The 1986 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 1986 between the UCLA Bruins vs. Iowa Hawkeyes….as Coach Terry Donohue led the Bruins and Coach Hayden Fry led the Hawkeyes into this 72nd Rose Bowl Game. The UCLA Bruins defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 45-28….as UCLA tailback Eric Ball was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game….after running for a Rose Bowl record four touchdowns.
The weather was overcast and 71 degrees….as the Bruins wore white visitor jerseys and the Hawkeyes wore their black home jerseys….when both teams wore Rose Bowl patches on their uniforms….while Iowa helmets bore a sticker with the letters “ANF” for “America Needs Farmers”…..as Coach Fry had the players wear these stickers to bring attention the plight of American farmers. Humorist Erma Bombeck was the grand marshal for the Tournament of Roses Parade with a parade theme of “A Celebration of Laughter.” Tournament of Roses President Lathrop K. “Lay” Leishman presided over the coin toss. Iowa won the toss and deferred to UCLA.
Iowa recovered a fumble at the UCLA 5 from a bad snap of a UCLA punt on the first series of downs….then In the first play from scrimmage, Iowa quarterback Chuck Long gave the ball to Ronnie Harmon, who fumbled the ball and UCLA recovered…..as Harmon would fumble the ball a total of 4 times….while dropping a wide open pass in the end zone as Iowa was attempting a late comeback….after he had only fumbled the ball one time in the regular season. Iowa QB Chuck Long became the only collegiat player to participate in 5 bowl games due to a loophole with the redshirting rule. Iowa placekicker Rob Houghtlin tied a Rose Bowl field goal distance record with a 52 yard kick in the fourth quarter. This tied a record set by Ohio State kicker Rich Spangler the previous year in the 1985 game. Eric Ball, a freshman tailback for UCLA, ran for 227 yards and tied a modern Rose Bowl record with USC Sam Cunningham from 1973 by scoring four rushing touchdowns….as Ball was a replacement for season starter Gaston Green….who pulled a hamstring….for this record was later tied by Ron Dayne in the 1999 Rose Bowl….and then again by Texas Vince Young in the 2006 Rose Bowl. Matt Stevens was the UCLA quarterback. After sharing the starting quarterback job with David Norrie for the first half of the season….he eventually lost the starter’s job after playing poorly at Washington in a loss in the Bruins’ Pac-10 opening game….as Stevens did not find out he was starting until a few minutes before the game….when Norrie could not play due to an injury.
This game proved to be a surprise….as it was expected that QB Chuck Long would lead the Hawkeyes to victory….after winning the Maxwell Award as outstanding college player and the O’Brien Award as the nations best quarterback for the 1985 season….but like all college football games….you just never can know what kind of fight in is the “sleeping dog” that were the Bruins on this day….which makes this video well worth watching.
