1902 Rose Bowl Program - Finest Known Example! ...

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1902 Rose Bowl Program - Finest Known Example! Presented here is one of the most significant collegiate football artifacts ever to reach the auction block, and only the third example of the very first Rose Bowl program to surface in the hobby in recent memory. The first such example made history in November of 2003, when a result of $35,500 made it the priciest non-baseball sports program ever sold. That copy exhibited an impressive VG-EX quality, but doesn't even come close to comparing to the superior quality of the example offered in this amazing catalog listing.

While the Tournament of Roses had begun on New Year's Day 1890, it had always operated exclusively as a floral festival, growing from humble beginnings as a community event, to a statewide attraction, and eventually to nationwide fame. It was largely by coincidence that the festival happened to coincide in 1902 with a Michigan football team barnstorming tour of California, and it was decided by those in positions of influence that a post-season football game would make a nice addition to the event. The local Stanford University team was chosen to be the Wolverines' willing victims.

The eventual result of forty-nine to nothing in Michigan's favor could, rather remarkably, be considered a moral victory of sorts for the Stanford Cardinals, as the undefeated Wolverines had racked up 501 points of offense while giving up not a single point during their ten-game regular season. It still came as quite a disappointment to the overwhelmingly pro-Stanford crowd, and it is surmised that this embarrassing result had some bearing on the fact that it would be another fourteen years before football would again become part of the Tournament of Roses festivities.

Now well past the century mark in age, this historic program for that first Rose Bowl Game is prepared to elevate one serious collector to the elite level of the hobby. Beginning with the black card stock cover, embossed with golden lettering reading, "Official Program, Pasadena Tournament of Roses, New Year's Day 1902," we enter to find 40 pages of thrilling text and photographs dedicated to the various events of the day, including several pages dedicated to the historic football game. These feature a Michigan team photo, schedules and results of each team's seasons, a fine photographic portrait of the Michigan team captain, the opposing line-ups and a diagram of the field with player positions.

We are confident that there has never been a nicer 1902 Rose Bowl program to sell at auction, nor possibly another as nice as this one in existence, as this this beauty is EX/MT to NM in quality. A slight raise on the cover is the only flaw we could detect.

A copy of the original program will be included so whoever wins this program can still comb through the pages.