1952 Rose Bowl Memory
Loren Tate
I was a junior at Illinois and close to a lot of these guys, whether it was playing cards with linebacker Chuck Boerio or on the same championship intramural basketball team with Bill Tate, Stan Wallace and Em Lindbeck.
My dad gave me $100 for the trip and, on the train ride out, I more than doubled it playing cards. It was the luckiest siege of good cards in my life. In fact, when I returned home, I used leftover money to buy an old ford for $200.
Back to the game. I remember the great publicity surrounding tight end Bill McColl and quarterback Gary Kerkorian. And both were a great force early in the game as Stanford took a 7-6 lead.
I remember thinking, after Sam Rebecca had his extra point blocked and later missed a short field goal, how fortunate it was that Sam's field goal was good to beat Northwestern, 3-0, in the final game.
Illinois always had strong fullback play in those days under Ray Eliot, and Bill Tate had his more memorable afternoon in the Rose Bowl. He punished the Stanford defense all day, but the score held at 7-6 through halftime because of key penalties, interceptions and failures to capitalize.
Stan Wallace made a game-deciding play in the third quarter, intercepting and running down to the Stanford 12. That is the one play that sticks out in my mind after all these years. Once Tate scored to put Illinois ahead, 13-7, the game cracked wide open, and Illinois got two late TDs on an interception and a blocked punt. Rocky Ryan caught a short TD pass in the final minute.
But the statistics, as I see them now, tell the story. Illinois outrushed Stanford by roughly 300 yards.
I don't remember much about the train trip home except that I slept a lot.
Submitted by Loren Tate of Champaign, IL on 12-13-2007 at 12:53 PM
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