FIRESIDE BOWL 1941 UPGRADE

Air travel to Oahu took 16 hours from the California coast and cost a lot of money. Few mainland schools had interest in spending a week on a ship to play Hawaii. Maybe San Jose State and Willamette received the invitation because they agreed to accept it. In an era with only three bowl games, the San Jose States of the world never received this type of season-ending trip, one that included a whopping $5,000 guarantee. The invitation to play Hawaii had been quite a coup for both San Jose State and Willamette. One player went to war and never came home. Most of the San Jose State and Willamette players came home from the war. The picture we see as we look back to that Thursday in November is framed by the security of knowing how World War II ended, bathed in the glow of memory, burnished by the love and respect accorded the men and women whom we bestowed with the title of The Greatest Generation. But for all the debate in Washington, war remained separate from reality - somewhere out there in the future along with graduation, and finding a job, and finding someone you could build a life with.Įxcept that, on the last Wednesday in November 1941, Japanese submarines began moving east toward Hawaii. Sure, the threat of war loomed over the players, just as it did over the entire nation. The players planned to swim in the blue of the Pacific and frolic on the sands of Waikiki Beach. Over 13 days on Oahu, each team would play the University of Hawaii and also play one another. The San Jose State College Spartans and Willamette College Bearcats were giddy with anticipation for their voyage west to the Hawaii Territory.

Two college football teams boarded the SS Lurline at Pier 35 in San Francisco on the last Thursday in November 1941. San Jose State, Willamette football teams, and the aftermath of Pearl Harbor attack in 1941Ĭollege Football, San Jose State Spartans, Willamette Bearcats

FIRESIDE BOWL 1941 UPGRADE

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Fireside bowl 1941