1986 Rose Bowl The 1986 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1 , 1986 . It was the 72nd Rose Bowl Game . The UCLA Bruins defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 45 - 28 . UCLA tailback Eric Ball was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game . He ran for a Rose Bowl record four touchdowns . Teams . Iowa Hawkeyes . Iowa spent a number of weeks ranked number one . On October 19 , 1985 , they defeated the # 2 Michigan Wolverines 12 - 10 in the thirteenth regular season matchup between a # 1 and # 2 team . Mike Haight , Chuck Long , and Ronnie Harmon were the stars for the Hawkeyes . They eventually lost one game on November 2 , 1985 to Ohio State 13 - 22 . Iowa came into the game with a record of 10 - 1 . After much consideration , Chuck Long delighted Iowa Hawkeye fans by declaring that he would return for his senior season . He became an instant Heisman Trophy candidate , and Iowa was a pre - season top five team . After three weeks in 1985 , the Hawkeyes ascended to # 1 in the national rankings . In Iowa ' s first game at # 1 , the Hawkeyes played Michigan State . A seesaw game had leading , 31 - 28 , in the waning minutes . Long drove Iowa the length of the field , and the Hawkeyes faced fourth and goal from the two yard line with just 27 seconds remaining . Since there was no overtime rule , Iowa needed to go for the touchdown and the win . Chuck Long faked a handoff to running back Ronnie Harmon and then ran to his right . His fake had fooled the Spartan defenders , and Long ran into the endzone , holding the ball high above his head as he crossed the goal line to give Iowa a 35 - 31 victory . He completed a school record 30 passes on 39 attempts for 380 yards and scored five touchdowns ( four passing and the game winning score rushing ) in the game . Two weeks later , # 1 Iowa faced # 2 Michigan in Kinnick Stadium . Iowa trailed 10 - 9 as the Hawkeyes regained possession of the football at their own 22 yard line with just 5 : 27 remaining in the game . Long led Iowa on a 66 yard drive against the nation ' s top ranked defense , twice converting third - and - eight situations by completing passes to tight end Mike Flagg . Long drove the Iowa team to the 12 yard line with two seconds remaining to set up kicker Rob Houghtlin ' s game winning field goal as time expired . Chuck Long completed 26 of 39 passes for 297 yards in Iowa ' s 12 - 10 win . A loss to Ohio State cost Iowa their # 1 ranking , but the Hawkeyes still won the Big Ten title outright for the first time in 27 years . Chuck Long won many major national awards as a senior , including the 1985 Maxwell Award , given to the nation ' s top player and the Davey O ' Brien Award , given to the nation ' s top quarterback . He was the Big Ten Player of the Year and a consensus first team All - American . Finally , Chuck Long was the runner - up for the Heisman Trophy to Bo Jackson of Auburn in what used to be the closest margin in Heisman history , losing by just 45 points . UCLA Bruins . UCLA defeated defending national champion BYU in Provo , 27 - 24 to start the season . They tied eventual SEC and Sugar Bowl champion Tennessee . The Bruins opened the PAC - 10 season by losing at Washington , 21 - 14 . They won the rest of their games leading to the 1985 USC vs UCLA game . Needing a win against 4 - 5 USC , UCLA struggled . UCLA was leading in the fourth quarter 13 - 10 when Eric Ball fumbled at the USC 1 as he was about to score the what would have been the clinching touchdown . Freshman quarterback Rodney Peete led USC on a drive , converting a key fourth down along the way . In the last 2 minutes , USC again faced a 4th down , this time at UCLA ' s 2 yard line . USC scored to take a 17 - 13 lead , then intercepted UCLA quarterback David Norrie as he tried to lead a Bruin comeback . UCLA ' s loss opened the door for Washington to grab the Rose Bowl berth , but they were upset by Washington State the same day , 21 - 20 . Washington lost the advantage due to the loss in the 1985 Oregon State vs . Washington football game . This put Arizona State in position to win the conference as they entered their game with Arizona with only one conference loss ( 40 - 17 to UCLA ) . But later that evening , Arizona defeated Arizona State 16 - 13 to cause a tie between UCLA , Arizona State , and Arizona ; UCLA won the tiebreaker and the Rose Bowl berth by virtue of its wins over Arizona and Arizona State . UCLA came into the game with a record of 8 - 2 - 1 . Game summary . The weather was overcast and 71 degrees . The UCLA Bruins wore white visitor jerseys , and the Iowa Hawkeyes wore their black home jerseys . Both teams wore Rose Bowl patches on their uniforms . The Iowa Hawkeye helmets bore a sticker with the letters " ANF " for " America Needs Farmers " . Coach Hayden Fry had the players wear these stickers to bring attention the plight of American farmers . Scoring . Second Quarter . At the half , the score is UCLA 24 , Iowa 10 . The story of the game so far is Ronnie Harmon ' s four fumbles and Eric Ball ' s three touchdowns . Aftermath . Iowa missed an outside shot at the final # 1 ranking , with # 2 Miami losing to Tennessee 35 - 7 in the Sugar Bowl and # 3 Oklahoma defeated # 1 Penn State 25 - 10 in the Orange Bowl . Oklahoma had leapfrogged Iowa on December 10 in the poll . Michigan finished at # 2 after their Fiesta Bowl win . This game had a 22 . 7 television ratings share . Through 2007 , only the 1987 Fiesta Bowl game has a higher U . S . television rating at 24 . 9 . Only the 1988 Orange Bowl at a 20 . 8 and the 2006 Rose Bowl at a 21 . 7 have over a 20 share since the 1986 Rose Bowl . Chuck Long . Though Iowa lost in Chuck Long ' s final game in the 1986 Rose Bowl a 45 - 28 loss to UCLA , the loophole with the redshirting rule allowed Long to play in his fifth bowl game . He is believed to be the only collegiate player to participate in five bowl games . Chuck Long ' s Iowa teams compiled a 35 - 13 - 1 record . He graduated with 10 , 461 passing yards and 74 touchdowns on 782 completions . He held every passing record at the University of Iowa except one ( passes attempted in a game ) when he graduated . Long holds the best completion percentage of any college quarterback all - time who has attempted more than 1 , 000 career passes . He was also the first Big Ten player and just the second player in college football history to throw for more than 10 , 000 yards in a career . Chuck Long was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame in 2001 . Ronnie Harmon . It has been implied that Harmon was actually throwing the game with the fumbles and dropped pass . Coach Hayden Fry commented on the issue in his book " High Porch Picnic " : " Harmon took a lot of heat because he lost four fumbles , all in the first half . That was uncharacteristic of him ; I think he fumbled once during the regular season . The game film reveals that every fumble he lost was caused by a UCLA defender making a hard hit . They just knocked the ball loose . They [ UCLA ] did a great job of tackling . UCLA made bad things happen to Iowa ; Iowa didn ’ t self - destruct . Ronnie Harmon had a tremendous football career with the Hawkeyes , and I hated to see it end that way . " Future NFL players . Future NFL Players James Washington , Mark Walen , Ken Norton , Jr . , Jim Wahler , Carnell Lake , Darryl Henley , Chuck Long , Ronnie Harmon , Larry Station , Devon Mitchell , and Mike Haight played in this game .