 nationally. It's a tough defensive game. Late in the fourth quarter USC tosses a long one. I you intercept. Look. Look. Look.

Look. Again. USC gets the ball. And James Simpson winds his way through for the final touchdown. It had been a marvelous dream a wild hope perhaps but the incredible team had come close. They played a good game contain the outstanding Trojan team and O.J. Simpson and beat the US. The Cinderella team had won the hearts of the nation in their rise from rags to roses and they're still sharing Are you fans left a clear impression. They're Cinderella losers would return to the ball another year.