Wilmeth Sidat-Singh

Eric Tipton

Howard Jones

Grenville Lansdell

George McAfee

Duke Panties

Coach Wade and Duke team visit Hollywood

• After the 6-0 victory over Georgia Tech in the fourth game, Bill Cox, a reporter for The Virginian-Pilot, referred to the team as "The Seven Iron Dukes." The monicker stuck without the seven.
  Duke's seventh game of the 1938 season at Syracuse provoked a huge controversy because Coach Wade decided to violate a sacred Southern tradition. Syracuse was led by a black quarterback, Wilmeth Sidat-Singh. For many years, there had been a "gentlemen's agreement" for games between Southern and Northern schools that any blacks on the Northern school roster would not compete. However, Wade wanted to beat the Orangemen at their best. Remembering his playing days at Brown as a teammate of RB Fritz Pollard, who would play in the NFL and become its first black head coach, Wallace did not insist that Wilmeth stay on the sidelines. Many Duke alums and supporters voiced their opposition to the decision, one even writing the university president demanding that Wade be fired if Duke played "against that n-----." The Blue Devils shut down Sidat-Singh in a 21-0 victory, and Wade weathered the storm.
• Despite whitewashing every opponent, Duke was only #3 in the Associated Press poll as it prepared to meet its final regular season foe, Pittsburgh, known for its high-scoring offense that had put 24 or more points on the board in six games.
• The game was held in Duke Stadium in snowy conditions on November 26 before a crowd of more than 45,000. There was still no score by the end of the third quarter. The game turned on two crucial plays. First, Tipton, considered the finest punter in the nation, booted the ball to the one. When Pitt attempted to kick out of danger, E Willard "Bolo" Perdue blocked it and recovered in the end zone. When "True-Toe" Tony Ruffa converted the extra point, Duke took a 7-0 lead that it preserved until the final horn. The crowd stormed the snow-covered field in celebration.

Watch video of the Duke-Pitt game

1938 Iron Dukes

• The Devils remained #3 in the final Associated Press poll behind two other 10-0 teams, #1 TCU and #2 Tennessee.

Duke accepted its first bowl invitation in school history.

• Despite intense lobbying by TCU, which may have hurt rather than helped their cause, the Rose Bowl committee chose the Blue Devils to face the kings of the Pacific Coast Conference, #7 Southern California, in the 24th Rose Bowl.
• Since 1935, the Tournament of Roses Association had a contract with the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) that its champion would automatically earn a Rose Bowl berth and choose the opponent. Association leaders played a behind-the-scenes role in the process to ensure that an attractive Eastern opponent would be invited to fill the seats in the mammoth stadium.
  Texas Christian fans bombarded Los Angeles newspapers with phone calls and telegrams asking for support. TCU backers also contacted the governor of California and members of the state legislature. One Texan sent turkeys as Thanksgiving presents to Los Angeles sportswriters. But the choice lay with the host team, USC. Sportswriter Braven Dyer later explained, Trojan authorities felt that they couldn't retain their self-respect as an educational institution if they succumbed to the pressure exerted by well-meaning friends of Texas Christian.
  The Horned Frogs went to the Sugar Bowl, where they defeated #6 Carnegie Tech 15-7.
• The Associated Press reported on the reaction in North Carolina.
  DURHAM, N.C. This tobacco-manufacturing city of 50,000 went wild when word spread that the Duke University football team had been selected to play Southern California in the Rose Bowl.
  Students, led by the sixty-piece Duke band, marched from the university campus through the downtown streets amid whoops and yells.
  Officials said the bid was accepted after a telegraphic poll of Southern Confe­rence members. The conference has a rule forbidding post-season games. Coach Wade said enough votes had been received to "justify acceptance of the bid."
• Wade was no stranger to Pasadena. He went as a guard-tackle on the Brown team that played in the 1916 Rose Bowl against Washington State. He also took three of his Alabama squads to Pasadena. The Tide edged Washington 20-19 in 1925, tied Stanford 7-7 the following year, and bested Washing­ton State 24-0 in 1930.
• Some West Coast writers criticized Duke's selection, insisting that the Blue Devils faced "weak" competition in the Southern Conference, and Southern football in general was still regarded as inferior (despite Alabama's 2-0-1 record in Pasadena under Wade).

Howard Jones's Trojans had survived a down-and-up-and-down-and-up season.

• USC lost its opener, 19-7, to Alabama at home, then won six in a row, including handing California its first defeat in 18 games, before stumbling in the mud at Washington 7-6.
• The Trojans improved their national rankings with back-to-back victories over UCLA 42-7 and #1 Notre Dame 13-0 before 97,146 in the Los Angeles Coliseum.
• Like Wade, Jones had yet to taste defeat in three trips across town to the Rose Bowl, having defeated Pitt 47-14 in 1929, Tulane 21-12 two years later, and Pitt again, 35-0, in '32.

