1984 Rose Bowl The 1984 Rose Bowl game , played on January 2 , was the 70th Rose Bowl game . The UCLA Bruins defeated the Illinois Fighting Illini by a score of 45 - 9 . Rick Neuheisel , UCLA quarterback , was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game . He completed 22 of 32 passes for 298 yards and four touchdown s . Neuheisel , who was named head coach of Bruins in December 2007 , threw two touchdown passes to his eventual predecessor as Bruin head coach , Karl Dorrell . The game was played on January 2 , as New Year ' s Day fell on a Sunday . Scoreboard prank . A prank played by students from the California Institute of Technology altered the scoreboard display , an incident reminiscent of the Great Rose Bowl Hoax of 1961 . A pair of Caltech students evaded security at the Rose Bowl , hacked into the electronic system and installed a computer that could be remotely controlled to alter the display on the stadium ' s digital scoreboard . During the game , the students from Caltech remotely altered the scoreboard display to show the teams playing in the game as Caltech and M . I . T . , in place of UCLA and Illinois . One of the prank ' s perpetrators had received approval from his Caltech professor for the prank , which earned him credit for the course " Experimental Projects in Electrical Circuits " . Teams . University of Illinois Fighting Illini . Illinois opened the 1983 season with a loss to . The Illini then swept through the rest of their games including defeats of # 4 Iowa , a 17 - 13 win over # 6 Ohio State , and a 16 - 6 win over # 8 Michigan . They became the first team in Big Ten history to defeat all nine of their conference opponents . This was the fourth appearance for the Illini in the Rose Bowl , with previous appearances in the 1947 Rose Bowl , 1952 Rose Bowl , and 1964 Rose Bowl . The Illini were 3 - 0 in Rose Bowl appearances . UCLA Bruins . UCLA opened the season with a loss at Georgia , a tie with and then a 42 - 10 loss at # 1 - ranked Nebraska . Starting quarterback Rick Neuheisel was benched after the Nebraska loss in favor of Steve Bono . On October 1 , the Bruins lost to BYU to start the season 0 - 3 - 1 . Bono was injured during the BYU game , and Neuheisel came back to finish the season . The Bruins then won five straight Pac - 10 games , including a defeat of # 11 Washington . The Bruins then lost at . They came back to defeat USC 27 - 17 . A win by Washington State over Washington in the Apple Cup game put UCLA in sole possession of first place in the Pac - 10 . UCLA became the only four - loss team to play in the Rose Bowl . This was the eighth appearance for UCLA in the Rose Bowl . They were previously in the 1943 Rose Bowl , 1947 Rose Bowl , 1954 Rose Bowl , 1956 Rose Bowl , 1966 Rose Bowl , 1976 Rose Bowl and most recently the 1983 Rose Bowl . The Bruins had a 3 - 4 record in previous Rose Bowl games . This was the second season for the Bruins with the Rose Bowl stadium as their home stadium . Game summary . The weather was sunny and 74 degrees . As the " visiting team " , UCLA wore their white road jerseys with gold pants , and the Illinois Fighting Illini wore their navy blue home jerseys with orange pants . The game was the second Rose Bowl meeting between the two schools . They met in the 1947 Rose Bowl following the Big 10 - PCC agreement in 1947 . This was the eighth overall meeting between the two schools with Illinois having a 5 - 2 edge since the first meeting in 1947 . The game was played on a Monday due to the Rose Bowl tradition of not holding the Tournament of Roses Parade and Rose Bowl on a Sunday . Quarterback Neuheisel and several other Bruins awoke with food poisoning that morning . Some UCLA players were unable to play , including starting defensive tackle David Randle , punter Kevin Buenafe and reserve defensive lineman Tory Pankopf . Bruin Coach Terry Donahue realized that Rick Neuheisel was so sick that his presence on the team bus might psych out the rest of the team . Donahue put Neuheisel into a private car for the trip to the stadium . The Bruins kicked off . Don Rogers , the 1983 Rose Bowl player of the game , intercepted a pass from Jack Trudeau on the third play of the game with only 43 seconds off the clock . At the end of the drive , John Lee