Nine years ago today

[froginmn]

When we went the the Fiesta ten years ago, I told my wife it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. But when we went to the Rose, I told her we had to go and this time bring the kids because it really was something rare and may not happen again.

I still consider it one of my best experiences, and remember it vividly.

We went to the Rose Parade in the morning and man was it cold. Living in Minnesota we didn't bring hats and gloves to LA, but we stopped and picked up some, along with a cheap purple blanket, the day before.

Parking, and reparking at the stadium after the parade, was an adventure. The Wisconsin fans were cocky (but had been worse a couple days earlier on the Santa Monica pier where one saw us before their pep rally and yelled "f TCU" in front of my nine year old daughter).

The best part (aside from the final score of course) was walking into the stadium. They only let so many people at a time into the entrance tunnels, which were about 200 feet long and dark, with only a couple lights along the way. After being deprived of light for a while, you step out and see the blue sky, the San Gabriel mountains as a backdrop, the green grass, and waves of red and purple in the stands.

We've had a lot of meaningful games in recent TCU history but for me, that is the one I'll savor. I'm fortunate to have shared it with my family in attendance that day, with my now deceased parents watching back home, with friends in attendance, and with all of you.

Happy New Year everyone!

 

[StinnettFrog]

That was an awesome day. We didn’t expect it to be so cold either but loved every minute of it. Only bad part to me was I flew into Vegas and rented a car to drive to Los Angeles. Made a bet on TCU who nobody thought could compete with mighty Wisconsin but we were a 3 point favorite. Lost a few hundred when they scored that touchdown to win by two. It was worth losing the money to see TCU win that game. Loved hearing the Wisconsin people making their excuses after the game waiting for the busses to get back to our car.

 

[BrewingFrog]

We opted to skip the Parade that morning, as it seemed awfully early after a night of extensive partying. Mrs. Brewingfrog opened the curtains to see the Stealth Bomber sailing by after it's flyover of the Parade. "I didn't think you were supposed to see it..."

Buses took us to the Rose Bowl. It was a quiet ride up in the hills, and the buses pulled to a stop in a near-empty lot. We climbed out of our seats and walked down the stairs to the pavement, then walked around the front of the bus. Behold! The Rose Bowl, complete with the famous logo framed perfectly by the eucalyptus trees. "This is really happening, isn't it!" whispered Mrs. Brewingfrog as we slowly wandered over to the pre-game tailgate site. Like froginmn says, the blue sky, the mountains, the magical morning light... Lovely!

We held off on Bloodys until we couldn't stand it any longer, then had some food and welcomed in the folks who had gone to the parade earlier that morning. By the time we began wandering to our seats, the place was packed and had run out of BBQ. Lines to get into the Stadium were bad, but moved quickly enough. Our seats were good, and perched about midway up the pie-slice that ended on the spot where the ESPN field-side stage was set up. It was truly exhilarating to be amongst the biggest Frog Host that had ever assembled. The joke: "How many Frogs are here do you think?" "All of 'em." seemed just about right.

I had serenely drifted along with all the pageantry and such, just taking in all the beauty. When the TCU Band played 'Texas, Our Texas' I very nearly cried. So many times I had heard the song played before the Biggest Bowl Game a team from Texas was appearing (usually the Longhorns), and suddenly it dawned that it was on us: Mighty TCU was carrying the banner of the State of Texas. Not the Longhorns, not the Aggies, but Us. Then there was this flyby...

The game was monstrous. Tank's Tip was right down in front of us. The cheers when we got the 1st down and were able to run out the clock were wonderful.

Leaving the Rose Bowl was funny in one odd way. Everyone piled onto the buses for the ride back to the Hotel. Lots of happy faces, handshakes. As we rolled out of the parking lot, most people had calmed down and the bus was quiet as we all sat there thinking the same thing: "We just won the Rose Bowl!" Then, as we rolled over a line of hills and left the absolutely jammed cell system around the Bowl, everybody's phone began yammering at once!

Sigh. That was a fantastic day...

 

[Zubaz]

Made a bet on TCU who nobody thought could compete with mighty Wisconsin but we were a 3 point favorite. Lost a few hundred when they scored that touchdown to win by two. It was worth losing the money to see TCU win that game.

That's funny, exact opposite happened to me. I am THE WORST gambler. The absolute worst. I could lose on the Harlem Globetrotters. As a result, I rarely bet. However, given the magnitude of the game, I put $100 on Wisconsin +2.5, with the idea being it was the kiss of death. As you said, I'm willing to lose some money to watch the Frogs win. Ended up paying off with that cover. Just another reason it was my best sports day ever.

