New Year’s Day has been marked by an annual tradition since 1916: two college football teams square off in the Rose Bowl, a game known for an extravagant parade and competitive gridiron action. The game is typically played in Pasadena, Calif., and associated with the Big 10 and PAC-12 Conferences — though the rise of the college football playoffs has upended the traditional pairing of teams.
However, in 1942, during World War II, the game was held in a very different setting. That year, Duke University hosted the Rose Bowl in North Carolina, the first time (and only time, until 2021) that the famous game was played outside of Pasadena.
This unusual edition of the Rose Bowl has become legendary in Duke football lore — its university football center used to include a display celebrating the matchup. But one piece of the story is conspicuously absent from the narrative: all of the players on both teams were white. This history exposes how, despite claims that sports are the ultimate cultural unifier, especially in moments of tragedy, they can bring together an “us” that is too often determined by exclusion.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and with Japan posing an active threat, government officials deemed large gatherings on the West Coast too dangerous. Lieutenant General John DeWitt, commander of the U.S. Fourth Army, and California Governor Culbert Olson cancelled the Rose Bowl parade and game.
There was still plenty of support for playing the game elsewhere, especially from Oregon State, the West Coast team slated to play in its first Rose Bowl. About two weeks before kick off, officials decided that Duke, the East Coast competitor, would host the event.
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Wallace Wade, after whom Duke’s stadium would eventually be named, coached a formidable Blue Devil team. Duke had a 9-0 regular season record, averaged 34.5 points a game, and had scored at…
