1917 Rose Bowl

The 1917 Rose Bowl, known at the time as the Tournament East-West Football Game, was a college football bowl game on Monday, January 1, 1917.^[1] It was the third Rose Bowl Game, and matched the Oregon Webfoots and the Penn Quakers.^[2] It was played at Tournament Park in Pasadena, California, a suburb northeast of Los Angeles.

1917 Tournament East-West football game
3rd Rose Bowl Game
Penn Quakers Oregon Webfoots (7–2–1) (6–0–1) Independent PCC 0 14 Head coach:  Bob Folwell Head coach:  Hugo Bezdek
1 2 3 4 Total Penn 0 0 0 0 0 Oregon 0 0 7 7 14
Date	January 1, 1917
Season	1916
Stadium	Tournament Park
Location	Pasadena, California
MVP	John Beckett (Oregon)
Attendance	27,000
Tournament East-West football game  < 1916 1918 >

Scoreless at halftime, Oregon scored a touchdown in each of the final two quarters and won 14–0.^[3][4] Oregon team captain John Beckett was named the Player of the Game when the award was created in 1953, with selections made retroactively. This shutout win was Oregon's sole Rose Bowl victory for 95 years, until January 2012; they made appearances in 1920, 1958, 1995, and 2010, and won again in 2015 and 2020. This was Penn's only appearance; other Ivy League teams at the Rose Bowl were Harvard in 1920 and Columbia in 1934, both winners.

Oregon and Washington were both unbeaten in the new Pacific Coast Conference that year, and tied in their head-to-head meeting. Oregon was invited to participate in the Tournament of Roses game prior to their final game,^[5][6][7] despite the fact that Washington had one more conference win than Oregon, having beaten California twice. On the basis of the extra victory, Washington is credited with having won the conference that year.^[8]

Game summary

Oregon was led by the two Huntington brothers, Shy and Hollis.^[9] Following a scoreless first half, the Webfoots scored on a 15-yard pass in the 3rd quarter from Shy Huntington to Lloyd Tegert. Oregon scored again in the 4th quarter on a 1-yard run from Shy to lead the Webfoots to a 14–0 upset win.^[9] Shy Huntington also had three interceptions in the game. Oregon captain John Beckett was named MVP of the game.^[10]

Scoring

	1	2	3	4	Total
Pennsylvania	0	0	0	0	0
Oregon	0	0	7	7	14

Qtr.	Team	Scoring play	Score
3	ORE	Tegert 15 yard pass from S. Huntington, S. Huntington kick	ORE 7–0
4	ORE	S. Huntington 1 yard rush, S. Huntington kick	ORE 14–0
Source:[11]

Statistics

Team Stats	Oregon	Pennsylvania
First Downs	8	13
Net Yards Rushing	198	111
Net Yards Passing	32	131
Total Yards	230	242
PC–PA–Int.	2–9–2	12–27–5
Punts-Avg.	16-35.7	10-41.8

Game notes

Attendance was swelled to 25,000 when the Pasadena Tournament of Roses put up temporary grandstand seating.

References

1. "Oregon State Bowl History". Archived from the original on October 10, 2018. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
2. "Pennsy eleven vs. Oregon today". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). January 1, 1917. p. 12.
3. "Oregon eleven wins, score 14 to 0". Eugene Daily Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. January 1, 1917. p. 1.
4. "Oregon beats Pennsy in exciting football battle at Pasadena". Deseret News. (Salt Lake city, Utah). January 2, 1917. p. 8.
5. "Oregon plays Penn on New Year's Day". Deseret News. (Salt Lake City, Utah). November 20, 1916. p. 12.
6. "Oregon to meet Pennsy eleven". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). November 21, 1916. p. 16.
7. "Oregon selected to meet eastern team". Eugene Daily Guard. (Oregon). November 21, 1916. p. 3.
8. "2011 Pac-12 Football Media Guide". Pac-12 Conference. p. 86. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
9. "Rose Bowl 1917". RoseBowlHistory.org. Archived from the original on October 22, 2009. Retrieved July 31, 2009.
10. "1917 Rose Bowl". GoDucks.com. Archived from the original on April 28, 2009. Retrieved July 31, 2009.
11. MacCambridge, Michael (2005). ESPN College Football Encyclopedia. New York, N.Y.: ESPN Books. p. 1440. ISBN 1-4013-3703-1.

Further reading

• Danzig, Allison (1956), The History of American Football: Its Great Teams, Players, and Coaches. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• Hibner, John Charles (1993). The Rose Bowl, 1902–1929: A Game-by-Game History of Football's Foremost Event, from its Advent through its Golden Era. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers. ISBN 0-89950-775-1 pp. 22–30.
• Lyons, Robert S. (2010). On Any Given Sunday, A Life of Bert Bell. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-59213-731-2
• MacCambridge, Michael (2009), ESPN College Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Game. New York: ESPN Books, Inc. ISBN 1-4013-3703-1
• Schmidt, Raymond (2007), Shaping college football : the transformation of an American sport, 1919-1930. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-0886-8
• Smith, Myron J. Jr. (1994), The College Football Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-29026-1* Weyand, Alexander M. (1957), The Saga of American Football. New York: The MacMillan Company.