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Spelling Bee

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Blue Devils began football tradition with Rose Bowl**

While things may look bleak for the current Duke football team, maybe we should recall the time when Duke football was in the Rose Bowl. No, the Blue Devils were never members of the Pac 10 or the Big 10 conferences. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, bowls were not aligned with a particular conference. And there weren't 20 bowls to attend. Only four bowls really counted, and the Rose Bowl was the bowl game to be at, equivalent to the Fiesta Bowl of the 1995 bowl coalition.

Yes, it's true. Duke football in the Granddaddy of bowl games. The same Duke football team that since 1966 has had only one coach finish his career at Duke over .500? Yep, the Blue Devils were not only good--they were sometimes among the best in the nation.

The Duke team that will always be equated with greatness is the 1938 team, which accomplished the impossible by shutting out every opponent during the regular season. From the first game, an 18-0 win over Virginia Tech, to the regular season finale, a 7-0 squeaker over Pittsburgh, the team nicknamed the Iron Dukes prevented its opponents from crossing the plain of the goal line.

True, back then field goals were nonexistent. It's not that they weren't allowed--they just weren't really an considered an option, except in rare circumstances. Still, considering how many first-and-goal situations the Duke defense had to hold its ground on four downs, the feat is quite impressive.

One year of shutouts was good enough.

Four years later, the Blue Devils returned to the Rose Bowl, but not to Pasadena. Instead, the game was played in Durham on Jan. 1, 1942--the only Rose Bowl played outside Pasadena.

At first, the Blue Devils felt lucky enough just to be going to the Rose Bowl. Duke finished the regular season 9-0 after a Nov. 22 win over N.C. State. The following Sunday, bowl bids were being formally announced, and up to that point all but the Rose Bowl had been announced. That day, Duke earned the Rose Bowl bid to face Oregon State. Along with the game, the team excitedly awaited a cross-country railroad trip to Pasadena. Along the way, a practice in Lubbock, Texas, a trip to the Grand Canyon, and other special events were planned for the Blue Devils.

But the Japanese didn't care about the Rose Bowl or the cross-country trip the Blue Devils were planning. So exactly one week after Duke accepted its Rose Bowl bid, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. All the hopes of going to California were put on hold.

"When Pearl Harbor was bombed, we didn't know what to think," said Tom Davis, a member of the 1942 team. "The government issued a warning--no large groups could gather on the West coast. So Coach [Wallace] Wade issued an invitation to play in Durham. [Oregon State] wanted to play in Chicago, at Soldier Field. But the weather conditions were bad there."

Weddie Huffman, another member of the 1942 team, remembers having his train ticket all set. But when the surprise attack occurred, and war was declared, Huffman knew he wasn't going to see the West coast any time soon.

"When all that was canceled, it was like pulling the rug from out under you," Huffman said.

Davis had already traveled to Pasadena, since his brother was a member of the 1938 team. But other players were not so fortunate.

Most people would think the players would be pleased that the biggest bowl game was now being played in their own backyard. Talk about home field advantage. But that wasn't the case. The players were looking forward to traveling the country, practicing at new sites. Playing the game in Durham made the greatest bowl game at the time feel like just another game.

On top of that, with the game being in the midst of winter break, there were no students. The campus was dead.

"We were all disappointed," Davis said. "Half the team didn't even want to play the game. We lost all incentive to have them come here."

To make matters worse, Jan. 1, 1942, was a wet, dreary day in Durham. The soaked sellout crowd crammed into Duke Stadium (now Wallace Wade Stadium) to watch two of the nation's best teams. The Blue Devils were not used to the wet weather, and proceeded to fumble the ball three times in the game. Still, Duke stayed in the game until the third quarter, tied with the Ducks at 14-14. A 68-yard pass from Oregon State halfback Bob Dethman to Gene Gray ended Duke's hopes of a Rose Bowl title.

But there were other concerns to worry about. The war was on everyone's minds since the Dec. 7 bombing. As Davis recalled, the team was all scared to death about being called into the service. Players were afraid of checking their mail and finding the dreaded draft papers. Some, like Huffman, signed up right after graduation.

What the war did was prevent the 1942 Duke team from traveling to California for the Rose Bowl. Huffman said since his youth, it had been his dream to play in the Rose Bowl and travel to Pasadena. In 1942, only half of that dream was fulfilled.

Huffman's dream was completed 50 years later, when he traveled to Pasadena as a spectator. True, he was in the stands instead of playing on the field, but Huffman got his trip to California.

John Seelke is a Trinity senior and an associate editor of The Chronicle.