The Rose Bowl Story is a 1952 American romance film directed by William Beaudine and starring Marshall Thompson, Vera Miles and Richard Rober, featuring a young Natalie Wood.

Steve perks up in Pasadena while meeting the Rose Bowl's committee and particularly the tournament's queen, Denny Burke, a beauty in a fur coat.

Finding her house, Steve learns she is a middle-class girl whose dad, "Iron Mike" Burke, once played in a Rose Bowl game himself.

Denny takes exception to Steve's disappointment that she is not rich and to his blasé attitude toward the Rose Bowl, a tradition her family loves.

Agreeing to spend New Year's Eve with her family, Steve stands up Denny because he is at the hospital, where Coach Hadley's wife has taken a turn for the worse.