The Tournament of Roses East-West game on New Years' Day 1921 had possibly for the first time the two top teams in the nation meeting in an end of the year Bowl game. An undefeated Ohio State would play an unblemished California.
The 7th Rose Bowl Game
The 1921 Rose Bowl game between Ohio State and Cal
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1921 Rose Bowl
The 1921 Tournament, East-West Football Game, was played on January 1, 1921. The game pitted the 7-0 Ohio State Buckeyes from the East against a very strong 8-0 California Golden Bears team. The Bears were led by Coach Andy Smith, and the Buckeyes had Coach John Wilce at the helm.
Photo above is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the 1920 University of California Berkeley Golden Bears football team aka The Wonder Team. From left to right: Brick Muller, Bob Berkey, Duke Morrison, Charley Erb, Pesky Sprott, Crip Toomey, Dan McMillan, Stan Barnes, Lee Cranmer, George Fat Latham, and Cort Majors
Cal had outscored their opponents 510–14 for the season and remained undefeated from 1920 until 1924. They handed Ohio State its first-season defeat with a convincing 28-0 drubbing. As head coach of the California Golden Bears football program, Smith guided his "Wonder Teams" to a 74–16–7 record, captured five Pacific Coast Conference titles, and three national championships. As a matter of fact, some claim that Cal won four straight National Titles: 1920 (per Billingsley, Football Research, Helms, Houlgate, and National Championship Foundation), 1921 (per Boand and Football Research), 1922 (per Houlgate and the National Championship Foundation), and 1923 (Houlgate).
Cal End Harold Muller was named Player of the Game retroactively in 1953. Muller was outstanding all day, he completed a 53-yard touchdown pass to Brodie Stephens after receiving a toss from Pesky Sprott. Sprott had an outstanding game and scored two touchdowns on 20 rushes for 90 yards. Amazingly it was the last time Ohio State was shut out until the 1993 season.
Credits
A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: Wikipedia, RoseBowl.com, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com.
Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of a cropped version of the 1921 Rose Bowl between the California Golden Bears and Ohio State Buckeyes. The Golden Bears won 28-0 taken by Hiller & Mott.
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