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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


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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.


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:thumb: Very cool.