attempted the field goal . It was blocked by Luke Sewall of the Illini , and was picked up by the Illini safety Craig Swoope . Swoope ran with the ball and fumbled , which was recovered by the Bruins . The first score by the Bruins came on the following drive . The first of four touchdown passes by Rick Neuheisel was to Paul Bergmann . The Illini barely used their rushing game passing 79 % of the time , and Trudeau threw 14 straight passes in the first half . They had the ball on the UCLA 28 - yard line starting the second period . Trudeau threw two incomplete passes and a four - yard completion . Chris White kicked a 41 - yard field goal to make the score 7 - 3 with 13 : 59 left in the half . Kevin Nelson completed the next score for the Bruins with a 28 yard run . Don Rogers got a second interception from Trudeau , which tied a Rose Bowl record . On the following drive Neuheisel finished off with a 16 yard touchdown pass to Karl Dorrell to take a 21 - 3 lead . On the Bruins next drive , Mike Young scored another touchdown from a Neuheisel pass . In the second half , Neuheisel threw his record - setting fourth touchdown pass to Karl Dorrell to put the Bruins up 35 - 3 . The Illini were still struggling to get the passing and ground game going and failed to convert on third down . Another Bruin field goal by John Lee put the Bruins up 38 - 3 . After the field goal , the scoreboard read : CalTech 38 , Illinois 3 . Which was then changed to CalTech 38 M . I . T 3 . The Rose Bowl was able to cut the power to the scoreboard before it was able to read CalTech 2 Rose Bowl 0 . The Rose Bowl officials could not get the scoreboard straightened out , so time and score were kept on the field spoken over the public address system . At this point , Illini coach Mike White was battling the clock . The Bruins allowed the Illini short passes and Thomas Rooks of the Illini would score . UCLA finished off with one more running touchdown to make the final score 45 - 9 . Aftermath . Illinois finished with 0 rushing yards on 17 carries . Jack Trudeau completed 23 passes on 39 attempts for 178 yards with 3 interceptions . Trudeau ' s 3 interceptions tied a Rose Bowl single - game record ( set in the 1963 Rose Bowl ) which still stands as of 2008 . Rick Neuheisel completed 22 of 31 passes for 298 yards with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions . Terry Donahue was later to state that the man - to - man pass coverage by the Illini was one of the reasons that they were able to be successful . Karl Dorrell in particular was able to beat Illinois freshman cornerback Keith Taylor . Rick Neuheisel ' s 4 touchdown passes tied the Rose Bowl record , set by Pete Beathard in 1963 , and later tied by Chad Henne in the 2005 Rose Bowl . Don Rogers two interceptions tied eight other individuals , and has been tied again by four more . Jack Trudeau would later go on to set an NCAA record of 215 pass attempts without an interception in the 1985 football season . The loss by Illinois paved the way for the # 5 Miami Hurricanes , who defeated the # 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Orange Bowl , to win their first national championship . The international broadcast of the Rose Bowl also helped introduce the world to the audience wave , as UCLA and Illinois fans kept the wave going around the Rose Bowl stadium . Eventual Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster was the captain of the Fighting Illini . Rick Neuheisel would eventually become coach of the Washington Huskies and coach them to victory in the 2001 Rose Bowl , the first time a Rose Bowl MVP coached a Rose Bowl winning team . Neuheisel eventually became the coach of the UCLA Bruins , replacing Rose Bowl teammate Karl Dorrell . It was the first time that an unranked team defeated a top five team in a bowl game . The only other time this has happened was in when Purdue won on an 80 yard drive led by Drew Brees with 1 : 25 left in the 1998 Alamo Bowl versus # 4 ranked Kansas State . Drew Brees and Purdue would later meet the Washington Huskies coached by Rick Neuheisel in the 2001 Rose Bowl . On June 27 , 1986 , Don Rogers died of a cocaine overdose at his mother ' s home , only eight days after Maryland basketball player Len Bias died also of a cocaine overdose .