1949 Rose Bowl
| 1949 Rose Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 35th Rose Bowl Game | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 1, 1949 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1948 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Rose Bowl | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Pasadena, California | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 93,000 | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1949 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game. It was the 35th Rose Bowl Game, and the third since the Big Nine Conference and Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) agreed to an exclusive agreement to match their conference champions. The Northwestern Wildcats defeated the California Golden Bears 20–14. Northwestern halfback Frank Aschenbrenner was named the Rose Bowl Player of the Game when the award was created in 1953 and selections were made retroactively. The Wildcats were underdogs going into the game but pulled off an upset. Until the 2013 Gator Bowl, this was the only bowl game win in the history of Northwestern Wildcats football program.
Northwestern had finished 8–2 in the Big 9 Conference, losing only to perennial powerhouses Michigan (0–28) and Notre Dame (7–12). Northwestern blanked UCLA 19–0, Purdue 21–0, and Syracuse 48–0. Northwestern rallied from three turnovers and a 16-point deficit to defeat Minnesota 19–16 as well as defeating Ohio State 21–7, Wisconsin 16–7, and Illinois 20–7. Big 9 conference "no repeat" rule prevented two-time champion Michigan from making a second consecutive trip to the Rose Bowl, so second-place Northwestern received the invitation to the game.
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