East L.A. Classic to Move to Rose Bowl

When the East L.A. Classic rolls around each year, the campuses of Garfield and Roosevelt high schools erupt with pep rallies, decorations, limbo contests and pranks.

Since 1926, the traditional football game between the two schools has lived up to its name as a classic. There will still be a Classic next year but it looks like it won’t be in East Los Angeles. Officials plan to move it to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

The move has been rumored for years. Over the last few months, however, a few alumni and school officials worked out the details to move the game out of the East Los Angeles College stadium. They say a number of reasons led to the move, but most of all they believe the Classic, which attracted a capacity crowd of 22,000 this year, with an additional 2,000 watching from outside the stadium, has simply outgrown Weingart Stadium.

“It’s going to take an army to pull this off, but we’re ready to do it,” said Alfred N. Sanchez, publisher of Unidos magazine and a 1959 Garfield graduate. Sanchez has led the negotiations with Rose Bowl officials. “We had a number of alumni at the game who told us just to keep them posted. It’ll start to snowball.”

Organizers passed out 5,000 surveys to fans at the Oct. 16 game with the question, “The East L.A. Classic Rose Bowl Bound 1993? Would you go? Yes or No.”

About 3,500 surveys were returned to the schools, with 85% in favor, said Sanchez and broadcast journalist Sid Garcia, who has also been involved in the plans. Some flyers came back with concerns about the transportation, but many others asked how they could help out, Garcia said.

“People are now inquiring about how they can get the project going,” Garcia said. “Things seem to be falling in place for us.”

Students at both schools say the move will add more clout to the Classic, but some bemoan tossing out the traditional site in favor of the more distant, unfamiliar territory of the Rose Bowl.

“It’s a tradition to have it there at (East L.A. College),” said Roosevelt sophomore Miriam Antunez. “Some people call it the ELAC game. They’re used to it. They should just clean (the stadium) up and make it better, not change it.”

“Any game played in the Rose Bowl is an exciting game,” Garfield Coach Steve Robinson said. “Garfield has been around since 1924, and there are many alumni who want to attend the game but can’t because there is no place to park or they can’t get in because the game is sold out.”

The Classic is the homecoming game for both schools, with all the pageantry and hoopla of a college matchup. Students, teachers and alumni attest to the ferocity of the rivalry, which this year prompted Roosevelt to hire an airplane to fly over Garfield’s pregame rally with a banner that read, “Go Riders, Beat Bulldogs.” The prank so riled Garfield’s players that Robinson credited it for motivating his team to a 14-0 win.

The game has been held at East L.A. College since 1972. The school charged $11,000 this year, but that only paid for the cost of security, lighting and cleanup, said Kenneth Plumb, the college’s auditorium and stadium manager. The high schools split the revenue from ticket and souvenir sales.

“We wouldn’t lose any money (if the game is moved) because we don’t make any money on it,” Plumb said.

College athletic director Gilbert Rozadilla said his school has not tried to persuade the high schools to stay at East Los Angeles College because they recognize that the Classic has outgrown Weingart Stadium. They hope to attract other high school games--Alhambra plays its home games there--to fill in the gap left by the Classic.

“It was a community game and both of those schools are large feeders to this college, but the game is getting very big,” Rozadilla said. “It isn’t that they don’t like it here; it’s just that the attendance is so big that they do turn people away.”

The revenue, about $25,000 this year, goes toward the schools’ other sports programs, said Garfield Assistant Principal Daryl Turner. Negotiations are still under way, but the schools should be able to make at least that much when the Classic is played at the Rose Bowl, Sanchez said. The stadium will hold close to 100,000 after adjustments are made for the 1994 World Cup, said Rose Bowl program coordinator Bridget Schinnerer..

Those negotiating with the Rose Bowl hope to secure corporate sponsorship to pay the $75,000 to $100,000 fee to play the game there. Even without a corporate sponsor, school officials said they expect to attract 40,000 spectators to the Rose Bowl. Revenue from tickets, programs and souvenirs would be more than enough to pay the fee.

This year, as in the past, the schools oversold tickets based on estimates from the college, resulting in having to turn some ticket-holders away, said Roosevelt Assistant Principal Arturo del Rio.

Sanchez is proposing that any money above expenses and the schools’ guaranteed revenue go into a trust fund for athletic scholarships for students from both schools.

“That’s our goal, to raise the money and put it back into the community,” he said. “That’s the whole purpose.”

Fans say parking and traffic congestion is another problem at the college, which has 500 parking spaces. The Rose Bowl has more spaces and Sanchez is negotiating for RTD buses to shuttle people from the Eastside to Pasadena.

The negotiations have also included talks with UCLA, which plays its home games at the Rose Bowl, to ensure that the Classic does not interfere with its schedule. Officials have tentatively scheduled the Classic for Saturday, Sept. 25, which is two weeks before the next scheduled UCLA game, said Schinnerer.

Times sports correspondent Sean Waters contributed to this report.