Rose Bowl Is Red as Wisconsin Beats UCLA

Thousands of red-clad Wisconsin football fans took control of the Rose Bowl stands Friday, and shortly thereafter their team did the same thing on the field.

The Badgers of the Big Ten beat UCLA’s favored Bruins, 38-31, to win the 85th Rose Bowl game, and as had happened in the 1994 Rose Bowl, when Wisconsin beat the Bruins, the fans from dairyland appeared to have an impact on the outcome on the field.

The attendance was announced as 93,872, and the sea of red in the stands, with a few small breaks of Bruin blue, circled from the middle of the south end zone all the way around the west stands and past the northeast corner of the other end zone. More than 45 minutes after the game had ended, the bulk of those Wisconsin fans were still there, a semicircle of red facing empty east-side bleachers that had been vacated by the Bruin faithful.

In the game, Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne, a 253-pound running back, ran for four touchdowns, tying a Rose Bowl record, and fell only one yard short of Charles White’s Rose Bowl record of 247 rushing yards, set in 1980 by the USC star.

UCLA’s explosive offense, working behind All-American quarterback Cade McNown, was stopped twice in crucial situations when crowd noise from Badger fans disrupted the Bruin offense.

The UCLA loss ended the season for a team of great promise, one that was heading toward a potential national championship game until it stumbled against Miami in its final regular-season game. UCLA finished 10-2. Wisconsin, which shared the Big Ten title with Michigan and Ohio State, finished 11-1.

IN SPORTS

Scores from Friday’s other bowl games:

COTTON: Texas 38, Miss. State 11

OUTBACK: Penn State 26, Kentucky 14

GATOR: Georgia Tech 35, Notre Dame 28

CITRUS: Michigan 45, Arkansas 31

SUGAR: Ohio State 24, Texas A&M; 14

Details on these games and more on the Rose Bowl game in Sports, S1 and D1