1902 Rose Bowl Originally titled the " Tournament East - West football game , " what is now known as the Rose Bowl Game was first played on January 1 , 1902 in Pasadena , California , starting the tradition of New Year ' s Day bowl game s . The inaugural game featured Fielding H . Yost ' s dominating 1901 Michigan Wolverines football team , representing the East , who crushed a previously 3 – 1 – 2 team from Stanford University , representing the West , by a score of 49 – 0 after Stanford captain Ralph Fisher requested to quit with eight minutes remaining . Michigan finished the season 11 – 0 and was considered a national champion . Yost had been Stanford ' s coach the previous year . Organization of the game . The Tournament of Roses Parade began in 1890 as a New Year ' s Day tradition in the City of Pasadena . The city boosters were exploring a way to bring in tourism and money to the area . The Tournament of Roses Association president , James Wagner , guaranteed $ 3 , 500 to cover the expenses of bringing the football teams of the University of Michigan and Stanford University to Pasadena to play . The admission price was 50 cents to $ 1 to see the game . An additional $ 1 would be charged to admit a family ' s horse and buggy to the grounds . The game was played in Tournament Park , where temporary stands were built . Tournament Park . Before the Rose Bowl stadium was built for the 1923 Rose Bowl , games were played in Pasadena ' s Tournament Park , approximately three miles southeast of the current stadium . Tournament Park is now a private park maintained by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena , California . It was simply known as the " town lot " before being renamed Tournament Park in 1900 . Teams . Stanford had played the Olympic Club and Reliance Club twice , beating and tying each . They beat Nevada , 12 – 0 , then lost to Cal in the eleventh Big Game , 2 – 0 . The 1901 Michigan Wolverines football team was nicknamed the " Point - a - Minute " team when they came to Pasadena to play the game . The Wolverines had racked up 501 points while allowing their opponents no points at all . The 49 points they scored in the 1902 Rose Bowl game brought their season total to 550 to 0 . Aftermath . The game was so lopsided that for the next 15 years , the Tournament of Roses officials ran chariot races , ostrich races , and other various events instead of football . But , on New Year ' s Day 1916 football returned to stay as Washington State University defeated Brown University in the first annual Tournament of Roses football game . At Stanford , rugby replaced football from the 1906 season through the 1917 season . In record keeping , Neil Snow ' s five touchdowns are noted along with the " modern " Rose Bowl record of four touchdowns held by Eric Ball , Sam Cunningham , and Ron Dayne . Snow was named the Most Valuable Player of the game when the award was created in 1953 and selections were made retroactively . The initial attendance has varied according to different sources . The ESPN BCS article lists the attendance as 8 , 500 . The Michigan football media guide and Michigan articles list the attendance as 8 , 000 . The Official 2007 NCAA Division I football records book lists the attendance at 8 , 000 . Tournament park would be the site for the second to eighth Rose Bowl Games from 1916 to 1922 before the Rose Bowl stadium opened for the 1923 Rose Bowl .