As for for the day itself, whats left to say, it was the greatest. I've got a great pic of me and my late father tailgating before the game up in my office. One of my favorites.

 

[ShreveFrog]

Ditto to all the above. Then after the game we're headed to a bus and our TCU players were celebrating with family and friends outside their stadium entrance. I got pictures with Andy, Tank and Jeremy. And dang if I couldn't clear space on my card before Bart Johnson wandered away.

But my one regret: not kidnapping my Dad and taking him when he said no.

 

[The Artist Formerly Known as PhormerPhrog]

Never forget.

 

[MTfrog5]

About this time we were parking in the middle of a fairway getting ready for the game at the Rose Bowl stadium. Going and seeing them build the floats was one of the coolest parts of the trip though

 

[Ray Finkle]

Anyone miss a quarter of the game due to the lack of bathrooms? I ended up holding it like a 5 year old on a road trip through the mountains in the back of the station wagon. Thank God our bus got stuck after the parade and I didn’t pound as many beers as I would have. We ended up walking to the stadium from the parade (pre-Uber). Great day!

 

[Horned Toad]

Like Froginmn, my family attended the Fiesta Bowl thinking it might be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Then came the Rose Bowl the next year and it didn’t take a lot of effort to talk my wife and daughter into attending. We did it all while in Hollywood. Ate at a great Italian bistro (think California mafia type) that we stumbled into wearing our TCU gear on New Year’s Eve night after our plane was 4 hours late in taking off and we were starving after getting to our hotel room at almost 10 PM and just started walking down Rodeo Dr. looking for some place to eat. This place had a plated dinner at $100 each and at that point I would have paid just about anything for a decent meal and a beer. Every placed that we tried to get into before this one was either packed or was closing for the night. We walked in wearing jeans and TCU shirts and caps and all the customers were dressed to the nines. My wife was so embarrassed thinking we looked like a family of bumpkins but they welcomed us in as someone had cancelled the only remaining table and all of these mafia type guests started coming over to our table shaking our hands and giving us all party favors and champagne. The food was so good and we had so much fun singing along to Volaire and Oh Solo Mio, and Frank Sinatra songs all the other stereotypical Italian songs all the way past midnight.

The next day we got up early and drove to the Rose Bowl parade and parked and got our reserved seats in the stands. It was a cold and beautifully gorgeous day but the parade was great and flyover was so cool to see. Later we drove to the house of a friend of the family we went to the Rose Bowl game with and parked our car there. This family was letting friends park at their house above the hills overlooking the Rose Bowl and then shuttling their friends to the game and back and they weren’t even going to the game. Such great people. Finally game time came and we were in our seats to watch the greatest spectacle. I felt like I was in the Coliseum in Rome. I remember at half time it took nearly the entire half to walk down the steps to the lower level just to go to the restroom and to get a beer. I think I only had one because I didn’t want to miss a minute of the game. After the disappointment from the previous Fiesta Bowl game and the lows I felt on our way home, the high from Tank knocking down that pass and saving the day could never be topped.

The flight home with a plane full of Wisconsin fans was priceless. They weren’t as chirpy as they had been all week prior to the game. But one Whisky fan saw us in our TCU gear coming down the aisle and started clucking about how bad Green Bay was going to beat Dallas in the upcoming playoff game and several rows of Whisky fans cackled back with delight. As loud as I could say it I responded with “Dallas, who gives a damn about Dallas, we just won the Rose Bowl”. Shut the whole damn plane up. Never heard a peep out of any Whisky fan again. What a day!

 

[froginmn]

The flight home with a plane full of Wisconsin fans was priceless. They weren’t as chirpy as they had been all week prior to the game. But one Whisky fan saw us in our TCU gear coming down the aisle and started clucking about how bad Green Bay was going to beat Dallas in the upcoming playoff game and several rows of Whisky fans cackled back with delight. As loud as I could say it I responded with “Dallas, who gives a damn about Dallas, we just won the Rose Bowl”. Shut the whole damn plane up. Never heard a peep out of any Whisky fan again. What a day!

I forgot about my flight situation... I was very fortunate to have a friend who was a former Delta exec with flight benefits. He told me to pick flights and he would cover my tickets. Turned out that he got us first class from Minneapolis to LAX, and of course both flights were full of Badger fans. On the way back, after hearing the chirping from them all trip, we were seated in first class with TCU gear as they got on board. The flight attendant had asked us who won the game and when she did the pre flight, she said congratulations to Wisconsin... oh wait, congratulations to TCU.

