The Rose Bowl
Introduction
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Images
Rose Bowl Poster
1916 Rose Bowl
Fritz Pollard
Pollard
Washington State vs. Brown
Brown University 1916
The Rose Bowl was completed in 1922 and has hosted some of the most iconic moment in sport.
Backstory and Context
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The first Rose Bowl game in the newly-competed stadium saw USC defeat Penn State by the score of 14-2. Capacity was increased to 83,000 in 1931 and arc lights were added four years later to make it possible to host evening events. The Rose Bowl has been played at this location every year since 1922, with the exception of 1942 when a wartime Blackout on the West Coast led to the game being played in Durham, NC.
In 1916 the Rose Bowl, pitted the Brown Bruins against the Washington State Cougars. Brown's team included Fritz Pollard,one of the few African Americans who played for one of the leading teams in the early years of college football. Brown was the first African American to play in the Rose Bowl. During the 1916 Rose Bowl Washington State defeated Brown University 14-0. Though Pollard performed quite well he was not able to lead his team to victory.
Frederick Douglass Pollard better know as Fritz was born on January 27, 1894 in Chicago, Illinois. He played baseball, football and ran track in high school. In 1915, Polard received a Rockefeller scholarship to play at Brown University. While there he led his team to play against the Washington State Cougars in the 1916 Rose Bowl. He later coached the Akron Pros in the American Professional Football Association which was renamed to the National Football League in 1922, making Pollard the first African American coach in the NFL.1 On February 5, 2005 Pollard was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.