The Tournament of Roses Parade-- Part 2: History (Which Came First, the Parade or Game?)

It (the parade) all started 125 years ago when the American West, especially California, was still largely unknown to folks back east and the Hunt Valley Club organized the first Rose Parade and held it on New Year's Day in 1890 as a way to promote the blooms and beauty os Pasadena, California.

This was a way to show to people in the snowy Northeast and Midwest (no kidding, there was a half-inch on the ground yesterday morning and then it started snowing yesterday afternoon about 4 and is snowing right now. Last night, I used the snowblower on 4-5 inches.) how great it was out there.

For the first parade, members of the fox hunting and social club twined roses around the spokes of horse carriage wheels and through their horses' tails and manes. They also had foot races, polo matches and a tug-of-war.

New Year's Day was picked to have it as it is a time full of hope and aspiration for the year ahead.

Right off the bat, this was a popular event and in 1895, the Tournament of Roses Association was formed to manage it.

Early tournaments featured chariot races, ostrich races and once even a race between an elephant and camel. All that was replaced by a football game which became an annual tradition starting in 1916. This year's Michigan State-Stanford games marks the 100th fgame, although one, in 1942, was held in Durham, North Carolina, coming as it did within weeks of Pearl Harbor.

I wrote about in posts on this blog.

So, There's Your Answer. --Cooter

The Tournament of Roses Parade-- Part 1

From the Dec. 29-Jan. 4, 2014, American Profile Magazine by Marti Attoun.

Kelly Roberts, 44, of Downey, California, has a 25-year passion about this parade of all parades, and that is to design, build, decorate and drive floats for his city in the 125-year-old Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena.

Downey, California, has been in the parade since 1955.

The theme of this year's parade is "Dreams Come True" and Downey's entry is a Cinderella glass-slipper. Walnuts were ground up to create wood-like railings, crushed poppy seeds to color a water fountain and fresh orchids to resemble falling water and dazzling scroll-work from 15,000 fresh pink, red and yellow roses. I'll sure be looking for this one.

Through the decades, the highly decorated carriages and wagons have been replaced by huge mechanized and animated floats, most built by professional parade companies like the Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale, California. Most floats are 55-feet long, but in 2011, there was one 120-feet long that featured a 6,600 wave pool. It had to be specially built to maneuver around street corners.

Always One Impressive Parade. --DaCoot