Despite Duke's outstanding record and higher ranking, West Coast scribes considered the Trojans to be too big, fast, and deep for the invaders from the East.

• The Rose Bowl was billed as a showcase for two triple-threat tailbacks, Tipton and Grenville "Granny" Lansdell of the Trojans.
• Hurting the Duke cause were nagging injuries to Hill and speedy back George McAfee (who was destined for a Pro Football Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Bears).

The Blue Devils got an unexpected and unusual good luck charm for their trip to California.

• An anonymous fan mailed a pair of silk panties to "Eunice" Tipton and "Agnes" Hill via Ted Mann, Duke sports publicity director.
• Some Devils fans decided to take similar panties to the Rose Bowl and place them on USC's goal posts after the game to replace the pants Duke whipped off the Trojans.
• As Wade boarded the train, he was handed a good-luck letter from archrival North Carolina's student body.

Duke fans by the hundreds boarded trains for the trek clear across the continent to Pasadena.

• The team visited Hollywood and met stars they had admired on the big screen.
• The fans enjoyed the famous Tournament of Roses parade the morning of the game.

Doyle Nave

Howard Jones

Wallace Wade

Al Krueger

Bill Fisk

• As fourth-string tailback, the junior from Los Angeles had played only 35 minutes in the Trojans' ten regular season contests.
• Even if he had played the entire 60 minutes in the Rose Bowl game, he wouldn't have amassed the 175 minutes required to earn a letter.
• With two minutes remaining, he had yet to step on the playing field that day.

As USC, trailing Duke 3-0, took possession for its last thrust, Coach Howard Jones told his best passer to begin warming up.

• Jones had this dialog with the youngster:
  Doyle, I'm thinking of putting you in.
  What have you got in mind, coach?
  The 27 series. Get the ball to Krueger. He's the best end we have for getting open.
• Nave recalled: Jones gave me a few minutes to warm up, and I was nervous. I'll tell you.

• In his 1989 book, The Tournament of Roses, Joe Hendrickson wrote this story about Joe Wilensky, the former Trojan lineman on Jones' coaching staff.
  Wilensky was manning the telephone on the bench, relaying the messages of assistant coaches Sam Barry, Bob McNeish, and Julie Bescos, who had been observing the action high above in the press box. Suddenly Wilensky got an idea. He decided to take a chance to do something to pull out the victory. He knew the coaches above had already left the press box and were on their way to join the team. Nobody had scored a point all season against the great Duke line.
  "Our only chance is to get Nave in there to pass," thought Wilensky. "He has the arm to hit [Al] Krueger and dent this great Duke defense." Wilensky snatched the phone. "Yes," he shouted so everybody on the bench could hear. "Yes, yes - I get it. I'll tell him right away." Wilensky slammed the receiver on the hook and excitedly nudged assistant coach Bill Hunter.
  "The word is to send in Nave and have him throw to Krueger," said Wilensky to Hunter, who in turn passed it on to Jones. Nick Pappas, who helped Jones with the coaching ... verifies that this is the true story of how Nave got into the game.
• At any rate, Nave rushed into the game, and Jones didn't stop him. Doyle wore a bandage over a cut on his forehead that he had sustained in a scrimmage.
• On the opposite sideline, Coach Wallace Wade had no scouting report on Nave. The man Wallace assigned to scout the Trojans said later that, if they had known the bench-warmer had the best arm on the team, they would have rushed him hard.

Nave wasted no time putting the pigskin in the air.

• With Duke playing a prevent defense that involved rushing only one man, Krueger told Doyle: Just fade back with the ball and throw it to me when I give you the sign by waving my arms, no matter where I go.
• Krueger split time at left end with Bill Fisk. Al played the second and fourth quarters, as he explained years later. They put Fisk and the heavy team in first to wear the opposition down, and then let the light ones score the touchdowns.
• Al also recalled that he didn't second-guess the decision to remove Lansdell for Nave. "I just wanted to win the game. That was the only thing on my mind."
• With Duke rushing only one man and dropping ten back, Nave began with a button hook pass to Krueger for 12y. Doyle felt most comfortable with Krueger because they were both subs. Let Nave describe the next play. The second pass was a "27" with a flair, and Al went down and did a pivot and broke to the outside. He caught that and gave us a first down.
  Clifton Herd, a USC scout, recalled: I felt sure that neither Wallace Wade nor his players knew very much about Nave. If they had suspected his passing ability, they would have rushed him more than they did. It looked to me as if Wade merely spread his defense, figuring that there wouldn't be time for the Trojans to score by running the ball. He wanted to be sure to pick up the receiver somewhere.
• With the ball on the left hash mark, Nave called a play to get the ball into the middle of the field to give Al more room to maneuver on the left side. It was a "27 end-around." Krueger came behind the line of scrimmage and caught my third straight pass, but a Duke lineman picked him up and we lost a few yards.
• With under a minute on the clock, Nave sent Antelope Al on a down and out into the end zone. To shake Tipton, the receiver suddenly stopped, then raced to the corner of the end zone while Doyle dropped deep to his right and hurled the ball as hard as he could diagonally across the field to the back of the end zone. Wide open and waving his arms, Krueger grabbed it with 40 seconds left to score the first points against Duke all season and send the USC partisans into a frenzy. Nave recalled: I was watching Al as he broke away from Eric Tipton. I threw the ball when he was on the 7 or 8y line heading for the left corner of the end zone. He had good hands, and I was praying that he could catch it - nothing's a sure thing in football. He made a terrific catch in the chest, and we just went berserk.
  
