Gophers fans flock to Pasadena after six decades waiting to play at Rose Bowl Stadium

Vince and Ramona Settergren of Edina attended the Gophers’ upset of No. 11 USC last Saturday. After Koi Perich’s interception sealed the victory, fans poured from the seats down to the field at Huntington Bank Stadium to celebrate.

“We were there,” Vince said, “but we did not go out on the field. The drop to the field from our seats is about 6 or 7 feet.”

Their decision is understandable. Vince is 89, Ramona 87, and they didn’t want to jeopardize an important trip they’re taking: The Settergrens are going to Pasadena, Calif., to see the Gophers play UCLA on Saturday night in Rose Bowl Stadium.

They’re not the only ones.

Mike Wierzbicki, Gophers senior associate athletic director for external affairs, estimates that 12,000 to 15,000 Minnesota fans will attend the game. “Our feeling is that this will be the largest-attended road regular-season game during Coach [P.J.] Fleck’s tenure as head coach and Mark Coyle’s time as AD,” Wierzbicki said.

The game will be Minnesota’s first at the storied venue since Jan. 1, 1962, when the Gophers beat UCLA 21-3 in the second of back-to-back appearances in the Rose Bowl game. The year before, they lost 17-7 to Washington but already had been crowned national champions.

“This game is not the Rose Bowl,” Vince said of Saturday’s matchup of Big Ten newcomer UCLA and Minnesota, “but it’s in the Rose Bowl, so it’s kind of the same.”

For the Settergrens and many other Minnesotans, the Gophers playing in Pasadena is a chance to scratch an itch that’s nearly 63 years old. Vince, who’s had Gophers season tickets for 69 years, had tickets to both of Minnesota’s Rose Bowl appearances, following the 1960 and ‘61 seasons, but couldn’t make it to California either time because he was leading excursions to Canada for a Minneapolis ski shop he owned.

Dave Mona can relate. He was a freshman at Minnesota in 1961 and worked for the Minnesota Daily’s sports department.

“I was covering the team, and I was sure I would be going to the Rose Bowl. There was a bargain train, only $49, but I didn’t have $49,” Mona said, listing a price that would be more than $500 today when adjusted for inflation. “I was trying to come up with a good line, so I said, ‘Yeah, they go every year. I’ll go the next time.’”

Mona, who went on to work 13 years as a color analyst for Gophers football radio broadcasts, won’t be able to make the trip to the Rose Bowl because of a previous commitment. “It’s still on my bucket list,” he said, adding that he’ll be watching intently at home, “but I won’t accept phone calls during the game.”

A big reason why people travel to one of college football’s meccas is the picturesque view of the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop. Saturday’s game is scheduled for 8 p.m. (Central), and the Pasadena weather forecast calls for a sunny day with a high temperature of 85 and a low of 55. Most important, sunset will be at 6:21 (Pacific), shortly after kickoff. Fans will get to see those vivid colors colliding in the sky.

When the Big Ten last October announced the future conference opponents for each of the league’s 18 teams, UCLA stood out on the Gophers’ road slate. Steve Erban, co-owner of Creative Charters Inc., a Stillwater-based travel company that features trips to Gophers events, immediately started planning.

Erban put together six different travel packages, which became available in January. Creative Charters had flights leaving Wednesday or Thursday and returning Sunday or Monday. Erban estimated that nearly 600 fans signed up for the trips, which in some packages includes a tour of Warner Brothers studio.

“The majority are going because the Gophers are playing in the Rose Bowl,” Erban said. “And before they die, they want to say they’ve seen the Gophers play in the Rose Bowl.”

Erban said this trip has been one of the most popular he’s organized, putting it with the 1997 NCAA men’s Final Four and the 2004 NCAA women’s Final Four, both of which had 700-800 Gophers fans book their trips.

Ramona Settergren is looking forward to the camaraderie the trip will provide.

“I guess just the experience of being with the tour group and the days in the hotel,” she said. “We’ve been there before for the [Rose Bowl] parade. It’s turning out to be kind of an exciting experience.”

The university also sponsored travel packages to the game, and it sold out its standard visiting team allotment of 3,000 tickets, with UCLA making more available. Minnesota’s pregame tailgate party at the Brookside Golf Club adjacent to the stadium is sold out at 1,000 people. There will be a ’Sota Social organized by the university’s alumni association from 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Pacific) Friday at Barney’s Beanery in Pasadena.

The Gophers aren’t the only team whose fans were aching to get to the Rose Bowl. Indiana has played in one Rose Bowl — after the 1967 season when it finished in a three-way tie for the Big Ten title with the Gophers and Purdue. Four weeks ago, the Hoosiers returned to Pasadena and routed UCLA 42-13 in the Bruins’ first conference game as a Big Ten member. The game drew a crowd of 47,811 — boosted by a large Indiana contingent. By comparison, the Bruins drew 43,051 for their next home game, against Oregon. When Iowa visits UCLA on Nov. 8, another large crowd of visitors is expected.

The trip to Pasadena is coming at the right time for the Gophers, who will try to build off their upset of one Los Angeles-based team by beating another. When coach Chip Kelly left UCLA to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator in early February, Bruins athletic director Martin Jarmond pursued Gophers coach P.J. Fleck for the opening.

Fleck stayed in Minnesota, and UCLA hired former star running back DeShaun Foster as coach. The Bruins won their opener at Hawaii but have lost four consecutive games to Indiana, LSU, Oregon and Penn State — all teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25.

For the Gophers (3-3, 1-2), a victory is the task at hand, especially since the win over USC steered their season back toward a winning path. Fleck, a Sugar Grove, Ill., native, lists upstart Northwestern’s appearance in the 1995 season among his top Rose Bowl memories, and he’s excited to be competing in a stadium with such a rich history.

“It has this nostalgia, this tradition that is unlike any other,” he said. “It’s great for our fans. It’s a great experience for our players, one of the greatest venues in all of college football. But we have a job to do, and that job is preparing to play the best football game we played all year, period.”

Gophers defensive end Danny Striggow, a senior from Long Lake, embraces the chance to play in the stadium.

“As a Minnesota kid, it’s an awesome experience to be able to go out there and play,” he said. “The Rose Bowl is an iconic name, so we’re super grateful to have the opportunity.”

The Settergrens will be there to see it in person.

They’ve attended several Gophers bowl games over the years, with Vince leading the push. In 1985, they went to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., which was played on Dec. 21. Ramona, though, made sure Vince upped the ante.

“I said, ‘The only way I’ll agree to that is if we make a family vacation out of it and after the game we go to New Orleans for Christmas,’ ” she said.

This trip to Pasadena will serve as their bowl game for the 2024 season.

“She doesn’t want to go to any more bowl games unless it’s the Rose Bowl,” Vince said. “This kind of took care of the argument.”