1925 Rose Bowl

The 1925 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game. It was the 11th Rose Bowl Game. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated Stanford University, 27–10. The game featured two legendary coaches, Knute Rockne of Notre Dame, and Glenn "Pop" Warner in his first year at Stanford. The game also featured the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame. Elmer Layden of Notre Dame and Ernie Nevers of Stanford were named the Rose Bowl Players Of The Game when the award was created in 1953 and selections were made retroactively.^[2]

This was the first appearance for Notre Dame in any post season bowl game. It was the second appearance for Stanford in a bowl game, since their appearance in the First Tournament East West football game, later known as the 1902 Rose Bowl. This was the first appearance of the Notre Dame football team on the West Coast,^[3] and eventually led to the founding of the Notre Dame – USC rivalry.^[4] This game marked the first time a wirephoto, known at the time as a "telepix", was transmitted of a bowl game.^[1]^[5]

Teams

Stanford University

At the time, the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) teams played a very limited conference schedule. Teams played from three to five conference opponents in an eight-game schedule. Stanford defeated Occidental and had a narrow 7–0 win against Olympic Club. They defeated Oregon, 28–13, in their opening PCC conference game. A 3–0 victory over Idaho in Portland, Oregon was their last close game. Then they beat Montana, 41–3, to run their PCC record to 3–0. Stanford and the California Golden Bears met in one of the biggest of the Big Games in 1924.^[6] Both teams were undefeated with the PCC championship on the line. Stanford was 3–0, and Cal was 2–0–1. Thousands packed Tightwad Hill above a sold out California Memorial Stadium. Cal needed a win, but the game ended in a 20–20 tie, giving Stanford the sole possession of first place in the PCC.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Elmer Layden intercepts an Ernie Nevers pass

Notre Dame garnered interest from the Rose Bowl committee to play a PCC opponent for the 1925 football season.^[4] Rockne and the Notre Dame administration realized how lucrative an annual trip to Los Angeles would be for the football program.^[4] Notre Dame's west coast alumni began lobbying Rockne to bring the team to the Rose Bowl as a season finale on a yearly basis.^[4] The Rose Bowl committee favored this arrangement; at the time there was no tie in with the Big Ten Conference. However the PCC had reservations.^[4] Specifically, two members schools, Stanford University and the University of California refused to play Notre Dame "on account of [Notre Dame's] low scholastic standards.^[4] Since Notre Dame was a Catholic school, its academics were considered inferior at the time.^[4] USC's coach, Gus Henderson reached out to Rockne through correspondence stating that "USC would welcome the chance to play Notre Dame New Year's Day in Pasadena.^[4] While Rockne favored playing USC, Stanford, which won the PCC title, had first choice and eventually realized that playing Notre Dame would be lucrative, and the two played in the 1925 Rose Bowl.^[4]

Game summary

Three Irish touchdowns were scored on Stanford turnovers. Stanford had eight, which proved to be the difference, as they otherwise dominated the Fighting Irish. Elmer Layden scored three touchdowns for Notre Dame, one on a three-yard run in the second quarter to give Notre Dame a 6–3 lead and two more on interception returns. Ernie Nevers, an All-American two-way star for Stanford, played all 60 minutes in the game. He rushed for 114 yards, more yardage than all the Four Horsemen combined.

Scoring

First quarter

Stanford – Cuddeback 27-yard field goal 1 8:00 0–3

Second quarter

Notre Dame – Layden 3-yard run (kick failed) 2 13:30 6-3
Notre Dame – Layden 78-yard interception return (Crowley kick) 2 8:00 13–3

Third quarter

Notre Dame – Hunsinger 20-yard fumble return (Crowley kick) 3 5:00 20–3
Stanford – Shipkey 7-yard pass from Walker (Cuddeback kick) 3 1:00 20–10

Fourth quarter

Notre Dame – Layden 70-yard interception return (Crowley kick) 4 :30 27–10

Aftermath

The next year, the USC invited Notre Dame to a home-and=home series, which was the beginning of the Notre Dame–USC football rivalry.^[4] Previously, the furthest west the Irish ever had traveled was to play at Nebraska and Kansas. Dillon Hall, a dormitory at the University of Notre Dame, was built with the proceeds, $52,000, from the 1925 Rose Bowl.^[1]

Elmer Layden of Notre Dame and Ernie Nevers of Stanford were named the Rose Bowl Players Of The Game when the award was created in 1953 and selections were made retroactively.^[2]

Notre Dame has never appeared in the in the Rose Bowl game again, and did not appear in any bowl game until the 1970 Cotton Bowl Classic.^[7] In the 2007, the UCLA Bruins hosted the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Rose Bowl stadium where the Irish won, 20–6.^[8] With the Rose Bowl Game joining the Bowl Championship Series, the possibility has existed that Notre Dame could again play in the Rose Bowl game.

Rockne died in a plane crash in 1931. Don Miller, who died in 1979 as the last of the living Four Horsemen, said that the 1925 Rose Bowl champion team was Rockne's favorite team.^[1]

The Notre Dame–Stanford football rivalry game is now one of the many Notre Dame Fighting Irish football rivalries. The teams next played each other in 1942 and again in 1963 and 1964. The modern series began in 1988 has been played annually except in 1995 and 1996. As of 2014, Notre Dame leads the series, 19–10.^[9] When the game is played at Stanford Stadium, it is usually the last game on Stanford's schedule (as has been the case since 1999), one week after the Cardinal plays archrival California in the Big Game.

References

1 2 3 4 Dufresne, Chris - When they were riding high. Los Angeles Times, October 2, 2007
1 2 2008 Rose Bowl Program, 2008 Rose Bowl. Accessed January 26, 2008.
↑ 2006 NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA GUIDE, pages 136-136 All Time Scores
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Sperber, Murray (September 2002). Shake Down The Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21568-4.
↑ Rose Bowl Game History
↑ Whittingham, Richard (2001). Rites of autumn: the story of college football. New York: The Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2219-9.
↑ Notre Dame Bowl History as of December 4, 2005. ESPN, December 4, 2005
↑ Irish get first win of year, 20-6 over UCLA Notre Dame avoids matching longest losing streak with victory. NBC Sports, October 7, 2007
↑ "2007 Notre Dame Media Guide: History and Records (pages 131-175)". und.cstv.com. Retrieved 2008-04-24.

Rose Bowl Game

History & tie-ins	History Rose Bowl Stadium College Football Playoff Broadcasters Big Ten Conference Pac-12 Conference

Games	1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Notes	No Games were held from 1903–15. The 1942 game was played at Duke Stadium in Durham, NC due to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The game was also the national title game for the Bowl Championship Series in 2002 and 2006. The game was a College Football Playoff semifinal in its 2015 edition.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish bowl games

Pound sign (#) denotes national championship game.

Stanford Cardinal bowl games

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