By Jeremy Harness

 

LOS ANGELES – On my first full night in Southern California, I got a much more of an understanding of the history of the Rose Bowl, as far as how much it means to so many people and how much each game stands up in the history of not only college football, but in the history of sports.

 

To achieve this, after getting such a late start to the day before, I made sure to get an early jump on matters on my second day on the job.

 

After getting my credentials for the game as well as the events leading up to the “Granddaddy of them all,” the day officially started off with press conferences with the head coach with each of the participating teams in the Rose Bowl. The meat of the conferences centered around the suspension of star Michigan State linebacker Max Bullough for the Rose Bowl, with Stanford head coach David Shaw reminding us of the fact that tough decisions like this, as unpopular as it seems, that maintain the overall health and morale of the team, which is much more important than just one individual.

 

Even though he didn’t talk about it very much at all, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio also said that this was about the team – and not one single player.

 

Besides that, Dantonio also offered a few key nuggets of wisdom, and it wasn’t necessarily confined to the game of football.

 

“I don’t care what level of a player you are, you’d better overachieve because that’s the only way you’re going to be successful.”

 

It doesn’t take long to figure out that Dantonio’s words don’t just apply to football players, and they don’t apply to just athletes. Whatever you do, in every single walk of life, you have to give that little extra effort if you’re really going to be successful at whatever it is that you do.

 

After grabbing some breakfast at the hotel, it was off to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame induction ceremony, during which three individuals – former Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr, former Ohio State offensive tackle Orlando Pace and legendary USC wide receiver Lynn Swann – were welcomed into the Rose Bowl’s eternal fraternity.

 

When you go to a function that features older people trading war stories, you’re going to get more than a handful of funny stories that had never been shared before. This year’s Rose Bowl Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony was no different.

 

Most people know that Swann attended USC before going on to a Hall of Fame NFL career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. They probably didn’t know that he almost lost his life before he started his college career.

 

See, he and running back Sam Cunningham – who acted as Swann’s presenter and himself went on to have a nice NFL career while being inducted into this very same Rose Bowl Hall of Fame – went to visit Cunningham’s aunt and uncle in Louisville, Ky during a long road trip.

 

According to Cunningham, the city had been ravaged by burglaries during that particular time, so when Swann went up to the front door while Cunningham stayed behind in the car, the aunt, not one to take any chances, greeted him by pointing a rifle at him. Only when Cunningham jumped out of the car did she put the gun down.

 

“I’m the reason why he’s here today,” Cunningham said.

 

After the ceremony, I had a chance to stand side-by-side with Pace, who went on to an outstanding 12-year career in the NFL, which includes a Super Bowl ring with the St. Louis Rams. Now, me being 5-foot-9 and approximately 170 pounds, I had an idea. But standing next to Pace, who is 6-foot-5 and weighs over 300, I knew that this was exactly the reason why I quit playing football after Pop Warner.

 

Carr also had a funny story of his own. He had a hotel that he was quite fond of, the Huntington Sheraton, in which he and his team stayed when Michigan competed in the big game.

 

“I loved that place,” he said. “Even when the fire alarm went off at 3 a.m.”

 

This is what makes the Rose Bowl the special game that it is. It’s not just the legendary games that it creates, but also the backstories that can be passed from generation to generation.