Talk about your streaks: Altadena native says this will be his 75th Rose Bowl game

When Altadena native Reynolds Crutchfield passes through the Rose Bowl gates Jan. 1 to watch Washington take on Ohio State, it will be his 75th consecutive Rose Bowl game, he said.

Crutchfield can’t totally explain the flawless streak. He remembers attending a game – the 1945 game when USC routed Tennessee 25-0 – with his family while a 14-year-old at then-Eliot Junior High School, now Eliot Arts Magnet.

“I said, ‘I’m going to go to 50 of them in a row,” said Crutchfield, who now lives in Santa Rosa.

But why stop at 50 when you have a good thing going?

Crutchfield turns 89 next week. The thought that some people don’t make it to 75, never mind 75 bowl games of any kind, doesn’t escape him, and he is thankful.

This year, he’ll be sitting around the 40-yard line on the shady side – he’s developed a good source for tickets over the years – and he’ll be rooting for the Washington Cougars. Crutchfield typically cheers for whichever Pac-12 (and its predecessors) team is playing, but is especially happy when Stanford makes it, as that’s his “local” team, one he shot as a professional photographer for the Palo Alto Times.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat featured Crutchfield back in 1982, when he had been to a mere 38 consecutive games. It includes a now-anachronistic reference to O.J. Simpson.

“O.J. Simpson, when once asked about the Ne Year’s Day traditional, said: ‘the Rose Bowl is the best game of them all. What else is there?’”  the paper wrote, “He’ll get no argument from Crutchfield.”

Cruchfield has his favorites. The Cardinal’s 2016 game against Iowa is especially memorable, even as memories of other games fade.

“I was worried they wouldn’t win that game. That was the game they just didn’t win, they went wild,” he said, referring to the 45-16 beatdown. “I was so happy.”

A retired teacher and real estate professional and former prep basketball coach, Crutchfield now manages homeowners associations. He often takes a work buddy and other friends on his sojourn down south.

Around his adopted home town, he’s pretty well known for his yearly constitutional. “I was at the eye doctor the other day, and he said, ‘root for my Ohio State.’

“I couldn’t tell him.”