I remember seeing this game. I was 9 months pregnant. We took the bus over and had to stand. Until some nice guy gave me his seat. It was a great game. Husband a huuuge UCLA fan.
So sad that the first (& only) team to beat every other conference team laid such an egg in the Rose Bowl. This was back when it seemed like only way Big 10 was going to win a Rose Bowl was if the Pac10 champ had a bus accident on the way to stadium from the hotel.
This is why a multi-school playoff is a good idea. Teams that start out slow - like UCLA - but win their conference championship shouldn't be penalized If they don't go 12-0 or 11-1. Hell, they may even be the best team at year's end ! 🏉🏈
I was at that game and remember that Cal Tech hacked the scoreboard from the hills behind the stadium. They changed the names on the scoreboard just before the end of the game to Cal Tech and MIT.
Johnny Carson just talked about this game Jan 3, 1984 on his show. Tons of Illinois fans were at his show after the Rose Bowl. Sirius XM Johnny Carson channel
I was at that game, as a Freshman at Illinois. I remember sky writers writing "make my day ucla" all weekend. My sister and I made a sign rooting for Illinois, officials made us take it down, meanwhile there were ucla signs all over. I remember they assigned us seats scattered all over the stadium, so we couldn't rally. It was sickeningly stacked in ucla's favor as far as home field advantage. Later I moved to LA and went to USC for graduate school, revenge was so SWEET as USC trounced ucla many many times during Neuheisal's dismal coaching seasons. So am I a sore loser? Ya damn well sure right about that! 😆🇺🇸
@@5thdowncfb Turns out 1/2 the Illinois players that year were illegally recruited from california anyway. At least Illinois went on to become a Big 10 perennial powerhouse ever since! 😂
I don't think it was so much that as it was UCLA being more mentally prepared for handling the Rose Bowl glare and spotlight! Remember Illinois had not won the Big Ten or anything of significance in several years, so their players weren't accustomed to the magnitude of a game like this! UCLA despite their inconsistency in '83, had several starters who'd played in the previous seasons' Rose Bowl and had played a more difficult schedule!
Yeah one Illinois player said it was hard to get psyched for this game because it was going to be a rout.............well, technically he wasn't wrong.
@@CoreyT127 Actually they probably would have won it outright! Remember Miami jumped because everyone ahead of them either struggled or lost their bowl! Had Illinois won the Rose Bowl, Miami wouldn't have jumped over them! The polls in those days didn't do the leapfrogging they do now if you win! Only way u dropped in those days was if u struggled mightily against an inferior opponent or lost!
