Reynolds Crutchfield, a retired teacher and basketball coach, will attend his 80th consecutive Rose Bowl game on New Year’s Day, a streak that started in 1945.
Reynolds Crutchfield figures he knows the best way to celebrate New Year’s Day: Sitting in the Rose Bowl and watching the Granddaddy of Them All.
Then again, the 93-year-old Crutchfield doesn’t recall celebrating any other way.
When Michigan squares off against Alabama on Monday, it will mark the 80th consecutive Rose Bowl game that Crutchfield has attended. Stadium officials believe that’s a record.
A retired high school teacher and basketball coach who grew up in Pasadena, Crutchfield attended his first game in 1945 when USC shut out Tennessee 25-0.
“I don’t remember a lot of the details as to how I got there, all I know is I got to invite one of my friends from junior high to go to the game with me,” said Crutchfield, who turns 94 on Friday. “We sat up in the northeast corner, and at some point during the game I said, ‘I’m going to go to 50 of these in a row.’ Why I said that, I don’t know.”
He hasn’t missed one since.
That includes scrambling for tickets in some of those years, and even attending the transplanted Rose Bowl in 2021, moved to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He has sat in different spots in the stadium through the decades but in recent years, thanks in part of various friends, he has gotten prime seats on the 50-yard line.
The most memorable Rose Bowl game for him? The Texas-USC classic in 2006 — the last game called by legendary announcer Keith Jackson.
Crutchfield loves the nostalgic feel of the game and has meticulously saved his ticket stubs over the years, including a press pass from the year he got to shoot the game as a local sports photographer.
