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Alabama plays for history, their first Rose Bowl win in Pasadena since January 1946.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 2:10 pm
Posted on 12/20/25 at 2:10 pm
While the Tide won Nick Saban's first national championship in the stadium in 2009 (well, January 2010), it was the National Championship Game, not the Rose Bowl. (USC would beat Penn State for the 2009 Rose Bowl trophy and flowers).
Later Alabama would beat Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl proper, but covid restrictions had moved the game to Dallas.
And of course the Tide lost their last trip in 2024 to the eventual National Champions to end the Saban era.
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The 1945 Season. College Football was back in full force following the Japanese Surrender in August ending World War 2. Frank Thomas would lead Alabama to an undefeated season, but it was a weak schedule, with no ranked teams in the regular season. Even with a Rose Bowl title, Bama would not rise higher than #2 in the major polls. Resulting in one of Alabama's stronger unclaimed titles alongside 1966 and 1977.
That season Bear Bryant returned from the Navy to accept his first head coaching gig with Maryland.
Gene Stallings was 10 years old.
Nick Saban would not be born for 6 years and DeBoer, 29.
The University of Alabama enrolled 4,000 students, and saw the establishment of a new Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, the return of male students, and the expansion of the medical school in Birmingham.
Later Alabama would beat Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl proper, but covid restrictions had moved the game to Dallas.
And of course the Tide lost their last trip in 2024 to the eventual National Champions to end the Saban era.
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The 1945 Season. College Football was back in full force following the Japanese Surrender in August ending World War 2. Frank Thomas would lead Alabama to an undefeated season, but it was a weak schedule, with no ranked teams in the regular season. Even with a Rose Bowl title, Bama would not rise higher than #2 in the major polls. Resulting in one of Alabama's stronger unclaimed titles alongside 1966 and 1977.
That season Bear Bryant returned from the Navy to accept his first head coaching gig with Maryland.
Gene Stallings was 10 years old.
Nick Saban would not be born for 6 years and DeBoer, 29.
The University of Alabama enrolled 4,000 students, and saw the establishment of a new Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, the return of male students, and the expansion of the medical school in Birmingham.
This post was edited on 12/20/25 at 2:20 pm
2
Posted on 12/20/25 at 2:16 pm to Lordofwrath88
That 2009 thing is semantics. It’s still the Rose Bowl.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 2:47 pm to Lordofwrath88
Jan 1 2026 will be the 100 year anniversary of Bama's first ever Rose Bowl, a win over the Washington Huskies.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 3:23 pm to Mobile Patriot
I've got a 1946 program signed by Harry Gilmer (and most of the team) and later by Coach Bryant. Can't be many items signed by those two men.
My grandfather got out of the Navy in late '45 in California and went to the Rose Bowl game when we beat USC before he headed home to the Mobile area after his duty ended. I have his ticket stub and his program signed by the entire team or most of them.
Later in the 70's, my dad saw Bryant around Tuscaloosa and told him about the program and his dad who had gone to the game and had passed not long after that due to health issues from the war. Bryant asked to see it so my dad sent it to him. He eventually returned it with a note thanking him inside the cover.
pretty cool
My grandfather got out of the Navy in late '45 in California and went to the Rose Bowl game when we beat USC before he headed home to the Mobile area after his duty ended. I have his ticket stub and his program signed by the entire team or most of them.
Later in the 70's, my dad saw Bryant around Tuscaloosa and told him about the program and his dad who had gone to the game and had passed not long after that due to health issues from the war. Bryant asked to see it so my dad sent it to him. He eventually returned it with a note thanking him inside the cover.
pretty cool
This post was edited on 12/20/25 at 3:24 pm
Posted on 12/20/25 at 3:27 pm to Sandkhan
quote:
That 2009 thing is semantics. It’s still the Rose Bowl.
No, it isn’t just semantics.
Just because the game was played in the Rose Bowl stadium doesn’t make it the Rose Bowl.
Bama’s win in the stadium that year was more important, but the trophy for the Rose Bowl has Ohio State’s name on it.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 3:43 pm to JustGetItRight
Yeah we played in the game everyone wanted to play in at The Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Who cares if they played the Big 10 game the week before? It was a dumb set up back then.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 6:16 pm to Mobile Patriot
quote:
Jan 1 2026 will be the 100 year anniversary of Bama's first ever Rose Bowl, a win over the Washington Huskies.
Still the single most important game, and for that matter the single most important moment, in the history of Southern football.
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