The awestruck Midwesterners were so enamored with the Rose Parade, they were later caught in traffic and didn’t arrive at the stadium until shortly before the scheduled kickoff.
The sophisticated Southern Californians grew so impatient waiting for their opponents, when the rubes finally did arrive, a fight nearly ensued between the head coaches.
Thus the 1923 Rose Bowl between Penn State and USC began angrily, controversially, and an entire hour late.
Ninety-four years later, the same matchup has returned splendidly, sentimentally, and right on time.
The 103rd Rose Bowl featuring the brutes of the Big Ten Conference against the ballet of the Pac-12 Conference is a welcome restoration of an ageless tradition, a glittering heirloom of a football game whose arrival Monday afternoon can be described in two words.