Fields of Friendly Strife: When World War I Marched Onto the Rose Bowl Gridiron
When we picture the Rose Bowl, we think of a sun-soaked New Year’s Day filled with marching bands, roaring crowds, and the ultimate clash between collegiate powerhouses. But in 1918, the "Granddaddy of Them All" faced an unprecedented crisis. With the United States fully engulfed in World War I, travel restrictions were tight, and colleges across the nation were suspending their sports programs. The game that inspired the entire bowl season was on the brink of cancellation—until the military stepped in.
In the latest episode of The Pig Pen podcast, host Darin Hayes sat down with Timothy Brown, football historian and author of Fields of Friendly Strife, to discuss the fascinating history of military football and its unexpected takeover of the 1918 Rose Bowl.
According to Brown, the Rose Bowl committee actually reached out to President Woodrow Wilson in late 1917 to see if the game should even be played. Wilson—a former student manager at Princeton and a passionate football supporter—gave his enthusiastic blessing, believing the contest was vital for the spirit of a wartime nation.
Because traditional colleges couldn't make the trip, organizers pivoted to the military. The matchup ultimately became an unforgettable showdown between the Army and the Marine Corps: the Camp Lewis soldiers from Washington took on the Mare Island Marines from California.
The game was deeply personal. Many of the players were former teammates from Northwest schools like the University of Oregon. In fact, the Marines even recruited Oregon’s legendary coach, Hugo Bezdek, to lead them on New Year's Day. While Camp Lewis was hungry for revenge after a regular-season loss to the Marines, Mare Island proved to be too much to handle, breaking open a tight 9-7 halftime score to secure a 19-7 victory.
But the true weight of the game lay in what happened next. For many of these young athletes, the Rose Bowl was their final farewell to civilian life. Shortly after the final whistle, the majority of the rosters were shipped off to the front lines in France.
Want to hear more about how the 1919 game unfolded? Stay tuned for our next post, and check out Timothy Brown’s book, Fields of Friendly Strife, available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited!
The Rose Bowl is 100 Years Old! In celebration of this milestone, we are covering the history of the stadium and the New Year's Game associated with it by gathering research from some of the finest historians and authors in the realm of gridiron. Timothy Brown of Football Archaeology joins us to chat about the 4th game played at the Tournament of Roses festival way back in 1918 between the Mare Island Marines and Camp Lewis. Tim goes into great detail on the military version of the New Year's Game during wartime.
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