Storyline: From the annals of college football history here’s a timeless story about failure, redemption, and a name that will last forever.
Courtesy: Georgia Tech Sports blog – AJC.com
“You couldn’t find a more compassionate, honorable, or conscientious person. He had all the qualities you’d want your son to have.” Benny Lom said.
Lom was talking about Roy Riegels, a two-way football player (center and nose/middle guard) and Lom’s teammate at Cal-Berkeley.
Lom and Riegels were central figures in a play that made national news, not only because it was unusual, but because it happened under the brightest of spotlights–in a game for the mythical national championship in the only bowl game of the season, The Rose Bowl.
The Background
The date was January 1 1929 in the annual West v. East postseason bowl game. Cal’s opponent that day was Georgia Tech.
Tech came into the game 9-0, champions of The Southern Conference. Tech’s wins included a shutout of Notre Dame and victories over Alabama, Auburn, and Georgia by a combined score of 104-19.
Cal finished 3-0-2 in the Pacific Coast Conference and 6-1-2 overall with wins over Washington State, Washington, and Oregon and ties with Southern Cal and Stanford. USC won the conference title, but didn’t play in the Rose Bowl that year. The reason is disputed, but one source says that the Rose Bowl Committee delegated the pick to a Cal alum, who picked Cal.
Courtesy: Georgia Tech Ticket Stubs
Make no mistake about it, though: the Bears weren’t a weak alternative. Like Tech, Cal was known for defense: it had shutout 6 of 9 opponents that year.
The ’29 Rose Bowl was expected to be a defensive struggle and that’s what it turned out to be. The game’s outcome turned on a single play. That’s where Lom and Riegels come in.
The Play
The score was tied 0-0 in the second quarter when Roy Riegels picked up a Tech fumble around the Tech 30-yard-line. Riegels started running toward the Tech goal line, but bounced off a tackler and got turned around. Riegels lost his bearings and steamed toward the Cal goal line. (Watch the play here.)
Roy Riegels runs the wrong way against Georgia Tech (Sports-Kings)
Because he was running the wrong way, the field opened up quickly–with Cal teammates and the opponent in hot pursuit. Riegels was tackled short of the goal line, first by Lom, and then by a swarm of Tech players. The refs placed the ball at the Cal 1.
Cal Head Coach Nibs Price didn’t want to chance a turnover, so he elected to punt the ball back to Tech. Bad quickly turned to worse: the kick was blocked and bounded out of the end zone for a safety. Tech led 2-0.
Tech added another TD in the 2nd Quarter to take an 8-0 lead (PAT failed). Cal kept Tech off the scoreboard for the rest of the day, but Cal didn’t score a TD until the fourth and one touchdown wouldn’t be enough that day. Georgia Tech prevailed, 8-7.
Courtesy: Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers
The Name He Would Never Shake
What happened in the 2nd Quarter was the talk of the country. That gaffe turned a good–but otherwise unassuming–player into a national figure. Roy was now–and would forever be–Wrong Way Riegels.
The mistake—so obvious, so public, and in such a big game—might have ruined another man. But it didn’t ruin Roy Riegels.
How he felt about that day came out years later in a letter he wrote to a high school player who had made the same mistake. It read
“For many years I’ve had to go along and laugh whenever my wrong-way run was brought up, even though I’ve grown tired listening and reading about it. But it certainly wasn’t the most serious thing in the world. I regretted doing it, even as you do, but you’ll get over it.” Your Friend, Roy Riegels
Yes, Riegels regretted doing it, but he didn’t let it define his life. He didn’t even walk away from football. He returned to Cal for his senior year. What did teammates think? They elected him team captain on a team that beat USC and was undefeated going into the final game (a loss) against Stanford.
A children’s book about Riegels (courtesy, Alchetron)
Riegels then went on to have a solid career after college, in teaching and business–and in college coaching, too, back with Cal. He was elected into The Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.
Roy Riegels was an accomplished professional and admired person, but he would never shake that wrong-way run–not even in death. When he died an obituary headline read: “He Took Off In Wrong Way In Rose Bowl.”
Roy Riegels will be forever remembered by a single play, a play that happened so many years ago in what was then “the biggest football game of them all.”
