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1917 Mare Island Marines
Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2022 11:38 pm
by SuperHornet
This is perhaps one of the most dominant teams in the history of sports. A group of Marines, most of whom were likely of "appropriate" age who played a largely (now) Pac-12 and service barnstorming (i.e. all road) schedule and won the Rose Bowl against another service team. Interesting fact: HC Hugo Bezdek in this game became the first man to win Rose Bowls for two different teams (Oregon Webfoots and MINSY; he later took Penn State to the Rose Bowl and lost). He is one of the best coaches in college history, at least in football (127-58-16). He also coached college baseball (222-123-1) and basketball (28-37). Bezdek is also the only guy I know of who was both a head coach in the NFL (1-13) and a manager in MLB (166-187). What a versatile guy! But just look at these game scores from 1917 MINSY:
15 SEP d. @ Cal 27-0
29 SEP d. @ Cal 26-0
14 OCT d. @ Olympic Club (Vallejo, CA) 27-3
21 OCT d. @ Saint Mary's (Moraga, CA) 27-0
03 NOV d. @ Oregon (Portland, OR) 27-0
10 NOV d. @ Camp Lewis (Tacoma, WA) 13-0
24 NOV d. @ U$C 34-0
01 JAN d. @ Camp Lewis (Rose Bowl) 19-7
Re: 1917 Mare Island Marines
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 3:24 am
by CID1990
All the Marine bases had football teams and played these types of schedules.
Camp Lejeune Marines were a fixture on a lot of major college schedules during that same period. They won a lot of games
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Re: 1917 Mare Island Marines
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 7:04 am
by Ibanez
CID1990 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 3:24 am
All the Marine bases had football teams and played these types of schedules.
Camp Lejeune Marines were a fixture on a lot of major college schedules during that same period. They won a lot of games
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I worked with a guy that grew up at Camp Lejeune in the 1960s and 70s, he said their high school baseball team would sometimes play a scrimmage against the Marines baseball team. I always wondered if there was any truth to that.
Re: 1917 Mare Island Marines
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 7:58 am
by CID1990
Ibanez wrote:CID1990 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 3:24 am
All the Marine bases had football teams and played these types of schedules.
Camp Lejeune Marines were a fixture on a lot of major college schedules during that same period. They won a lot of games
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I worked with a guy that grew up at Camp Lejeune in the 1960s and 70s, he said their high school baseball team would sometimes play a scrimmage against the Marines baseball team. I always wondered if there was any truth to that.
Also true with rugby. My local rugby team (Dan River) used to play them.
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Re: 1917 Mare Island Marines
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 8:47 am
by Ibanez
CID1990 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 7:58 am
Ibanez wrote:
I worked with a guy that grew up at Camp Lejeune in the 1960s and 70s, he said their high school baseball team would sometimes play a scrimmage against the Marines baseball team. I always wondered if there was any truth to that.
Also true with rugby. My local rugby team (Dan River) used to play them.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very cool.