NNew Year’s Day has been marked with an annual tradition since 1916: two college football teams met in the Rose Bowl, a game known for its spectacular play and competitive gridiron action. The game is usually played in Pasadena, Calif., and is associated with the Big 10 and PAC-12 Conferences – although the rise of college football has upended the old conference.
However, in 1942, during World War II, the game was held in a very different location. That year, Duke University hosted the Rose Bowl in North Carolina, the first time (and only time, until 2021) that the famous game was played outside of Pasadena.
This rare edition of the Rose Bowl has become well-known in Duke football news – its university football club included a show celebrating the matchup. But one part of the story is glaringly missing: all the players on both teams were white. This history exposes how, despite claims that sports are the most unifying culture, especially in times of crisis, they can unite “us” which is often the result of being marginalized.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and with Japan as a major threat, government officials considered large gatherings on the West Coast too dangerous. Lieutenant General John DeWitt, commander of the US Fourth Army, and California Governor Culbert Olson canceled the Rose Bowl parade and game.
There was still a lot of support for playing the game elsewhere, especially from Oregon State, a West Coast team slated to play in its first Rose Bowl. About two weeks before kickoff, officials decided Duke, an East Coast rival, would host the event.
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Wallace Wade, after whom Duke’s stadium would eventually be named, coached a formidable Blue Devil team. Duke had a 9-0 regular season record, averaged 34.5 points per game, and had scored at least 50 points three times on the season.
Tickets sold out in 48 hours for the new event. The Oregon State team traveled to Durham by train and arrived on Christmas Eve after a 3,417-mile journey.
The game drew about 56,000 fans, more than Duke Stadium could hold. This forced the school to borrow bleachers from the nearby University of North Carolina and North Carolina State.
However, in the midst of this excitement and spectacle, the Black players and coaches were absent. There was no team for both, and Duke wouldn’t allow Black fans to attend.
Despite their current commitment to football, Black athletes were systematically excluded from participating in this major sport. The root was the secession of the South and something called “gentleman’s agreement,” which was an unspoken policy between the Northern and Southern parties.
The history of Duke football has revealed the effect of the strategy. The Blue Devils had not competed against a Black football player until 1938, when they traveled to New York to challenge Syracuse. And an opposing football player wouldn’t compete on Duke’s campus for another eight years — until a game against Pittsburgh in 1950.
In this context, the deliberate exclusion of Black players from the Rose Bowl was not surprising. And while Oregon State was outside of these regional boundaries, their team also had no Black players. Additionally, their Japanese American player was unable to attend the game officially due to military restrictions. He was later forced into a prison camp due to Executive Order 9066.
But the ban on Black fans was something different. Duke often reserved a small, separate section for Blacks. This policy was not carried over to the Rose Bowl, however, even though 20,000 seats were added to the stadium to meet the demand for admission. On December 20, 1941, they Carolina TimesDurham’s leading black newspaper, drew attention to the matter with the headline, “Negro Banned from Rose Bowl.” Concerned that this type of criticism would interfere with the language of the game, Duke obtained 140 tickets for blacks.
Oregon State ended up beating Duke 20-17, and the Rose Bowl returned to Pasadena the following year.
Historically, the concept of a game is based on the fact that it is played at all. It was the first example of how political and cultural leaders relied on sports as the ultimate source of unity, especially in difficult times. Narratives of nationalism and patriotism permeated these narratives. According to an article in the New Year’s Eve edition of Durham Day“No matter who wins the football game on New Year’s Day, one thing is certain—America will win,” as wartime obstacles “could not stop the Americans.”
The game set a precedent: other athletic events would continue throughout World War II.
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Most recently, Americans saw this use of sports after 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombings, and by August 2020, the MLB, NBA, WNBA, and NHL had all found ways to resume play despite the pandemic. of the world that wanted to isolate itself. . Time and again, commentators have described these sporting events as necessary actions that have helped bring Americans together in the wake of tragedies.
The Rose Bowl of 1942, however, raises a question about this plan: who, exactly, is included in American society in these situations when leaders think that Americans are coming together? The game shows how the election was – and is – an active, organized decision, which takes power and authority. Despite the positive qualities of sports as human beings, racial, gender, class, and inequality often influence who will be part of the unity that sports creates.
In 1942, this meant that the Rose Bowl was only available to white players and coaches, and mostly reserved for white fans. The racial traditions of the South meant that the “we” whom the directors hoped to unite by playing the game was only a fraction of the American population. In that sense, the Rose Bowl represented the entire American war effort. Despite a propaganda campaign encouraging all Americans to unite and do their part in defeating the Axis and insurgents, the US military remained heavily segregated with people of color relegated to menial jobs and soldiers Blacks are discriminated against abroad and at home.
It is important to remember the issue of inclusion when watching sports, especially the pride, pride, and patriotism that are often associated with sports. Often, the unity of action and the call for Americans to come together is a cloak for inequality and exclusion. Sports can be a big gathering – but in many cases, leaders say that it’s branding without making them inclusive.
Tracie Canada is the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. He is the author of Dealing with the Day-to-Day: Race and Community in Major League Soccer (University of California Press, 2025) and director of the Health, Ethnography, and Race through Sports (HEARTS) Lab.
Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by historians. Learn more about Made by History by TIME here. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors of TIME.
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