Rose Bowl Memories

Harry Gonso was quarterback and co-captain of the IU football team during its first-ever Rose Bowl appearance in 1968. The season was marked by a series of nail-biting games, with eight coming down to the final four minutes.

“It’s been 57 years, but I’m still so proud of the ’67 team and all that we accomplished together,” Gonso says. “[The current] team is a disciplined, well-coached machine. The ’67 team was comprised of a bunch of student athletes who were never predicted to be part of the national conversation. There’s a reason we were known as ‘The Cardiac Kids’!”

Gonso was named the Most Valuable Player on the team after leading them to their Rose Bowl appearance. His time at IU and on the team played a large role in his life, and he’s overjoyed by the team’s recent success.

“I am thrilled that a light is shining on this team and our university,” he says. “This special group of coaches and players embodies the ‘Never Daunted’ mentality. My advice would be to soak it in. They’re creating lifetime memories—enjoy every minute. The program’s success is much deserved and the result of a lot of hard work and preparation. This can only lead to continued success and more titles in the future.”

As captain of the cheer team, Debbie Filippelli had a sideline view of Hoosier football throughout her time at IU.

“When I was a sophomore, we were 1–9. My junior year we were 1–8–1, so that was an improvement,” recalls Filippelli.

When the Hoosiers won the first game of its 1967 season (Filippelli’s senior year), she remembers that at the end of the game the band members turned their hats around so that the plume was in the back instead of the front.

“That was to signify that we were turning around our tradition of losing,” she says. “So, we got the idea to turn our sweaters around so that the ‘I’ was in the back.”

And the Hoosiers kept winning, which earned them a spot in one of the four postseason bowls at the time.

“It was great being in the Rose Bowl,” says Filippelli, “but what was really great was the entire season and winning all those games."

Dave Kornowa was a defensive back and placekicker for the Hoosiers in the 1968 Rose Bowl.

Kornowa considered attending other Big Ten schools but chose IU. “When I visited Indiana, it looked like a school that I had always imagined going to,” he says. “They had never gone to the Rose Bowl; they had never won many championships. [But] I had dreams of going to the Rose Bowl with Indiana, and I don't know why. I really thought that [we] had a chance.”

He was proven right, of course, and in the game he made several tackles and converted a field goal. This despite an early-game collision with USC star O.J. Simpson that left Kornowa disoriented. “I played better than I really was when I didn't know what was going on. It was like that wasn't the real me,” he says.

Over the years, Kornowa attended a number of team reunions, and brought his daughter Erika (Kornowa) Singler, BA’01, to some of them. Along the way, Erika told her dad that if the Hoosiers ever made it back to the Rose Bowl, she’d take him to the game.

With help from Curt Cignetti and Fernando Mendoza and the team, Erika can deliver on her promise—she and her dad will be together at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2026.

As a wide receiver on the 1968 IU Rose Bowl team, Eric Stolberg remembers well the weeks leading up to the game.

“It was cold in Indiana when we were practicing—we didn’t have indoor facilities like we do today,” Stolberg says. “When we got [to California] it was 75 degrees and beautiful, with the San Gabriel Mountains in the background and blue skies. We didn’t mind practicing outside there.”

Stolberg hadn’t returned to the Rose Bowl stadium until last year, when he attended the 2024 regular season matchup between IU and UCLA. He’s excited to head back for a third time—this time to cheer on the Hoosiers in the Rose Bowl game.

“I mean, as a former player and as a Big Ten Co-Champion myself and a Rose Bowl player, I’m so proud to be a part of this team,” Stolberg says. “This team is on a roll. They’re on a roll at the right time, and I think they showed that against a very good Ohio State team.”

It’s taken longer than he predicted, but Stolberg says it’s heartening to see IU football back in the national conversation.

“Coach [Cignetti], thank you,” he says. “That’s all I can say. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. We are so happy, the community is so happy. The university is so pumped and excited.”

For Larry Lafferty, the most memorable experience of the 1968 Rose Bowl wasn’t serving as drum major for the Marching Hundred during the iconic Rose Bowl Parade or performing at half time—it’s what happened afterward.

As the band was sitting on the bus following the game, somebody announced that Hoagy Carmichael’s [LLB’26, DM Hon’72] limousine was parked behind them. The Marching Hundred’s halftime performance featured some of Carmichael’s songs.

“I thought, ‘I’m not going to miss this opportunity.’ So, I got out of the bus, went over and stuck my head in the passenger side window, and I said, ‘Is this Hoagy Carmichael’s car?’ And he was sitting between the driver and the guy who was in shotgun in the front row, and the car was packed with people. He thanked us all so much for the great halftime show.”