Wrong-way runs, 12-man teams,
and razzle-dazzle plays are ,
only part of the amazing history
of these post-season classics.
by Dave Warner
IN the 1954 Cotton Bowl game at
Dallas, Dickie Moegle, a Rice Insti
tute scatback, was moving like' a
frightened fawn in the direction of
the Alabama goal line. He already
had covered 57 yards and seemed
on his way to an easy touchdown.
But Moegle never reckoned with
the emotional depth of the Alabama
squad. As he dashed past the 'Bama
bench, the sight of the lone runner
became too much for Alabama's
Tommy Lewis. Lewis became the
best-known 12th man in football
history when he leaped off the bench
and brought Moegle to the ground.
While the Rice halfback and the
huge . crowd recovered from their
surprise, referee Cliff Shaw made one
of the quickest decisions in bowl
game history, awarding Moegle a
touchdown. Rice won 28-6.
"Guess I was too full of Alabama,"
Lewis said after the game. "I'm just
too emotional."
Bowl games are well-spiced with
such unusual occurrences, and this is
the time of year for us to expect
some more post-season football sur
prises in games with such "Bowl"
tags as Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Orange,
Gator, Sun, Oil, Vulcan, Pineapple,
Cigar, Flower, Tangerine, Raisin,
Tobacco, Glass, and Pecan.
The Big Four include the Rose,
Sugar, Cotton, and Orange Bowls.
Granddaddy of them all is the Rose
Bowl at Pasadena, Calif., first played
before a crowd of 8,000. Now crowds
are sometimes in six figures, enriching
the participating schools.
That first Rose Bowl game in 1902
almost was the last. Fielding Yost
took a great Michigan team out West
to play Stanford. The Wolverines
kicked up their heels for an easy 49-0
victory in a game so one-sided that
it was cut short eight minutes by
agreement of the rival captains.
Because of the mismatch, there
wasn't another Rose Bowl game for
14 years. In fact, somebody did a fine
job of keeping the score out of the
record book until sportswriter Grant
land Rice dug up proof of the game
in the Michigan campus paper.
The year 1929 is famous for the
stock-market crash and also for the
most bizarre incident in Rose Bowl
history the wrong-way run of Cali
fornia center Roy Riegels. .
In the second quarter Riegels
grabbled a Georgia Tech fumble.
Pursued by Tech players, Riegels cut
across the field, reversed direction as
he found himself hemmed in, and
lost his bearings as he broke into
the clear. The 70,000 spectators were
dumbfounded as Riegels headed for
his own goal some 60 yards away!
Teammate Benny Lorn finally stop
ed Riegels on the California one-yard
line, but on the following play Tech
blocked a California punt in the end
zone for a safety, providing the win
ning margin in an 8-7 Tech victory.
But Riegels never let the goat's
horns bother him. He was elected
captain of the California team the
following year and later became a
successful high-school football coach
despite the heartache of his famous
wrong-way run.
SOME OF THE GREATEST COacheS COUld
win everywhere but in bowl games.
Tennessee's former coach, Bob Ney
land, appeared in every major bowl at
least once but could win only two of
seven. Jock Sutherland built a string
of powerhouses at Pitt but lost three
bowl games, two by one-sided scores,
before he tasted victory.
Other coaches have saved their bag
of tricks to spur bowl-game victories.
Oklahoma's wily Bud Wilkinson, an
old hand at bringing his Sooners to
bowl games, sprung his hurry-up
huddle against mighty Maryland in
the 1956 Orange Bowl game at Miami.
. The Oklahomans ran off plays so
speedily that Maryland, regarded the
toughest defensive team in the nation,
didn't have time to set up its barriers.
Once, the referee almost got caught in
the middle of the Oklahoma whirl
wind attack. The Sooners won the
game handily.
And what loyal old Columbia
University grad ever will forget good
old KF-79, possibly the most famous
play in the history of any bowl?
Stanford's great team, which met
Columbia in the 1934 Rose Bowl, was
supposed to eat teams like the Lions
for breakfast. But the boys from New
York City's Momingside Heights
caused the biggest rumble in Cali
fornia since the '06 earthquake.
Columbia back Al Barabas, faking
beautifully on the KF-79, a single
wing spinner play, sprinted around
left end for a touchdown without a
hand being laid on him. Stanford
never scored, and Columbia won, 7-0.
Bowl history is filled with stirring
stories about the underdog.
Alabama, down 12-0 at halftime
against the University of Washington
in the '26 game, scored three touch
downs in six minutes of the second
half for a 20-19 'Bama win. Johnny
Mack Brown, star of the Alabama
victory, used the performance as a
springboard to a movie career.
Wisecracks which boomeranged
also have figured in bowl games. In
the 1922 Rose Bowl game, California
chose to play unpublicized Washing
ton & Jefferson. Cracked one news
man, "All I know about Washington &
Jefferson is that both are dead."
Insulted by the remark, W & J got
charged up for the game and held
Cal to a scoreless tie, the only one in
Rose Bowl history.
With "lonesome ends," jitterbug
defensesand the controversial one
or two-point conversion in college
football, who knows what surprises
this week's bowl games will hold?
14 Fnmili Weekly, December 21. J958