The 1984 Rose Bowl game, played on January 2, was the 70th Rose Bowl Game. The UCLA Bruins defeated the Illinois Fighting Illini by a score of 45–9. Rick Neuheisel, UCLA quarterback, was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game. He completed 22 of 32 passes for 298 yards and four touchdowns. Neuheisel, who was named head coach of Bruins in December 2007, threw two touchdown passes to his eventual predecessor as Bruin head coach, Karl Dorrell. The game was played on January 2, as New Year's Day fell on a Sunday.

Illinois opened the 1983 season with a loss to Missouri. The Illini then swept through the rest of their games including defeats of #4 Iowa, a 17–13 win over #6 Ohio State, and a 16–6 win over #8 Michigan. They became the first team in Big Ten Conference history to defeat all nine of their conference opponents. This was the fourth appearance for the Illini in the Rose Bowl, with previous appearances in the 1947 Rose Bowl, 1952 Rose Bowl, and 1964 Rose Bowl. The Illini were 3–0 in Rose Bowl appearances.

The Bruins had won the year before in 1983 Rose Bowl against the Michigan Wwolverines. The Bruins had a 3–5 record in previous Rose Bowl games. This was the second season for the Bruins with the Rose Bowl stadium as their home stadium. UCLA opened the season with a loss at Georgia, a tie with Arizona State and then a 42–10 loss at #1-ranked Nebraska. Starting quarterback Rick Neuheisel was benched after the Nebraska loss in favor of Steve Bono. On October 1, the Bruins lost to BYU to start the season 0–3–1. Bono was injured during the BYU game, and Neuheisel came back to finish the season. The Bruins then won five straight Pacific-10 Conference games, including a defeat of #11 Washington. The Bruins then lost at Arizona. They came back to defeat USC 27–17. A win by Washington State over Washington in the Apple Cup game put UCLA in sole possession of first place in the Pac-10. UCLA became the only four-loss team to play in the Rose Bowl. This was the ninth appearance for UCLA in the Rose Bowl.

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