The 1938 Rose Bowl was played on January 1, 1938, and was the 24th Rose Bowl

Rose Bowl Game

The Rose Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2...

. The game featured the California Golden Bears

1937 California Golden Bears football team

The 1937 California Golden Bears football team, nicknamed the "Thunder Team", represented the University of California, Berkeley in National Collegiate Athletic Association intercollegiate competition. They were led by third-year head coach Leonard "Stub" Allison. The Bears compiled a 10–0–1...

 against the Alabama Crimson Tide, two of the top teams from the 1937 college football season

1937 college football season

The 1937 college football season ended with the Panthers of the University of Pittsburgh being named the nation’s #1 team by 30 of the 33 electors in the Associated Press writers' poll...

. This game was the fifth trip to Pasadena for the Tide, which won all four previous Rose Bowl games.

Game summary

The game was a Vic Bottari

Vic Bottari

Vic Bottari was an American football player. Bottari, nicknamed "Vallejo Vic" attended the University of California, Berkeley and starred as a halfback, leading the Golden Bears to a win in the 1938 Rose Bowl where he was voted the most valuable player of the game...

 and Sam Chapman

Sam Chapman

Samuel Blake Chapman was an American two-sport athletic star who played as a center fielder in Major League Baseball, spending nearly his entire career with the Philadelphia Athletics . He batted and threw right-handed, leading the American League in putouts four times...

 show, who scored all the points. It was Alabama's first loss in the Rose Bowl, which prompted former Los Angeles Examiner reporter Maxwell Stiles to write: “The Crimson Tide was at its ebb, Alabama at last had lost a Rose Bowl Game.”