I didn’t really dawn on me until I arrived in Los Angeles for the 2010 BCS Championship game between Texas and Alabama that I have not been back on the west coast working since moving to Washington, DC in late 2008. It was like being home again. Getting to see and work alongside dozens of friends from the west coast made for a fun week.
In the ten years of living in California, I covered numerous games down at the Rose Bowl. That stadium in Pasadena is one of those places I hold dear in my heart for many reasons, some other than just football.
1985 – My freshman year at Ohio State, my first ever trip west along with my college roommates for the January 1st game at the Rose Bowl against USC. Before the game, we even spent the night camped out on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena for a front row seat to the Rose Bowl Parade. It was also the first major sporting event I ever photographed getting a photo credential requested through the Greenville (Ohio) Daily Advocate. I remember shooting with my Nikon F2 and Sigma 500mm/f8 mirror lens but can’t remember any of the photos I took from that game. I do remember being unable to locate our car parked on the Rose Bowl golf course following the game. I ended up searching for three hours only finding it after I climbed a tree to get a better vantage point. All of my roommates were asleep inside the car.
2002 – I can honestly say I remember zero about what happened in the championship game between Miami and Nebraska. It turns out Miami beat Nebraska 37-24 to win the title. I do know I was a nervous wreck before, during and after the game because I had an engagement ring stuffed away in my pocket and planned on proposing to Amy Kinsella, a picture editor at USA TODAY who was editing the game photos, following the game out on the giant rose painted on the Rose Bowl Stadium 50 yard line. Amy thought our crew was just going out in the middle of the field to take a group picture following the game. She was shocked but she did say yes.
2006 – Texas Longhorns 41 – Southern California Trojans 38 : Many sports “know-it-alls” call this one of the greatest games ever played in any sport. USC took a 38-26 lead with 6:42 in the final minutes of the game. However, Texas wasn’t giving up, as Texas not only scored a touchdown that got the Longhorns back into the game, but Texas QB Vince Young scored the game-winner when he scrambled into the end zone with 0:19 to play. Young rushed for 200 yards and three TDs and going 30/40 for 267 yards through the air. I am not a huge football fan but this probably was one of the greatest college football games of all times and I somehow made a pretty decent photo.
