After a gap of 14 years from the trial game, the second Rose Bowl was played January 1, 1916. Washington State scored a 14-0 victory over Brown, which was led by freshman RB Fritz Pollard. What is significant is that Pollard was the first African-American player in the Pasadena classic. His other firsts include being the first African American to make Walter Camp's All-America team and the first elected to the National College Football Hall of Fame (1954). He was also one of the first two African Americans in the National Football League and then the first to coach in the NFL. In 2005 he was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (View silent film footage of the 1916 Rose Bowl.) There is no record of any hoopla surrounding Pollard's appearance in the Rose Bowl – no indication that he was not allowed to stay in the same hotel as his teammates and no protests of any kind before or during the game. The same cannot be said for the first appearance of African Americans in the bowl games that began in the South in the 1930s.

Fritz Pollard

Boston College, coached by Frank Leahy before he moved to Notre Dame, earned bids to the 1940 Cotton Bowl and 1941 Sugar Bowl. In both cases, the Jesuit school agreed not to play its black halfback, Lou Montgomery, who was left at home for the Cotton Bowl against Clemson and watched the Sugar Bowl against Tennessee from the press box.

Fast forward to the 1946 season. Penn State finished 9-0 and was invited to play in the Cotton Bowl against SMU. Problem: PSU's RB Wally Triplett was the first African-American ever to start for the Nittany Lions. The school had cancelled a road game against Miami rather than play it without Wally (who had mistakenly been recruited by the Hurricanes during his high school days). As a segregated school in segregated Dallas, SMU could have refused to play Penn State. However, school officials agreed to participate and worked with city government to arrange for the Lions to stay at an air base outside the city. No controversy surrounded the game itself, which ended 13-13.

Bobby Grier (35) in Sugar Bowl

Such was not the case in 1955 when Pittsburgh accepted an invitation to play in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia Tech. The Panther squad included one black player, FB/LB Bobby Grier. Sugar Bowl officials agreed to Pitt's requirements that Grier be allowed to play and that sections for their fans be integrated – signs that the Crescent City had come a long way in the 15 years since BC's visit. However, Georgia Governor Marvin Griffin, who had been elected on a "segregation through hell or high water" platform, demanded that Tech not play. "The South stands at Armageddon," he proclaimed. "The battle is joined. We cannot make the slightest concession to the enemy in this dark and lamentable hour of struggle."

What is interesting is that the Georgia Tech team and almost all the student body rejected Griffin's demands. The Yellow Jackets had played against black players before, including a game at Notre Dame two years earlier, but never in the South. Backed by his Board of Regents, the Tech president said his team would honor its contract.

The Pitt team stayed at Tulane since N.O. hotels were segregated. Grier could not attend some team events but found a warm welcome elsewhere.

The game was much more boring than the buildup. (I watched it on TV.) The only score came after a disputed interference call on the goal line against none other than Bobby Grier in the first quarter. Tech held on for a 7-0 victory. Grier reported good sportsmanship by the opponents. "They helped me up off the ground a couple of times when they tackled me."

There is no clear documentation on when the Orange Bowl was integrated. Prentice Gautt, the first black player for Oklahoma, was the MVP in 1959. He was also on the Sooner teams that played in Miami in 1956 and 1958.