FIELD GOAL EXPERTS of two generations discuss Oregon’s last
Rose Bowl try. and their next appearance New Year's Hay “Skeet’
Manerud (left), who accounted for three of the Ducks’ six points
against Harvard, and I'O fullback Jack Morris both have been
Wehfoot handymen in the kicking department.
(Emerald photo by Louis Parker)
Ohio State Battle
Recalls 1920 Bowl
' By JERRY RAMSEY
Emerald Sports Editor
The headline proclaimed "Oregon Battles Buckeyes in Rose Bowl,"
and the big. grizzled man shifted his legs and began to read about
Shanley and Mondale and Woody Hayes and three touchdown odds.
A line caught his eye: "It will be Oregon's first Pasadena showing
since 1920, when they lost to Harvard 7-6." Thirty-eight years he
exclaimed to himself—it sure doesn't seem that long since . ..
A noise behind the chair interrupted his thoughts. "Dad.” came
the voice of his youngest son, “We've got it figured out now so that
we can hitch-hike to Pasadena, stay at this kid's place and come
back the third with his uncle. What do you say?"
"I say it’ll still be more expensive than you can afford,” he coun
tered, "But we’ll see." Then in a softer tone: "You know. I was just
thinking—I was only two years older than you when Oregon played
in the Rose Bowl the last time. Says here,” he pok> d at the page
"that a fourth of the student body is going down. Hell, there must
have more of us down there than that, even in 1920. We filled up
one whole section.”
The youth looked down at his father. “You saw the game? I never
knew that before—how come you never mentioned it ?’’
’ ... Until This Year
“Oh, I don’t know why, really — a bunch of us took the train
down as far as Frisco and hitchhiked from there.’’ He re-examined
the sports page on his lap. “According to this, Oregon’s the under
dog this year—we were then, too, but you'd never have known it.
Let me tell you—that game beat anything I’ve seen Oregon do—
until this year, anyway.”
“Oh now Dad, how about the Cotton Bowl team ? They weren't i
slouches then either. Van Brocklin . . .”
Then he folded his paper and stood up. “I'll bet you’ve never
even heard of some of the big stars of my time: Eddie C.'a-sey,
and Arnold Horween for them. Shy Huntington, Skeeter Manerud,
Bill Steers and Vince Jacobberger for us. Come to think of it,
it seems to me your mother kept some kind of a scrapbook on
the whole thing—she was going with somebody on the team at
the time. Let’s see if we can find it.”
Soon they were pouring over the old black volume, full of quaint
snapshots and yellowed clippings. “You see, son, this wasn’t just
another intersectional game—I remember all the sportswriters
calling this the match between the East and West. Somebody—I
think it was an Eastern writer—said afterwards that the game was
the first to really put the West Coast athletics on the map.”
A "Morning Oregonian" caption on Harvard’s Eddie Casey came
into view. “He was supposed to be their biggest star,” said the
grey-headed man. "As I remember, they had a great big team—
all the first-string were war veterans. There was some argument
before the game that Harvard wasn’t the best team in the East—I
guess they were worried because WSC and Oregon had beaten
Eastern teams in the Bowl in 1916 and 1919. Anyway, we knew
they had beaten Yale and tied Princeton, and there was something
a little scary about playing one of the big Eastern teams.
Dive-Bombers and Movie Stars
They turned another page. “What’s this about an airplane div
ing on the field just before the game, Dad?” asked the son, examin
ing a story entitled “Pasadena Sidelights.” “What? Well, I’d for
gotten all about that—right after we got to the stadium, an old
biplane came over very low and dropped the game ball into a
Harvard player’s arms. The whole thing was a circus. We had Babe
Ruth, Charlie Chaplin, Doug Fairbanks and some other big names
sitting on our side—seems like it was pretty cold most of the
game.”
“Look here, Dad—George Bertz wrote the Journal’s game story.
Didn’t he retire as Sports Editor last year?”
They read the lead of Bertz’s 38-year old account of the game.
“Playing the greatest contest a Eugene aggregation ever uncorked,
with a fighting spirit the equal of which was never displayed by a
Webfoot team—Oregon went down to a 7-6 defeat before-the mighty
Harvard eleven here in a brilliant, well-played and hard-fought
football game”.
“It was a real thriller all right,” said the father, pointing to
game-story clippings from the Journal, the Oregonian and even
the Literary Digest. “Listen to this lead: ‘In one of the greatest
football games ever played and with 83,000 football fans howling
their heads off, the University of Oregon lost a heart-breaking
game to Harvard this afternoon .’ ”
(Continued on page 7)
MINUS HAMMER
Oregon Grapplers Drill
For 1958 Slate Opener
BY JIM SKASE
Kni)‘raid Sports Writer
Minus the full-time services of j
Coach Bill Hammer the Oregon
wrestling team has begun daily
practices in preparation for their
opening match against the Uni
versity of Washington here Jan.
11.
As coach of the Bowl-bound
Webfoot Une Hammer will be
making a slight detour through
the Rose Bowl Jan. 1 before he
can devote full-time to the Duck
wrestlers.
Heading the five returning let
termen on the team this year
will be team captain George Kru
picka, 19.17 PCI champion at 167
lbs.
Other returnees are Jim Bea
ton, 157; Howard Timmons, 117;
Dave Kish, 177, and Ken Karnes,
137.
Seniors Krupica. Timmons and |
Karnes will be in their last year
of college wrestling.
Two year lettermen Kmpieka
and Timmons will be entering
their third year of varsity com
petition while Karnes, also will
be returning after skipping the
1957 season. He lettered in 1956
as a sophomore.
Up from the 1957 freshman
team and looking tough in the
battle for starting sports are
Lynn Matthews, 137, Kim
Brewster, 147, Gary Parks, 123,
Rodney Cottle, 191, Ron Conner,
130, Jay Dearing, 157, and John
Parker, 147.
Juniors Jim Linden, heavy- '
weight, and Bob Curtis, 167, will
also be scrapping for starting
positions.
Jan. 11 Washington*
Jan. 15. Lewis & Clark*
Jan. 17 .S.O.C.E
Jan. 23 Portland State
Jan. 25. Washington St.
Jan. 31 California*
Feb. 1 Oregon State
Feb. 8 .Washington St.* .
Feb. 14 .San Jose St.* >
Feb. 15 .Oregon State
Feb. 22 .Japanese National
'Home Games
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