1954 Rose Bowl

The 1954 Rose Bowl game, played on January 1, 1954 was the 40th Rose Bowl game. The Michigan State Spartans defeated the UCLA Bruins, 28–20. Michigan State halfback Billy Wells was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game. This was the first year that Michigan State University was counted in the Big Ten Conference football standings, having been a member since 1950. The 1954 Rose Bowl had the first color television "colorcast", viewable on 200 sets across the United States.

Michigan State College Spartans
The Michigan State Spartans had joined the Big Ten in 1950, but did not play a full schedule until the 1953 season. They only lost one game, 0-6 at Purdue. The Purdue loss broke a 28-game winning streak, which included two National Championships. The Spartans were co-champions with Illinois. The Illini and Spartans did not play each other. However, Illinois had last appeared in the 1952 Rose Bowl. Clarence "Biggie" Munn announced his retirement before the 1954 Rose Bowl game.

UCLA Bruins
In the 1952 season, the Bruins lost only one game, to USC 12–14. USC took the 1953 Rose Bowl berth. Both teams had been undefeated. In the 1953 season, the Bruins again lost only one regular season game, 20–21 at Stanford on October 17. Stanford would later be defeated by USC on November 7. With the Rose Bowl on the line for both teams, UCLA defeated USC 13–0 to win the Pacific Coast Conference outright and gain the Rose Bowl berth.

Game summary
This was the first meeting between the two schools. It was the first Rose Bowl appearance for the Spartans. They had previously only played in the 1938 Orange Bowl. It was the third bowl appearance for the Bruins. The weather was sunny. The Spartans wore their green home jerseys and the Bruins wore their white road jerseys.

The Spartans fumbled twice in the first half, which allowed the Bruins the first two scores. Michigan State had only one completed pass and 56 yards in the first half. The Spartans scored a touchdown with 4:45 remaining in the first half.

Victor Postula knocked down four Bruin passes. Coach Biggie Munn instituted a "split line offense" against the Bruins.

The Spartans assembled two long drives in the third quarter to pull ahead 21–-14. The Bruins recovered another Spartan fumble and scored to make the score 21-20. But the extra point kick failed. Billy Wells of Michigan State returned a punt 62 yards for a touchdown with 4:51 left in the game.

First quarter

 * UCLA — Bill Stits 13-yard pass from Paul Cameron. John Hermann converts.

Second quarter

 * UCLA — Cameron, two-yard run. Hermann converts.
 * MSU — Ellis Duckett, six-yard blocked punt return. Evan Slonac converts.

Third quarter

 * MSU — LeRoy Bolden, one-yard run. Slonac converts.
 * MSU — Billy Wells, two-yard run. Slonac converts.

Fourth quarter

 * UCLA — Rommie Loudd, 28-yard pass from Cameron passes 28 yards to Rommie Loudd. Kick failed.
 * MSU — Wells, 62-yard punt return. Slonac converts.

Aftermath

 * UCLA went on to win a shared National Championship for the 1954 season. It was the first "split" championship in college football, when the writers selected Ohio State and the coaches chose UCLA. The Bruins didn't play in the 1955 Rose Bowl game because of the no-repeat rule in effect then.
 * Billy Wells died in December 2001.

Game facts
In their first official season in the Big Ten, the Spartans led the league in the number of black players. Michigan State's eight black athletes represented nearly a quarter of all African Americans in the entire conference.

Players

 * Bruce Ballard
 * Warner Benjamin
 * Bob Bergdahl
 * Sam Boghosian
 * Doug Bradley
 * Richard Braunbeck
 * Jim Brown
 * Sam Brown
 * Hardiman Cureton
 * Bob Davenport


 * Terry Debay
 * Jim Decker
 * Preston Dills
 * Chuck Doud (co-captain)
 * Jack Ellena
 * John Farhood
 * Rudy Feldman (co-captain)
 * Russ Hampton
 * Johnny Hermann
 * Bob Heydenfeldt
 * Bob Long
 * Rommie Loudd


 * Gerry McDougall
 * Jack McKay
 * Gil Moreno
 * Clarence Norris
 * Gerry Okuneff
 * Steve Palmer
 * Doug Peters
 * Dave Peterson
 * Joe Ray
 * Mike Riskas


 * Jim Salisbury
 * Don Schinnick
 * Tom Thaxter
 * Primo Villanueva
 * Roger White

Coaches

 * Red Sanders - Head Coach
 * William Barnes
 * Deke Brackett
 * George Dickerson
 * Johnny Johnson
 * Jim Myers
 * Tommy Prothro