The annual Rose Bowl is the most prestigious of all the bowl games in college football, dating all the way back to 1902 as the sports first true postseason game. One legendary sportswriter, Art Spander, has covered over half of those games and was in attendance to cover the 109th Rose Bowl game on Monday night.
Spander, currently working as a free-lance columnist for the San Francisco Examiner along with his own website, has covered countless big events throughout his illustrious 63-year career as a writer, first getting his start as a writer back in 1960.
Over the course of his career, Spander has covered 50 consecutive Masters Tournaments, 40 Super Bowls, 47 U.S. Open Golf Tournaments, 36 British Open Golf Tournaments, 33 Wimbledons, 20 US Open tennis and 34 Final Fours. But this all hails in comparison to his annual attendance at the Rose Bowl.
Spander has been at nearly every Rose Bowl game since 1953, initially as a spectator and vendor for the game and later as a sportswriter.
The only thing that technically broke his yearly Rose Bowl attendance streak was the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced him to miss the Rose Bowl in 2021.
So my Rose Bowl streak will end at 67.. Others in this Covid era have much worse troubles, of course, but shift to Texas and virus surges will keep me away. Most of all will miss sun setting over the Arroyo Seco.
— Art Spander (@artspander) December 20, 2020
Luckily, Spander was able to make it to the 2024 Rose Bowl on Monday night between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Michigan Wolverines. His daughter, Debbie Spander shared a photo on social media of her father in the press box for the highly-anticipated matchup.
Still writing like a champ @artspander covering his 70th @rosebowlgame pic.twitter.com/qXa0909E8r
— Debbie Spander (@DebSpander) January 1, 2024
Attending an event like this a whopping 70 times is truly an accomplishment that very few will ever get to share in any sport for any event. Naturally, a number of sports media personalities took to Twitter/X to congratulate him on this awesome moment.
Legend!!!!!
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) January 1, 2024
Art’s the best! A Rose Bowl legend if there ever was one!
— mike hiserman (@MikeHiserman) January 1, 2024
A legend! Go @artspander! https://t.co/0cjoPE98Ru
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) January 1, 2024
Hopefully this Rose Bowl matchup will be up there as one of the more entertaining matchups he has seen during his 70 years in attendance.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.