Priceless!

 

[dawg]

The greatest sports day of my life. Got to watch it with my dad. Still gets dusty at the end.

 

[RufeBruton]

Lots of terrific memories. The one that brings me the greatest smile was on the train ride back to our parking lot. About six drunk Wisconsin young alums. Asked them if the knew much about their opponent. First, they thought that they had just lost to the University of Texas. And when they learned that it was Texas Christian University, they guessed at we had a student population of over 20,000. Then they just summed it up with “Even when we lose, we booze”.

 

[ShadowFrog]

Quote of the day:

“I didn't think you were supposed to see it..."

Shhh

 

[dawg]

What made that victory even sweeter was that it happened in The Rose Bowl. No "you only won because your BigBoy BCS opponent didn't want to be there" could be hurled at us. JJ Watt cried after the loss. No BigTen school has EVER not played its ass off to win the Rose Bowl. We took their best shot and won. Orange Bowl? Fiesta Bowl? Sugar Bowl? Yeah, those all would have been nice. They are not, however, the Rose Bowl. How many of us would still have our houses/mancaves/offices adorned with Fiesta Bowl pictures and paraphernalia had we won it in January 2010? I still wear my purple TCU hat with that lovely red Rose emblem on the side; even got questioned about it once from a good-natured fan of an SEC school. Wasn't that like a ten years ago? My answer: if your school won the Rose Bowl would you still wear swag 10 years later? He nodded yeah. Enough said.

What a perfect and wonderful day, 1/1/2011; its beauty will never fade or diminish one iota.

 

[West Coast Johnny]

 

[Hoosierfrog]

Not far behind Tank’s memory for me is hearing Herbie say over and over that that big Wisky line will wear down those little TCU kids by the the 4th qtr and of course the famous closing shot of the exterior of the Rose Bowl as a couple of red clad fans give the finger to the camera...

 

[MTfrog5]

What made that victory even sweeter was that it happened in The Rose Bowl. No "you only won because your BigBoy BCS opponent didn't want to be there" could be hurled at us. JJ Watt cried after the loss. No BigTen school has EVER not played its ass off to win the Rose Bowl. We took their best shot and won. Orange Bowl? Fiesta Bowl? Sugar Bowl? Yeah, those all would have been nice. They are not, however, the Rose Bowl. How many of us would still have our houses/mancaves/offices adorned with Fiesta Bowl pictures and paraphernalia had we won it in January 2010? I still wear my purple TCU hat with that lovely red Rose emblem on the side; even got questioned about it once from a good-natured fan of an SEC school. Wasn't that like a ten years ago? My answer: if your school won the Rose Bowl would you still wear swag 10 years later? He nodded yeah. Enough said.

What a perfect and wonderful day, 1/1/2011; its beauty will never fade or diminish one iota.

First Rose Bowl in over ten years for Wisconsin then too so yes they wanted to be there

 

[Atomic Frawg]

I made it a habit of staying in Corona/Norco whenever we played the Poinsettia bowls, so I did the same for the Rose Bowl. No one ever went with me to San Diego, but one of my cousins came with me to Rose Bowl game. I rented a two seater Smart Car and we headed off to the game. We parked at a garage some ways away from the Bowl (which is basically located in a residential neighborhood), and then caught a subway-like train to the Rose Bowl stop. From there it was about a mile walk, always seemingly surrounded by badger fans. I had a sign that simply stated "EXODUS 8:4," so I unfurled it and walked silently holding it up. All of a sudden this woman in her late 50's to early 60"s jumped in front of me and started yelling "Go badgers!" and such in my face. I told her, "Lady, you don't know me, and you might want to move," which she shrinkingly did. By the time we got to the stadium parking lot I had heard about their o-line being bigger than ours more times than I could stand. Finally, a group of tailgaters yelled they were gonna kill us because their o-line was bigger, and I yelled out, "So are your women!" It was a mean thing to say, but damned if it didn't shut down that whole sector of the parking lot.

After the game my cousin and I were on the train amongst a buttload of badger fans whose bellies were full of humble pie. It was quieter than church when the Scriptures are being read. It was such a sweet feeling. Right before our stop a guy finally spoke up and told he didn't realize were were actually that good. My cousin and I looked at each other and and smiled. You coulda bought'em cheap that day.

 

[stadiumfrog]

I went in the Rose Bowl early because I was already a little toasty from our tailgate. Entered on the WI side about the same time the Showgirls did their field entrance. Overheard one of the WI guys tell his buddies “ We don’t have any girls that look like that”. I thought...so we got that.