Rose Bowl Game Scrapbook, 1941-1942

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The Rose Bowl Game Scrapbook was assembled by Bob Panagis and documents the Oregon State College football team's journey to the 1942 Rose Bowl game. It is made up of newspaper clippings, photographs, menus, itineraries, and stationery collected from the trip. Bob Panagis, a student at OSC and a member of the football team, attended the game and collected various ephemera from the trip. The 1942 Rose Bowl is the only Rose Bowl to have been played outside of Pasadena, California. The Beavers beat the Duke University Blue Devils 20-16.

The scrapbook is in fragile condition and a digital surrogate should be consulted as a primary source of access. This surrogate is available in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center Reading Room, or remotely upon request.

Creators

ID: MSS RoseBowlPanagis

Extent: 0.2 cubic feet

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Scope and Content Notes

This scrapbook, compiled by Bob Panagis, OSC class of 1945, documents the Oregon State Beavers' trip to Durham, North Carolina, to play against the Duke University Blue Devils. The Rose Bowl game was held on January 1, 1942, just twenty-five days after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of Pearl Harbor, the Rose Bowl game, usually held in Pasadena, California, was held in Durham, at the Duke University stadium, as the first and only time the Rose Bowl has ever been held outside of Pasadena.

The scrapbook is comprised of more than seventy-five newspaper clippings, many being full articles and photographs of the team on their journey, as well as twenty black and white photographic prints, ten menus, itineraries detailing the transcontinental train route, postcards and stationery collected from the trip. Also with the scrapbook is a large wool patch embellished to say, "Rose Bowl 1942." Contained in a separate folder are several loose items: a photograph of the team, a photocopied page documenting team members (from a lost photograph), a photocopied version of a newspaper photograph, and a guide to Duke University's campus.

The newspaper photographs include pictures of MVP Donald Durdan, '43, team captains Martin Chaves, Bob Dethman, Quentin Greenough, and Stanley Czech, as well as coaches Lon Stiner and Hal Moe. Included in the newspaper clippings are photographs from a celebratory dinner held for the Beavers, with Governor Charles Sprague in attendance, and articles that detail the line-ups for the game, postgame statistics and final scores.

The scrapbook is set chronologically: documenting the Civil War win against the University of Oregon and overall excitement for the Rose Bowl game, the team’s trip to North Carolina, their time at Duke University and preparations for the game, postgame news coverage, and finally, the trip home and their celebratory welcome back to Corvallis.

Biographical / Historical Notes

The Oregon State College Beavers 1941 football season started with a loss to USC in late September. This was their first of two losses, and the team ended the season with a 7-2 record, finishing with a 12-7 win over the University of Oregon on November 29. The team was lead by coach Lon Stiner, as well as captains Martin Chaves, Stan Czech, Bob Dethman, Quentin Greenough, Lew Hammers, George Peters, and Norm Peters. The team received a unanimous nomination to represent the Pacific Coast Conference at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on New Year’s Day 1942, against the Duke University Blue Devils. Celebrations ensued, highlighted by the Beavers attendance as guests of honor at a banquet held in Portland on December 3. But disaster struck on December 7 with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, after which the United States immediately went to war with Japan. With great concern over a possible second bombing attack at the Rose Parade and Bowl game, the entire event was called off until Duke University proposed the game be held in their stadium in Durham, North Carolina.

Three days later, on December 19, the Beavers were aboard a train at the beginning of a transcontinental journey that would end with a Rose Bowl Championship.

During their trip, the team visited Chicago, Illinois to practice at the University of Chicago stadium; the US Capitol in Washington, D.C.; and George Washington’s Mount Vernon in Virginia. Finally, after a five-day journey, the team was greeted with a warm welcome when they arrived in North Carolina on the morning of December 24. The following evening, they were treated to a Christmas dinner at the university. The team spent the next few days exploring the university campus and preparing for the big game.

New Year’s Day arrived, bringing with it heavy gray clouds and rain. The newly sod field turned to mud, and fifty thousand spectators huddled to try to keep dry. The Blue Devils had been favored to win by 14 points, but the Beavers used the heavy downpour to their advantage, and won 20-16. Donald Durdan was named the Rose Bowl Player of the Game. Half an hour after the game concluded, the Beavers boarded a Southern Pacific passenger car and began the journey home, finally arriving in Albany, Oregon on January 8, 1942.

Twenty-nine of the thirty-one members of the Beavers football team enlisted in World War II not long after the game was over. Many were already attending college through the ROTC program. Due to the war, Oregon State did not have a football team in 1943 and 1944.

Bob Panagis was born in San Francisco, California in 1919. He attended Belmont High School in Los Angeles and transferred to OSC in the spring of 1941 after a period of study at Los Angeles City College. While at OSC he majored in Mechanical Engineering with an aeronautical option. He was also a member of the Beaver football team during the 1941 and 1942 seasons, and he graduated in 1945 with a Bachelor of Science. He lived in California, working as a city planner, for the rest of his life, passing away in 2004 at the age of 85.

Author: Katy Roach

Statement on Access: Collection is open for research, but is in fragile condition. A digital surrogate has been created and should be consulted as a primary form of access.

Statement on Description:

We acknowledge that materials in SCARC collections and the language that describes them may be harmful. We are actively working to address our descriptive practices; for more information please see our SCARC Anti-Racist Actions Statement online.

The archivist-prepared description of this collection uses the phrase “Civil War” to refer to the long-standing athletic rivalry between Oregon State University and the University of Oregon. A history of this athletic rivalry, and use of the phrase “Civil War” to describe it, is available online in The Origins of the "Civil War" Football Game blog post.

In June 2020, Oregon State University President Edward J. Ray announced that the term “Civil War” will no longer be used by either university because it “represents a connection to a war fought to perpetuate slavery.”

We acknowledge the racism represented by the use of this phrase and the harm it may cause our users. In order to provide historical context and to enable standardized searching and access across our collections, we have retained the use of this phrase in the collection description.

[Date of acknowledgement: November 2021]

Arrangement

Preferred Citation: Rose Bowl Game Scrapbook (MSS RoseBowlPanagis), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Acquisition Note: The materials were transferred to the University Archives by Thomas K. Stevens, nephew of Bob Panagis, in 2005.

Acquired: 2005.

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