<body><div>It’s still difficult for Pat Richter to comprehend a world in which Southern Cal is a member of the Big Ten.“Never could have imagined it,” he said Wednesday.Richter chuckled as he said that. Then he chuckled some more while telling me the story of his first experience with Big Ten expansion as the University of Wisconsin athletic director.He’d just wrapped up his introductory news conference on a Friday in December 1989, and Richter’s next order of business was a conference call with his fellow athletic directors.The Big Ten consisted of 10 schools — imagine that — at the time. But not for long because Richter and the other ADs learned in that call that the Big Ten presidents and chancellors had a secret: They planned to invite Penn State to join the conference.<h2>People are also reading…</h2>That news didn’t go over well, and it led to rival ADs screaming at each other over the phone.The ink on Richter’s contract barely was dry, and there he was wondering what he’d gotten himself into. “It was like, 'Welcome to the Big Ten,'" he said.And now, nearly 35 years later, Richter will watch from afar as the Badgers have a part in the Trojans’ welcome to the Big Ten. Wisconsin will serve as the guest in Southern Cal’s Big Ten home debut Saturday at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.It’s hard for Richter to think of the Trojans without being reminded of the classic 1963 Rose Bowl between Southern Cal and Wisconsin, which nearly pulled off a comeback for the ages.The Trojans built a big lead and held on for dear life in a 42-37 victory, with quarterback Ron Vander Kelen helping the Badgers score 23 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.The game had become so lopsided in the second half that some fans among the 96,698 in attendance had headed for the exits. That even included two of Richter’s relatives.Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | Omny Studio“I even had an aunt and an uncle that came to the game and it got so bad that they left at the end of the third quarter,” Richter said. “And then things got exciting as they got a little bit away from the stadium, they turned around and came back.”The late Jim Murray, a legendary columnist for the Los Angeles Times, led his column the following day like this:“In the longest, wildest and wooliest Rose Bowl game in history, the USC Trojans beat Ronald Vander Kelen at Pasadena Tuesday.”Open Jim: Are Wisconsin football's Luke Fickell and Phil Longo on the same page?The teams combined for 79 points and 69 pass attempts, both Rose Bowl records at the time. Television networks only were starting to realize that sports programing could be successful, and the Badgers’ rally kept people glued to their sets until the clock finally ran out after Wisconsin barely missed blocking a punt deep in Southern Cal territory.“The game lasted only slightly less long than the War of 1812,” Murray wrote. “It started in broad daylight but it ended up under conditions so dark a man would bump into an elephant. The official timer needed a calendar. If the game lasted one more quarter they would have run into next year’s Rose Parade traffic.”Richter doesn’t remember darkness being an issue for the players, but he does recall getting approached by a perturbed man at a speaking event in Philadelphia years later. The man’s gripe? His father wouldn’t let the family eat dinner until the game ended, and Richter and Vander Kelen had extended that wait.Wisconsin had beaten No. 1 Northwestern 37-6 and No. 5 Minnesota 14-9 down the stretch during the regular season to clinch a second trip to Pasadena in four years. The previous journey hadn’t gone so well, with Washington crushing the Badgers 44-8 as Richter, ineligible to play at the time because he was a freshman, watching from home in Madison.Polzin: Wisconsin football isn't a top Big Ten team but how far down the list does it fall?The Badgers arrived in Pasadena this time ranked No. 2 in the nation but were an underdog against the No. 1 Trojans, who were unbeaten. Southern Cal led 42-14 after scoring early in the fourth quarter, but that’s when Vander Kelen got hot.Vander Kelen, who died in 2016, completed 17 of 21 passes in the fourth quarter and finished with 401 through the air for the game. Richter had 11 catches for 163 yards, mostly on crossing routes, and Louis Holland added nine catches on shorter routes.Even after their comeback came up short, the Badgers clearly had won over the hearts of many who watched the game. Vander Kelen and Richter went straight from Los Angeles to Hawaii for the Hula Bowl and got more attention than the Southern Cal players in their group.“I think the longer you’re away from it, the more you realize that really was kind of what sports was all about,” said Richter, who turned 83 earlier this month. “It was not a question of who won or lost but how the game was played and the entertainment value.”Now, more than six decades later, the Trojans have landed in the Big Ten. Jim Murray would have had a field day with that move.<img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4RB6pv_0vlWfVcL00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4RB6pv_0vlWfVcL00" width="1920" height="1080" ></div></body>

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Polzin: Six decades later, 1963 classic might still be the ‘wooliest Rose Bowl game in history’

It’s still difficult for Pat Richter to comprehend a world in which Southern Cal is a member of the Big Ten. “Never could have imagined it,” he said Wednesday. Richter chuckled as he said that. Then he chuckled some more while telling me the story of his first experience with Big Ten expansion as the University of Wisconsin athletic director.