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New Year’s Day has been marked by an annual custom since 1916: two faculty soccer groups sq. off within the Rose Bowl, a recreation identified for an extravagant parade and aggressive gridiron motion. The recreation is often performed in Pasadena, Calif., and related to the Big 10 and PAC-12 Conferences — although the rise of the faculty soccer playoffs has upended the normal pairing of groups.
However, in 1942, throughout World War II, the sport was held in a really completely different setting. That 12 months, Duke University hosted the Rose Bowl in North Carolina, the primary time (and solely time, till 2021) that the well-known recreation was performed outdoors of Pasadena.
This uncommon version of the Rose Bowl has change into legendary in Duke soccer lore — its college soccer middle used to incorporate a show celebrating the matchup. But one piece of the story is conspicuously absent from the narrative: the entire gamers on each groups have been white. This historical past exposes how, regardless of claims that sports activities are the last word cultural unifier, particularly in moments of tragedy, they will carry collectively an “us” that’s too typically decided by exclusion.
Following the assault on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and with Japan posing an lively menace, authorities officers deemed giant gatherings on the West Coast too harmful. Lieutenant General John DeWitt, commander of the U.S. Fourth Army, and California Governor Culbert Olson cancelled the Rose Bowl parade and recreation.
There was nonetheless loads of help for taking part in the sport elsewhere, particularly from Oregon State, the West Coast staff slated to play in its first Rose Bowl. About two weeks earlier than kick off, officers determined that Duke, the East Coast competitor, would host the occasion.
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Wallace Wade, after whom Duke’s stadium would finally be named, coached a formidable Blue Devil staff. Duke had a 9-0 common season file, averaged 34.5 factors a recreation, and had scored at the least 50 factors 3 times through the season.
Tickets bought out in 48 hours for the novel occasion. Oregon State’s staff traveled to Durham by prepare and arrived on Christmas Eve after a 3,417-mile journey.
The recreation drew roughly 56,000 followers, greater than Duke Stadium would ordinarily maintain. This compelled the college to borrow bleachers from the close by University of North Carolina and North Carolina State.
Yet, amid the entire pleasure and spectacle, Black gamers and coaches have been lacking. There have been none on both staff, and Duke barely allowed Black followers to attend.
Despite their present overrepresentation in soccer, Black athletes have been systemically excluded from taking part on this massive recreation. At root was Southern segregation and one thing known as “the gentleman’s settlement,” which was an unstated coverage between Northern and Southern establishments. Essentially, this deal dictated that Northern colleges would limit their Black gamers from intersectional competitions.
The historical past of Duke soccer revealed the coverage’s influence. The Blue Devils hadn’t competed towards a Black soccer participant till 1938, once they traveled to New York to problem Syracuse. And an opposing Black soccer participant wouldn’t compete on Duke’s campus for eight extra years — till a recreation towards Pittsburgh in 1950.
In this context, the intentional exclusion of Black gamers within the Rose Bowl wasn’t essentially a shock. And whereas Oregon State was located outdoors of those geographic bounds, their staff was additionally with out Black gamers. Further, their solely Japanese American participant was legally unable to journey to the sport as a result of navy restrictions. He was later compelled into an internment camp due to Executive Order 9066.
But the barring of Black followers was one thing completely different. Duke usually reserved a small, segregated part for Black attendees. This coverage wasn’t initially prolonged to the Rose Bowl, although, regardless of the addition of 20,000 seats to the stadium to fulfill the demand for admission. On Dec. 20, 1941, the Carolina Times, Durham’s preeminent Black newspaper, introduced consideration to the difficulty in a chunk headlined, “Negroes are barred from Rose Bowl.” Worried this sort of criticism would intrude with speak of the sport, Duke discovered 140 tickets for Black attendees.
Oregon State ended up beating Duke 20-17, and the Rose Bowl returned to Pasadena the next 12 months.
Historically, reminiscence of the sport usually facilities on the truth that it was performed in any respect. It was an early instance of how political and cultural leaders relied on sports activities as the last word supply of unity, particularly throughout difficult occasions. Threads of nationalism and patriotism infiltrated these narratives. According to an editorial within the New Year’s Eve version of The Durham Sun, “Regardless of who wins the ball recreation on New Year’s Day, one factor is for certain — America will triumph,” because the wartime disruptions “couldn’t cease Americans.”
The recreation set a template: different athletic occasions would proceed all through World War II.
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More lately, Americans witnessed this use of sports activities after 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombings, and by August 2020, MLB, the NBA, the WNBA, and the NHL had all discovered methods to renew play regardless of a worldwide pandemic that demanded bodily isolation. Each time, commentators described these sporting occasions as vital acts that helped carry Americans collectively following tragedies.
The 1942 Rose Bowl, nevertheless, raises a query about this framing: who, precisely, will get to be included in American society in these eventualities when leaders envision Americans coming collectively? The recreation illustrates how the selection was — and is — an lively, structural resolution, one which takes energy and hierarchy into consideration. Despite idealized representations of sports activities as a meritocracy, racialized, gendered, classed, and ableist inequality and distinction typically drive who will get to be part of unity engendered by sports activities.
In 1942, this meant that the Rose Bowl was actually solely accessible for white gamers and coaches, and virtually solely reserved for white followers. The racial traditions of the South meant that the “us” that directors hoped to carry collectively by taking part in the sport was solely a portion of the American inhabitants. In that regard, the Rose Bowl was reflective of your complete American battle effort. Despite a propaganda marketing campaign encouraging all Americans to come back collectively and do their half to defeat the Axis and totalitarianism, the U.S. navy remained rigidly segregated with individuals of coloration subjugated into subordinate roles and Black troopers discriminated towards overseas and at dwelling.
It’s essential to maintain the query of inclusivity in thoughts when analyzing sports activities, and particularly the pomp, pageantry, and patriotism so typically tied to the video games. Too continuously, performative unity and requires Americans to come back collectively are a cloak for inequality and exclusion. Sports is usually a nice unifier — however in lots of instances, leaders declare that branding with out truly making them inclusive.
Tracie Canada is the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. She is the creator of Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football (University of California Press, 2025) and the director of the Health, Ethnography, and Race by Sports (HEARTS) Lab.
Made by History takes readers past the headlines with articles written and edited by skilled historians. Learn extra about Made by History at TIME right here. Opinions expressed don’t essentially mirror the views of TIME editors.
