The 8th Rose Bowl Game

Author Matthew DiBiase joins us in the Rose Bowl History celebration with information on the 1922 Tournament of Roses East-West Game between the Cal Golden Bears and a tough Washington & Jefferson team from Western PA. It was a historic clash and Matthew has the scoop on this final New Years' Day game played at Tournament Park Stadium.

The 8th Rose Bowl was played on January 2, 1922, between the Washington & Jefferson Presidents and the California Golden Bears was the last New Years' game played at Tournament Park. The 10-0 Presidents were coached by the legendary Greasy Neale while the Bears sideline boss was Coach Andy Smith who led these Wonder Teams to some amazing seasons in the early 1920s.

Photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the 1921 W&J football team.

This game had some pretty amazing bullet points:

•  The only scoreless Rose Bowl Game
•  The first tie in a Rose Bowl 
•  The first African-American quarterback to play in the Rose Bowl (Charles Fremont West from Washington & Jefferson)
•  The first freshman to play in a Rose Bowl (Herb Kopf of Washington and Jefferson)
•  The only man ever to play in two Rose Bowls, Hal Erickson (W&J) ( and 1922), with two teams (1919 with Great Lakes Navy and W&J in 1922) without losing. 
•  W&J would be the last Rose Bowl team to play the same 11 men the entire game.

In 1953 it was retroactively decided that Washington & Jefferson Offensive Lineman Russell Stein was the Most Valuable Player of the game. Cal standout Brick Muller (Harold Muller) was held to just 49 yards of offense.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from Matthew DiBiase and his great book Lords of the Gridiron: College Football's Greatest Coaches.

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of An off tackle play from the 1922 Rose Bowl, taken by an unknown.