Cool Rose Bowl story, bro

Submitted by zh2oson on December 19th, 2023 at 6:02 PM

Normally, I like to exclusively post pithy or snarky comments here.  My inclination to do so has only expanded of late, especially in light of all the stupid Feinbaum / Thamel / Mandel / Feldman / etc. crapola that we've all had to digest since October. 

But, I'm going to pivot and share something positive.

The small nonprofit I run is opening a second location. During our renovation meeting this morning with the construction crew at the new building site, we were sitting around the table talking about holiday plans.  

I live in Pasadena and am thrilled to be attending this year's Rose Bowl, so I mentioned my excitement about the coming game to our contractor.

He says, "Funny story, my grandfather went to Michigan and played in the Rose Bowl."  

It turns out, his grandfather was Neil Snow, who scored five TDs in the 1902 Rose Bowl and still holds the scoring record for the Rose Bowl game!

A few tidbits from Wikipedia:

  • Snow also played baseball, ran track and may have played tennis too, garnering 10, 11, or 12 letters while at UM; for some reason this is still up for debate. 
  • He was retroactively named the game's MVP in 1953.
  • Sadly, he passed unexpectedly in 1914 at the age of 34 from a heart attack.

This blurb from Wikipedia is great:

Yost later compared Snow to Jim Thorpe for his athletic versatility and opined, "I don't think I have ever seen a better end than he was." Grantland Rice also compared Snow to Thorpe for his talent in football, baseball, and track, and opined that Thorpe was "nothing like Snow's equal on the ballfield."

Here's the link if you're interested in learning more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Snow

I'm sure Feinbaum would assert that Snow's prowess would have been limited had Michigan faced stiffer competition from whatever teams were around in the 1901 version of the SEC, but he can suck it. 

 

 

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FrankMurphy

December 19th, 2023 at 6:16 PM ^

That's what I was going to say. If the Neil Snow was 23 in 1902, that means his son was probably born in the late aughts or the 1910's. Assuming the latter, Snow's grandson (i.e., the contractor) must have been born in the late 30's or early 40's, which means he's pushing 80 by now.

Are you sure the contractor didn't mean great-grandfather, OP?

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TheJimandI

December 19th, 2023 at 8:43 PM ^

I have a similar timeline that goes even further.

my great grandfather was born in 1850

his son, my grandfather was born in 1900

his son, my dad was born in 1950.

I snapped the trend in 1979. 
 

It’s crazy that I have a few (slightly younger) friends who have great grandparents still alive. Mine predated the Civil War.

Also….I can’t imagine having newborn kids when I’m fifty….like Jim Harbaugh for example.

 

 

 

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zh2oson

December 19th, 2023 at 6:59 PM ^

I got clarification on this.  Sadly, my contractor's mother was born later in 1914, but after Snow passed. Snow never met his daughter.

My contractor made sure to mention that his mother had him when she was "much older" so the timeline works.  I guess.

I should also mention that the contractor is the principal at a mid-size firm and isn't swinging a hammer. 

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jmblue

December 19th, 2023 at 7:35 PM ^

Assuming the latter, Snow's grandson (i.e., the contractor) must have been born in the late 30's or early 40's

Not necessarily.  Snow's son could have fathered children relatively late, or at least the child that the OP met.   

One of my grandfathers was in his 70s when I was born.   My father was the youngest of his children.  

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Communist Football

December 20th, 2023 at 8:21 AM ^

Yes, great stuff Comrade! I mention Neil Snow a few times in my Almanack of Broken Records. Here's what I wrote about that 1901 team that played in the 1902 Rose Bowl:

Here is the team photo of the all-time great team of 1901, courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library. Al Herrnstein is the right-most player in the front row. Neil Snow is the second from the left in the middle row. Willie Heston is right-most in the middle row. Fielding Yost is in the center of the back row. The "501-0" football that captain Hugh White is holding reflects the fact that this picture was taken before the team beat Stanford 49-0 in the inaugural Rose Bowl game of 1902. The lopsided score so disappointed Rose Bowl officials that they didn't hold a second Rose Bowl game until 1916.

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Oregon Wolverine

December 19th, 2023 at 6:30 PM ^

In the 80s I played little league baseball in Dearborn Heights, MI, with a tremendous athlete whose dad was always at the games.  Dad was a quiet guy, nice, usually stayed to himself but was friendly.  At some point someone told me that my friend's father played football at Michigan, but I didn't take it seriously, assumed it was a legend or that maybe he was a walk on since father was not a very big man.

A few years back during the Michigan Insider's Countdown to Kickoff, I learned quite a bit about my friend's father and wish I had inquired further.  I misjudged his size for ability as the Los Angeles Times called him "a sawed-off 163 pound squirt from Canonsburg, Pa."  He was a national champ in 1948, played in the Snow Bowl, and also the captain of M's baseball team: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Koceski

 

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triplej

December 20th, 2023 at 1:02 AM ^

Even then, B1G was trying to get Michigan:

from Wikipedia:

In 1949, a Detroit newspaper reported that Koceski and Chuck Ortmann were being investigated by former FBI agents hired by the Big Ten Conference to determine whether the two were actually performing services for a company that employed them. A report by the investigators concluded that Ortmann and Koceski were actually performing work, "not just punching a time clock."[9][10] In early December 1949, athletic director Fritz Crisler announced that the two players had been given a clean slate: "There was no question of reinstatement of the players. They were never in a position for such a thing as reinstatement to arise."

Joined: 12/05/2023

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azul97

December 20th, 2023 at 9:56 AM ^

Guessing this is the guy? https://www.interscapeconstruction.com/copy-of-mullin-automotive-museum-5

 

Cool article here: https://www.newspapers.com/article/independent-star-news/33651071/

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Harball sized HAIL

December 20th, 2023 at 1:34 PM ^

The pride of the south in those days woulda been teams like -

Vandy

Sewanee

Maybe Tulane

Michigans win total vs. the SEC is largely due to their record vs Vandy.  It's funny how clueless fucks like to point to M's win total and claim that they were due to wins vs. sisters of the poor teams when that is flat out false.  Mich & Vandy played 9 times between 1905 - 1923 with M going 8-0-1.  In four of those years the loss to Michigan was Vandys only loss.  

Michigan was also playing the other power house teams at the time who were - Ivy league schools, Chicago, Minny, & Syracuse.

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