When New Years Day Meant College Football

bertisdave
4 days ago
3 min read

When New Year's Day Meant College Football

I don’t remember a single New Year’s Day from my younger years without college football. Not one.

I remember waking up before the house was fully alive, grabbing a cup of hot chocolate or tea that was probably too hot, and flipping on the TV while the sun was still finding its way through the windows. Before resolutions. Before brunch plans. Before anybody talked about playoff scenarios. It was just bowl games. One after another. All day long. (Unless it was my Mom or Sister, they always had to watch the Parades)

New Year’s Day wasn’t a date on the calendar. It was an event.

That feeling is what pushed me to record this episode of Old Guy Sports: giving my opinion on what I believe are the 10 greatest New Year’s Day bowl games ever played before 1999. Not because lists are fun (they are), but because most of those games still live somewhere in me. They’re stitched into memory with the same thread as the couches we sat on, the people who wandered in and out of the room, and the voices of announcers who felt like family.

Back then, you didn’t just watch the Rose Bowl. You waited for it. The parade. The sunshine. The uniforms. It felt bigger than sports. The Orange Bowl felt different from the Sugar Bowl. The Fiesta Bowl still felt new. Each one carried a personality.

Some of these games are burned into my mind because of boldness. USC going for two to win the Rose Bowl. Bobby Bowden rolling the dice against Nebraska. Coaches trusting kids barely out of their teens with decisions that could follow them forever.

Some are burned in because of heartbreak. I can still see Jake Plummer sitting alone after the ’97 Rose Bowl. I didn’t have a dog in that fight, but I felt it. That’s what college football used to do. It didn’t care who you rooted for. It found a way to get you anyway.

And some of these games mattered beyond the score. Even though I didn’t see it, Alabama’s comeback in 1926 didn’t just win a Rose Bowl—it announced that the South belonged. Penn State beating Miami wasn’t just an upset—it was a reminder that discipline could still punch flash right in the mouth.

What strikes me now is how shared those days felt. Everybody was watching the same games at the same time. You could walk into school, work, or a bar the next day and not explain what you meant. Everyone already knew.

Today, college football is everywhere. All the time. And I love the sport. I still do. But there was something special about when it all lived on one day. One long, glorious, noisy, lazy, important day.

This podcast episode is my way of tipping my cap to that.

Not just to the touchdowns and the trophies—but to the feeling of it. The waiting. The watching. The way New Year’s Day used to belong to college football.

And maybe, in a small way, still does.

If these games live somewhere in you too, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

🎙️

Give it a listen wherever you catch your podcasts.

In case you were wondering.....Here's my list... (I wasn't going to leave you hanging...)

1926 Rose Bowl Alabama 20 - Washington 19

1947 Rose Bowl UCLA 45 - Illinois 14

1963 Rose Bowl USC 42 - Wisconsin 37

1971 Rose Bowl Stanford 27 - Ohio State 17

1973 Rose Bowl USC 42 - Ohio State 16

1979 Orange Bowl Oklahoma 31 - Nebraska 24

1980 Rose Bowl USC 17 - Ohio State 16