Cal Poly float wins top honor at Rose Parade. See the ‘most beautiful’ entry
Cal Poly universities took home the top honors in the 137th Pasadena Tournament of Roses parade to ring in the new year.
Students from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomonas’ Rose Parade team produced a “Jungle Jumpstart”-themed float, featuring a robot being repaired by a frog, monkey, lemur, jaguar and colorful tropical birds to fit the parade theme of “The Magic of Teamwork.”
The team’s hard work did not go unnoticed this year, bringing home the 2026 Sweepstakes Trophy, the parade’s top honor.
It was the first time the joint universities’ float won the highest honor “recognizing the most beautiful entry,” according to an Instagram post by Cal Poly’s Rose Float team.
The Sweepstakes Trophy is normally notably won by “larger, commercially built floats or major organizations, not by self-built entries that include the California State University campuses,” Cal Poly said in a news release Thursday afternoon.
“It’s really remarkable to win this award and celebrate it, especially on this year’s theme,” Cal Poly Rose float president Aubrey Goings said in the release. “We’re really just ecstatic, especially because this year’s theme — ‘The Magic in Teamwork’ — and us winning this is really celebrating our teamwork how we get together and make everything from scratch, learning from each other.”
Goings continued: “What sets us apart from some of the other parade floats is how we built this truly from our hearts and how we are telling our own story in the float through the animals, working together on the robot — just like us, with students from two universities and multiple disciplines working together to support each other and make something beautiful.”
According to a news release from Cal Poly a week before the parade, the float measures 53 feet long, 25 feet high and 18 wide, covered by a thick blanket of more than 21,000 flowers.
As part of the float’s development process, students developed technology to move parts of the float that weigh more than one ton, according to the release.
A team of four students from both schools were the unseen float operators, the universities said. Those included driver Sean Hanna and engine operator Benjamin Phillips from the Pomona university, and driver observer Ryan Newton and Enzo Roberto, who handled animation duties during the 5-1/2-mile parade route, both from Cal Poly, the release said.
While a total of 43 floats featuring everything from “Star Trek” to “The Muppets” participated in the parade this year, Cal Poly universities’ float continues to be the only submission from an academic body, according to the Tournament of Roses’ live broadcast on YouTube.
Last year, Cal Poly’s “Nessie’s Lakeside Laughs” float featuring Nessie the Loch Ness monster received the Leishman Public Spirit award for the most outstanding floral presentation from a non-commercial participant.
This story was originally published January 1, 2026 at 11:17 AM.
