1983 Rose Bowl The 1983 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game , played on January 1 , 1983 . It was the 69th Rose Bowl game . The UCLA Bruins defeated the Michigan Wolverines by a score of 24 - 14 . Tom Ramsey , UCLA quarterback and Don Rogers , UCLA defensive back , were named the Rose Bowl Players Of The Game . This was the first season that the UCLA Bruins played in the Rose Bowl stadium as their home stadium , where they were undefeated . Teams . The 1983 Rose Bowl would be the 3rd meeting between the UCLA Bruins and the Michigan Wolverines in a 366 day span . They met on December 31 , 1981 in the Bluebonnet Bowl . Michigan won that game 33 - 14 . The 1981 Bluebonnet Bowl was the first Big Ten / Pac - 10 bowl meeting outside the Rose Bowl . As such , it was labeled the " mini Rose Bowl " . On September 25 , 1982 , UCLA and Michigan would have a rematch of the Bluebonnet Bowl at Michigan Stadium . Quarterback Steve Smith ' s six - yard run gave Michigan a 14 - 0 lead and after the Wolverines blocked a Bruin punt and took possession on the UCLA seven , Smith ' s five - yard pass to Anthony Carter made the score 21 - 0 with 12 : 57 remaining in the second quarter . The Bruins scored two touchdowns and were behind 21 - 14 at the half in the game at Ann Arbor with one second left to play . The Bruin players headed for the locker room . They had to come back out because Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler had called a time - out with one second left . Ali Haji - Sheikh kicked a 47 - yard field goal to increase Michigan ' s lead to 24 - 14 . When UCLA coach Terry Donahue began to argue with the referees , Schembechler reportedly ran past and screamed , " That ' s three more points , Terry ! " In the second half the Bruins topped off their greatest point deficit comeback in their history . The Bruins put 17 more points in the second half , while allowing Michigan just one more field goal . An interception by Don Rogers on the second play of the second half gave the Bruins the ball on the Michigan 22 - yard line for their first possession of the half . Quarterback Tom Ramsey connected on a six - yard touchdown pass to JoJo Townsell to make it 24 - 21 . Another Michigan field goal pushed the UM advantage up to 27 - 21 with 4 : 32 remaining in the third quarter . Dokie Williams returned the ensuing kickoff 65 yards and the Bruins took it in from there on a two - yard run by Kevin Nelson . John Lee ' s extra point put the Bruins in the lead at 28 - 27 with 2 : 50 to play in the third quarter . UCLA won 31 - 27 , overcoming a 21 - 0 deficit , in what would stand as one of the greatest comebacks in Bruin football history until the 2005 Sun Bowl . Michigan Wolverines . Michigan started the season 1 - 2 , losing 23 - 17 at Notre Dame , and losing at home to UCLA 31 - 27 . The Wolverines would not lose again until the final regular season game in the Michigan - Ohio State rivalry , falling at Ohio State 24 - 14 after having already clinched the Big 10 title and Rose Bowl berth . UCLA Bruins . The UCLA Bruins had moved to the Rose Bowl Stadium as their home stadium from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the 1982 football season . Head coach Terry Donahue made a promise that UCLA would end their season in the Rose Bowl game . UCLA opened with 4 straight wins , was tied by Arizona 24 - 24 , then won another 3 games before a seemingly crushing loss at Washington 10 - 7 . That game gave the Huskies the Pac - 10 lead and inside track to the Rose Bowl . UCLA recovered to sneak by John Elway and Stanford 38 - 35 , and went into their game with rival USC needing to beat the Trojans and have Washington lose to Washington State AND Arizona State lose to Arizona . On November 20 , the improbable happened . The Bruins beat the Trojans 20 - 19 in the UCLA - USC rivalry game , when after USC scored on the final play of the game , Karl Morgan sacked Scott Tinsley on the 2 - point conversion attempt to preserve the win . That same day , Washington was upset by Washington State , 24 - 20 . The story of the day that overshadowed these circumstances however , was The Play , with Cal defeating Stanford in the Big Game . One week later , Arizona knocked off Arizona State 28 - 18 and the Bruins were in the Rose Bowl . Game summary . Using a balanced attack led by QB Tom Ramsey , UCLA took a 10 - 0 lead in the second quarter . In addition , a hard hit by UCLA DB Don Rogers separated Michigan QB Steve Smith ' s shoulder and knocked him out of the game . But backup David Hall got the Wolverines on the board , making the halftime score 10 - 7 . The key drive was early in the 3rd quarter when Tom Ramsey completed 7 straight passes , converted numerous 3rd downs , and led UCLA on a brilliant time consuming drive that was capped by Danny Andrews ' 9 yard touchdown run to make the score 17 - 7 . In the 4th quarter , UCLA got an interception inside the Michigan 20 yard line and scored again for an insurmountable 24 - 7 lead . Michigan got one last late touchdown for the final score of 24 - 14 . UCLA played a nearly flawless game , with no turnovers and no penalties until taking an intentional delay of game penalty while running out the clock in the 4th quarter . Aftermath . Don Rogers would go on to set an interception record the next year in the 1984 Rose Bowl . The UCLA Bruins would appear again the next year in their new home stadium . The UCLA Bruins under Terry Donahue and the Michigan Wolverines under Bo Schembechler would meet one more time , and in the Rose Bowl Stadium . In a regular season game on September 23 , 1989 , # 5 ranked Michigan defeated # 24 ranked UCLA 24 - 23 . This was the first win in a 10 - game winning streak that propelled the Wolverines to the 1990 Rose Bowl .