The 2nd Rose Bowl Game

One of the top experts in early football rules history Timothy P. Brown joins us on the discussion to explain the 1915 season of Brown University. Timothy Brown's FootballArchaeology.com has a daily football factoid that he shares that are really quite interesting in a short read. They preserve football history in a very unique way and we are quite happy that Tim has agreed to join us each week to go over some of his Today's Tidbits. Click that link and you can subscribe for free to receive them yourself each evening.

The Tournament of Roses East West Game of 1915 ended up being what call today the 2nd Rose Bowl contest. The contestants were the Brown University Bears of the East facing off against a tough Washington State squad that would represent the West coast. Brown had stunned Yale during the season in a 2-0 victory but lost 7–0 to Amherst, 6–0 to Syracuse, and 16–7 to Harvard finishing with a 5-3-1 ledger before going to Pasadena. They had a scoreless tie with Trinity.   Harvard ended the year with only one loss and the Cornell eleven were undefeated, so why was it that the third place Brown Bruins were chosen to play in the Rose Bowl as Cornell and Harvard each declined.  On the Brown team was Fritz Pollard, the first African-American to play in Rose Bowl. Pollard was a fine collegiate player and possibly even better at the professional level. Check out more on the Brown 1915 team in this recent post.

Washington State team 1915 02 Jan 1916, Sun The Tacoma Daily Ledger (Tacoma, Washington) Newspapers.com

Washington State on the other hand was a perfect 6-0 on the season going into the game with their Head Coach of Eddie N Robinson. The Cougars were really quite dominant as they had won 28–3 over Oregon, 29–0 over Oregon State, 41–0 over Idaho, 27–7 over Montana, 17–0 over Whitman and 48–0 over Gonzaga.

Brown&Wash1915 30 Dec 1915, Thu The Lewiston Daily Sun (Lewiston, Maine) Newspapers.com

It is interesting that the newsmen of the day were considering this game on New years Day in Pasadena to be the fitst game of the 1916 season instead of the 1915 years finale, like we would today.

Brown Beaten 02 Jan 1916, Sun The Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Alabama) Newspapers.com

The small Brown squad and the rest of the travel party took a special Pullman car to Pasadena. The journey lasted six days and was a long trip for Coach Lone Star Dietz and his boys. Separated from their equipment trunks along the way. Something that was indeed an important element that arose.

Also traveling West was the Referee of the game in the famous Walter Eckersoll of Chicago. The respected official  pulled double dut on his trip to the West Coast as he was also a newspaper journalist and wrote about his travel to California and of the game itself.

Besides the talent of Pollard in the backfield Wallace Wade played on the line for the Bears. With these men and the tough tests of the East Coast opponents they olayed, Brown was nearly a 2-1 favorite in the game. Perhaps  the speed and fluidity of Brown would be nullified though as when they got to Caliifornia, the area had been drenched by pacific rains for days on end, making the field at Tournament Park a sloppy mess. Remember the equipment of Brown not arriving when they did in Pasadena? Well it was a factor as the team played in borrowed uniforms and, more importantly, without their cleats, that they would wear on a sloppy field.

The game was a scoreless halftime. In the third quarter Cougar Ralph Boone plunged over the goal line from three yards out and Arthur Durham kicked the extra point for a 7-0 Washington State lead. That lead increased when in the final stanza Carl Dietz would also find paydirt with a four yard run and the Cougars would win it 14-0. Carl Dietz would be awarded the MVP honors.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: Timothy Brown and his FootballArchaeology.com website.

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of Photograph of Fritz Pollard circa 1916.