The Remarkable Story of Penn State's First Rose Bowl

Penn State helped inaugurate Rose Bowl Stadium in 1923. The game kicked off after a near-brawl between coaches.

Penn State's football archives include photos of the 1923 team, which crossed the country by train to play USC in the inaugural game at Rose Bowl Stadium. Coach James Franklin planned to scour them for a familiar face.

"I'm going to check the pictures of that Rose Bowl played 100 years ago and make sure Sean [Clifford] isn't in it," Franklin joked.

It's fitting that Penn State's longest-running quarterback will play in the 100th anniversary of the team's first Rose Bowl appearance. The Lions will play Utah in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2, a century and a day after Penn State met USC in the first, and quite eventful, game at the historic site.

Penn State's trip included a visit to the Grand Canyon, a pregame stop at the Rose Parade and a traffic delay that left USC coach Elmer Henderson outraged. He and Penn State coach Hugo Bezdek, longtime rivals, had to be separated during a pregame argument in which Henderson accused Bezdek of gamesmanship.

USC ultimately won 14-3, but the entire event, told through flashbacks via print and magazine reports, underscored how college football's core hasn't changed in 100 years.

By Train to the Rose Bowl

According to the Penn State Football Encyclopedia, Bezdek had accepted the Rose Bowl invitation before the 1922 season as recognition for the unbeaten campaigns of 1920 and '21. The 1922 season marked another historic moment: Penn State's Nittany Lion mascot made its first appearance when the Lions played Syracuse at the Polo Grounds in New York.

Penn State left for Pasadena on Dec. 19, taking a cross-country train that stopped in Chicago and at the Grand Canyon before reaching California on Christmas Eve. The Lions (6-3-1) were playing in their first Rose Bowl. Bezdek, though, was coaching in his third.

Bezdek was 2-0 as a Rose Bowl coach, having led the Oregon Webfoots to victory over Penn in 1917 and the Mare Island Marines over Camp Lewis in 1918. This was a tougher assignment. USC was unbeaten, having lost only to Cal, which declined the Rose Bowl invitation.

Further, according to the Penn State Football Encyclopedia, Bezdek had a sharp rivalry with Washington dating to his coaching days in Oregon. This rivalry would resurface before the game.

The 1922 Penn State football team took a 6-3-1 record to the Rose Bowl. The team crossed the country by train, stopping at the Grand Canyon before arriving in Pasadena on Christmas Eve / Pasadena Tournament of Roses

'The Animus Erupted Into a Shouting Match'

Penn State stopped at the Rose Parade before kickoff, then ran into a traffic jam that delayed their arrival to the stadium. According to Penn State Athletics, the team took taxis to the stadium, with drivers bypassing traffic by steering onto residents' lawns. Penn State arrived 15 minutes late, which made Henderson fume.

Henderson thought Bezdek intentionally brought Penn State to the game late as a ploy. Bezdek hotly refuted that, which the Pasadena Star-News corroborated. The paper reported that the local police chief permitted Penn State's taxis to drive on sidewalks to get to the stadium.

Even then, according to the Penn State Football Encyclopedia, "the players still had to walk a mile down the gorge to reach the stadium."

Once there, Bezdek kept his team off the field for a while "at the request of management" so fans could take their seats. The Rose Bowl Stadium (then a horseshoe) was hosting its first game, and officials wanted a full crowd.

Unhappy with what became a nearly hour-long delay, Henderson confronted Bezdek before the game. "The animus erupted into a shouting match and near fistfight on the field," the Penn State Football Encyclopedia reported.

Cooler heads prevailed, Henderson among them. He wisely chose not to fight Bezdek, who was a boxer in college.

"[Bezdek] is said to have offered to slaughter the first Trojan on the spot, provided Henderson would remove his glasses," the Pasadena Star-News reported. "Only the intervention of [Tournament of Rose President] John J. Mitchell prevented blows."

Hugo Bezdek led Penn State to its first Rose Bowl appearance during the 1922 season / Pasadena Tournament of Roses

Settling It on the Field

Penn State's roster was hobbled for the Rose Bowl. All-American guard Joe Bedenk did not play after breaking several ribs during practice. And Newsh Bentz, the team captain and center, missed part of the game after being disciplined for breaking a team rule.

Penn State scored first on a 20-yard field goal, but USC took over from there. The Trojans scored on a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs and benefited from the 1920s version of the coaching carousel.

As the Penn State Football Encyclopedia noted, USC's freshman coach was Bill Hess, who captained Penn State's unbeaten 1920 team. Having played for Bezdek, Hess knew about all about the Penn State coach's offensive strategy, giving Henderson plenty of creative ways to counter. Further, travel appeared to affect the Lions.

"Their hard jaunt across the country and the week they spent in conditioning had a telling effect," the United News Service reported. "Their attack lacked fire and dash. They were lethargic after the first 10 minutes."

The 1923 Rose Bowl ultimately benefited Penn State, though. According to Penn State, the athletic department donated its Rose Bowl profit of about $21,000 to the university's Emergency Building Fund.

Penn State will make its fifth Rose Bowl appearance when it plays Utah on Jan. 2 at the Rose Bowl Stadium. Prior to that, Bezdek will be inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.

For more Penn State football history, check out author Lou Prato's Penn State Football Encyclopedia.

PENN STATE FANS: Looking for Rose Bowl tickets? SI Tickets is your one-stop shop for tickets to a variety of Penn State sporting events, from football to basketball, hockey to volleyball. Need tickets to the Penn State game? Check out SI Tickets.

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