Top 50 Cal Sports Moments -- No. 4: Wrong Way, 1929

Roy Riegels found a permanent place in college football infamy with a moment of directional disorientation in the Rose Bowl

Roy Riegels /

As the Pac-12 Conference era comes to a close after more than a century, we count down the Top 50 moments involving Cal athletics.

THE MOMENT: Midway through the second quarter of the Jan. 1, 1929 Rose Bowl game, Cal lineman Roy Riegels picked up a Georgia Tech fumble, somehow got turned around and dashed 69 yards in the wrong direction. Teammate Benny Lom finally chased him down 1 yard short of the end zone, where he was buried by a swam of Georgia Tech tacklers. (Video of the play below.)

THE STORY: By all accounts, Roy Riegels was a success in life. He was a football All-America center for Cal in 1929, graduated with a degree in agriculture in ’31, got married, had four children, became a teacher and coach, served as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and later opened his own agricultural chemicals dealership.

But one crazy moment he could never explain forever labeled him as Wrong Way Riegels.

It happened in the second quarter of the 1929 Rose Bowl game after Georgia Tech halfback J.C. Thomason fumbled. “I was running toward the sidelines when I picked up the ball," Riegels told the Associated Press. "I started to turn to my left toward Tech's goal. Somebody shoved me and I bounded right off into a tackler. In pivoting to get away from him, I completely lost my bearings.”

Fans were were stunned and radio announcer Graham McNamee frantically asked his audience, "What's the matter with me? Am I crazy?”

Meanwhile, teammate Benny Lom chased his teammate, calling out, "Stop, stop! You're running the wrong way!”

Lom finally reached Riegels, stopping him at the 1-yard line, where he went down under an onslaught of Georgia Tech tacklers. Cal opted to punt from there rather than risk more disaster but the punt was blocked for a safety. 
Riegels was so upset he had to be convinced to return to the game, which Georgia Tech won 8-7 — Riegels’ gaffe accounting for the final margin.

Years later, Riegels still could not sort out how he went the wrong way but he found peace and empathy through the experience. In 1957, he wrote a letter, offering encouragement to a high school player in California who made a similar mistake.

"I gained true understanding of life from my Rose Bowl mistake," Riegels said in an interview with the Pasadena Star. "I learned you can bounce back from misfortune and view it as just something adverse that happened to you.”

* Top 50 Moment No. 5: The Pass

* Top 50 Moment No. 6: Sub-4

Only specific acts that occurred while the team or athlete was at Cal were considered for the Top 50 list, and accomplishments spanning a season or a career were not included. 

Leslie Mitchell of the Cal Bears History Twitter site aided in the selection of the top 50 moments.

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo