The late sportscaster Keith Jackson, who dubbed the Rose Bowl the "Granddaddy of Them All," will be the next person honored with a statue outside the legendary Pasadena venue.
Officials with the Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation discussed plans for the statue at a Pasadena City Council meeting Monday night. The donation-funded statue could be installed as early as December, ahead of the 106th Rose Bowl Game on Jan. 1.
Jackson died Jan. 12, 2018, at age 89.
He called the Rose Bowl Game a record 15 times and was selected for the game's Hall of Fame in 1999. The Rose Bowl stadium's broadcast center was renamed in his honor in 2015, and fundraising efforts for the statue have been ongoing for more than a year.
Jackson received the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award from the American Football Coaches Association and he was also named National Sportscaster of the Year five consecutive times, by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association. Jackson is also in the National Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame, the NSSA Hall of Fame and the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame. In 2009, he was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Jackson retired in 2006 after 40 years with ABC.
His statue, depicting Jackson standing and holding a microphone with the Rose Bowl logo, will be located in the Rose Plaza near the stadium's south entrance. It will be the third statue at the stadium. The other statues are of Jackie Robinson, dedicated in 2017, and Brandi Chastain, dedicated in July in honor of the U.S. Women's National Team that won the World Cup at the Rose Bowl in 1999.
