On January 1, 1954, the MSU Spartans defeated UCLA 28-20 in their first Rose Bowl appearance. Although MSU joined the Big Ten Conference in 1950, 1953 was the first year in which they played a full schedule and were counted in the conference standings. Although they tied Illinois for 1st place in the conference; they did not play each other that year to determine the tie-breaker. Since Illinois has gone in 1952, MSU was allowed to go in their first year of eligibility.
The Spartans have returned to the Rose Bowl in 1956 (beating UCLA 17-14), 1966 (losing to UCLA 12-14), 1988 (beating USC 20-17), and in 2014 (beating Stanford 24-20).
Source : 1954 Rose Bowl wikipedia entry