  Al Krueger catches the TD pass as Eric Tipton looks on helplessly.
  Seated in his usual spot on the bench, Wade couldn't see the winning touchdown since his players were bunched together on the sideline, blocking his view.
  Did he catch it? asked the usually calm coach anxiously. Yes, coach, said George McAfee. He caught it.
  The winning play duplicated the one the Trojans had used to score in the last seconds of the first half to break the scoreless tie against Notre Dame except that Ollie Day had thrown that one to Krueger.
• Jones removed both of his heroes to put in defensive replacements. The Blue Devils tried to score, but the game ended when Tipton connected with McAfee who broke loose for 17y before the last Trojan caught him at the USC 40.
• The USC students tore the goal posts down at both ends of the field. Players and spectators hoisted Nave onto their shoulders and carried him off the field.
• Southern Cal had won its fifth Rose Bowl without a loss.
  In the hospital where future USC President Norman Topping listened to the game, "something remarkable happened" when Nave threw the winning pass, as Norm recalled later. A miracle. It [the victory] did more for me than any medicine. My temperature immediately started going down. I recovered. I also won $50 on the game.
  Topping recovered and, working for the National Institutes of Health a decade later, developed the first effective treatment for the Rocky Mountain fever that had nearly cost him his life.

Braven Dyer

Bob Zuppke

Eric Tipton

• Nave approached Coach Jones. Thanks for the chance, coach.
  No, Doyle, it is I who thank you. I hope that what you just did out there will make up for the rest of the season. I tell you, this was worth waiting for.
  It surely was, replied the blushing hero.
• Jones gave no hint of Wilensky's story. Instead, he said: Granny Lansdell was going great in those last few minutes, and I think that had there been more time he might have scored. But our only chance was to pass, and Nave is the best passer I have on the squad. I knew that Nave was the only man we had who might win the game for us at that time, and so I sent him out there and told him to get at least one of them off to Krueger.
• When asked if Nave would receive a letter despite not playing the necessary number of minutes in the season, Jones agreed to waive the rule. He's played enough to win anything he wants from me. Sure, it includes a letter. (Actually, the Athletic Board had to approve the recommendation, which it did.)
  The victory especially pleased sports writer Braven Dyer of the Los Angeles Times. As part of his crusade to get USC to pass more, he had written an open letter to Jones in one of his columns asking the coach to "give my boy Doyle Nave a chance."
  Unfortunately, Dyer missed his protege's crowning moment because he left early to beat the traffic and return to the Times' office to make his deadline. So he heard the final minutes on the radio along with several colleagues. There is no truth in the dastardly report that I promptly fainted at the wheel. The three gentlemen with me will testify that I kept right on driving into town just as if nothing had happened. The hell I did - I let out a yell which all but shattered the windshield and promptly began jabbering like an idiot. The "gridirony" of it all practically slays me.
  Dyer eventually saw the movie of the game and appreciated Krueger's catching as much as Nave's throwing.

• We were all right as long as they didn't show us more than three teams. But when they came up with fresh and talented fourth-stringers, it was too much.
• But Wade wouldn't admit that USC was the best opponent his team had faced that season. He ranked Pittsburgh as the strongest team in the country, with Tennessee [whom Duke had not played] right behind them.
• The Duke coach also made a puzzling remark that reporters interpreted as sour grapes. This is a helluva place to bring a football team.
• Wade's attitude led some writers to claim that TCU should have been invited.
  Wade went to the USC locker room after the game to congratulate Coach Jones. After doing so, Wade was leaving when a reporter asked if he would shake Doyle Nave's hand. The dejected coach replied, I've had enough of him for one day.
  The West Coast writers seized on Wade's statement as evidence of poor sportsman­ship. As a war of words broke out between the two coasts, Wade claimed that his practices had been spied on and vowed never to bring another team to the Rose Bowl.
  When Nave was asked about being shunned, he pointed out that the Duke coach was not only preoccupied with the heartbreaking defeat but was also worried about his wife, who was ill back home in North Carolina.

• Southern California was the aggressive team. It carried the fight, it took all the chances. The Trojans made the show, and they deserved a victory over Duke, which was strictly a counter puncher.
• However, Zuppke didn't think much of the football played in the Rose Bowl game and thought that Michigan might have beaten either team without much trouble.