1918: Mare Island, 19 vs. Camp Lewis, 7

Sports have a funny way of uniting people behind one cause that transcends the games themselves, such as the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” that led the United States ice hockey team to a gold medal in Lake Placid when the country was struggling.

In 1918, America was at war, and its boys were overseas fighting to preserve freedom. However, with the blessing of President Woodrow Wilson, the Rose Bowl Game that had become so popular just the previous year, would go on.

But it would be with players from the Mare Island Marines of California and the Camp Lewis Army from American Lake, Wash. Although regular college football had pretty much halted at that time, this matchup had a fair amount of familiar names from the victorious Oregon team in 1917, most notably Hollis Huntington, who followed his brother’s shining performance the year before with one of his own – he ran for 111 yards and one touchdown – in leading his Marines to a 19-7 win.

The scene was set in Pasadena in front of yet another sellout crowd of 25,000-plus at Tournament Park:

“The great Tournament of Roses football game this afternoon opened to the stirring strains of the national anthem,” stated the Pasadena Star-News. “While the bands played the first cadence of the anthem, the Goddess of

Liberty, impersonated by Miss Antonette Sable, advanced to a pedestal on the field. She was escorted by President W.H. Vedder of the Pasadena Red Cross chapter, to which the net proceeds of the game are to go. Simultaneously an officer of marines and an army officer, each bearing a flag, left the respective goal posts of navy and army and advanced to meet Liberty. Thereupon at a signal from Miss Liberty the multitude sang the anthem.

“Twenty-thousand people crowded grandstand and field and bleachers and made the air resound with their singing and their cheers. It was one of the biggest crowds ever seen at Tournament Park, and everything was alive with enthusiasm and color.”

And the game on the field didn’t disappoint; nor did Huntington.

“Like a devastating tank, (Hollis Huntington) ripped through the entanglements of the Army’s defense,” wrote Clyde Bruckman of the Los Angeles Examiner. “Time after time it was Hollis, the unstoppable, who carried the ball through the heart of the Army line for tremendous gains. He made more yards than Hoyle has made rules. He didn’t have any more use for interference than a snake has for corn plasters. He just took the ball and went, and he was as easy to stop as a porcupine.”

The Marines opened the scoring with a 31-yard field goal, and the Army answered with a touchdown – the first ever against the powerful Marines – to go up 7-3.

However, led by “Jap” Brown, who carried 14 times for 50 yards and a touchdown, and Huntington, the Marines fought back and slammed the door. Brown scored to go up 9-7 at halftime. Then Huntington put an exclamation point on his day with his 1-yard score in the fourth quarter.

The proceeds of $5,000 were donated to the American Red Cross.

Attendance
25,000

Weather
86 degrees and sunny

Scoring
Second Quarter
MI – Ambrose, 31-yard drop-kick field goal
CL – Romney, 6-yard run (Sharpe kick good)
MI – Brown, 5-yard run (Ambrose drop kick failed)

Fourth Quarter
MI – Huntington, 1-yard run (Ambrose drop kick good)
MI – Ambrose, 33-yard field goal

Coaches
Mare Island: John Beckett
Camp Lewis: William L. Stanton

Fun Fact
Within weeks of the 1918 Rose Bowl Game, the majority of the players from both teams were scheduled to go overseas. John Beckett, left tackle for Mare Island, acknowledged this fact and said that “this would be the last battle that we would fight in the name of sports.”
 

Individual Stats
Rushing
MI: Huntington 20-111; Brown 14-50; Gardner 9-46
CL: Romney 19-31