1945 Sugar Bowl

This is the 1/1/1945 Duke vs Alabama game. The Sugar Bowl. It is a color film with radio audio. Harry Wismer calls the game on The Blue Network. With the exception of the Rose Bowl, most Bowls were only about 8 or 9 years old. Legendary media personality Grantland Rice said this was the best one he had ever seen. It was war time and most schools had trouble fielding teams due to military service. Duke wasn't one them. They had a veteran team and the school trained officers for miltary duty. Frank Thomas was the coach for Alabama and at the time and he had to assemble a team of mostly 17 year old freshmen and a few players who were rejected by the military. This group became known as The War Babies. Even though they lost, a legend was born as young QB Harry Gilmer sets Bowl passing records. The contrast in styles alone made this an entertaining game. I claim no rights to the film or the audio but I did author this combination.

[@mr.g1758]

This was Alabama's famous "War Babies" team. Most of the Tide team was comprised of freshmen and sophomores, as the older players were fighting in WWII. Alabama's QB Gilmer was a freshman here. There had been no varsity team in 1943. Duke had a roster full of upperclassmen. In fact, Duke coach Wallace Wade--who had coached at Alabama from 1923-30, was an officer in the war effort. Duke won 29-26. The next year Bama went 10-0 and beat USC in the Rose Bowl, finishing second in the AP poll to Army. For those watching refer to the last play of the contest where Duke made a shoestring tackle to save the game.

[@lzv6990]

14:40 Amazing throw while jumping.

[@nathaniellathy6559]

When Duke was a gridiron 🏈 power