1942 Rose Bowl and American Spirit in A World at War
By Kyle Kensing
The below feature first appeared on SaturdayBlitz.com on July 4, 2012.
The Duke Blue Devils finished their 1941 football season on Nov. 22 by routing Southern Conference rival NC State, 55-6. The win sealed a perfect regular season and SoCon title, and gave the Dukies a realistic shot at the national championship.
A week later and across the continent, Oregon State outlasted Oregon in the 46th installment of the Civil War, 12-7. The Beavers won their first Pacific Coast Conference championship with the victory, and were bound for the first Rose Bowl.
But then, eight days later, the darkest hour in American history to that point struck.
Dec. 7, 1941 was “a date which will live infamy,” as President Franklin Roosevelt declared in his address to the nation following the Japanese Empire’s attack on Pearl Harbor. The assault killed over 2400 and changed the course of history. But while the bombings ordered by Hideki Tojo were intended to bring the United States to its knees, it instead stoked the fires that burn in its countrymen’s souls. America emerged from its darkest hour, to stand tall at its finest.
That emergence was no simple process.
Fear and confusion were rampant in the months following. If Japan could catch an American military installment off-guard, what could its fleets perpetuate against American citizens on the mainland? Such concerns resulted in moratoriums on congregations along the West Coast.
From Paul Scheffels, United Press on Dec. 15, 1941:
"Not since 1918 when [Major League Baseball] was curtailed by the War Department, had a big time sports schedule been affected by military operations but Lieut. Gen. John L. De Witt demanded the cancellation of both the Oregon State-Duke University Rose Bowl fixture and the Shrine East-West charity game and after a short conference both were called off late Sunday. De Witt definitely banned playing either game in the area of his command — which includes all of the far western states. He pointed out huge concentrations or crowds are highly vulnerable to air attack and the congestion of highways in the Southern California and San Francisco area would impede vital military traffic. Despite the Pacific Coast edict, promoters of the other three bowls [Orange, Cotton, Sugar] went ahead with their arrangements."
The Rose Bowl Game was first played four decades earlier, in 1902. Every season from 1916 to 1941, college football’s elite congregated in Pasadena. Even during America’s involvement in the Great War, games were played in 1918 and 1919 using teams from military bases. The game faced a truly unprecedented proposition, but the determined stepped in with a plan.
The Rose Bowl Game wasn’t about a location or a venue, but rather a spirit. And as those of us of later generations understand from the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, sports have a profound way of emboldening our spirits in dark times.
From the Associated Press, Dec. 16, 1941:
"War canceled the biggest game big New Year’s Day contest between Duke…and Oregon State as far as the huge Rose Bowl stadium, the Tournament of Roses and Pasadena are concerned. There was little doubt that the game would be played [in Durham, N.C. at Duke University Stadium] Jan. 1. Governor J.M. Broughton of North Carolina personally intervened and assured Washington officials that the game would not interfere with the state’s defense program. He then announced, “I think the army will give its permission.” Fast on the heels of the announcement that the game would be played here as an official Rose Bowl engagement, came word from civic leaders that a celebration, though not as elaborate as the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, was in the making."
OSU made its way across the country to Duke’s home city, presumably considered an underdog were the match-up not slated for the Blue Devils’ home stadium. OSU was 7-2 with losses to Washington State and USC. The Blue Devils were a 9-0 national championship contender. Played before a partial crowd of 56,000, the Beavers were regarded as long shots.
Duke head coach Wallace Wade didn’t quite see it that way. He told AP reporter Sid Feder, “whatever we know about Oregon State, and whatever they know about us is all second-hand information.”
He also pointed out the PCC’s win streak against Eastern representatives. Of course, those were games played in California.
But Wade’s trepidation was well founded.
“Oregon State walked on the field rated a 1-3 underdog and drew hardly a cheer,” wrote UP reporter Jack Guenther. “[B]ut soon produced plenty of gasps.”
Dan Durdan capped an excruciating touchdown drive for the Beavers’ initial lead, set up after the Beaver defense forced a fumble. Duke was able to answer each of OSU’s first two scores, but the Beavers never trailed
Bobby Dethman connected with Gene Gray for a 62-yard touchdown that proved to be the game winner, and Dethman’s second scoring pass of the third quarter. Dethman and Don Durdan were stars for the victorious visitors, whose 302 total yards were “virtually a record against a Duke team during Wallace Wade’s tenure as coach,” per Guenther.
The cross country move proved successful. The 20-16 game is among the most competitive in the Rose Bowl’s illustrious annals, and Guenther wrote that “every last one of the 56,000 spectators stayed to witness a hectic finish.”
The Duke University Library shares game film via its YouTube page.
The Rose Bowl Game was also a prelude to something much bigger.
Not long after the final whistle in Durham, fierce war raged in the Pacific and the Allies sought to launch counterattack on Europe via north Africa. Student-athletes who played their hearts out in North Carolina’s version of the Rose Bowl joined thousands of other young men in volunteering for the war effort.
The qualities that Wade employed as leader of the Duke football team were honed while serving as Captain of Cavalry of the 117th Infantry in World War I. He again brought his natural leadership to the battlefront in World War II. Wade served in the European Theater.
Gray went from a gridiron hero in the lax use of the term, as the player to cross the goal line for OSU’s winning score. He was a hero in the true sense as a bomber pilot, something about which he spoke to The Los Angeles Times‘ Robyn Norwood on the 60th anniversary of the ’42 Rose Bowl.
Four alumni of the ’42 Rose Bowl were among the over 100,000 American casualties of World War II. Wrote Michael Penn for Duke Magazine:
"Duke back Walter Griffith, a sophomore, joined the Marines the same day as Barnett. Eleven months later, he was killed in a battle in the Pacific. Reserve running back Al Hoover dove on a grenade on Peleliu Island in September 1944, trading his life for those of his compatriots. Star tackle Bob Nanni was shot at Iwo Jima in March 1945. Oregon State’s Everett Smith drowned during a landing in the South Pacific."
But competitors on Jan. 1, 1942 became comrades in combat. OSU tackle Frank Parker helped save the life of backup Blue Devil quarterback Charlie Haynes, as detailed in Gordon White’s piece for The Southern Pines (N.C.) Pilot. A similar moment occurred during the Battle of the Bulge, when OSU tackle Steve Czech shared food with a fellow soldier who had not eaten in days.
It was Wallace Wade.
One of our great existential debates is the place of destiny in human life. Perhaps it’s an overly simplistic way of examining such a significant moment in American history, but the 1942 Rose Bowl feels like destiny playing out. If nothing else, the young men who left it on the field that New Year’s Day, who would later leave even more on the battlefield embodied what being an American truly means.