The Cal 100: No. 67 -- Roy Riegels
We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.
No. 67: Roy Riegels
Cal Sports Connection: He was a standout offensive and defensive player on Cal's football teams in 1927, 1928 and 1929, and he played in the Rose Bowl following the 1928 season.
Claim to Fame: He was named a second-team AP All-American in 1929, but is better known for his wrong-way run in the 1929 Rose Bowl, earning him the nickname Wrong-Way Riegels.
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Roy Reigels created a conundrum when evaluating his place on The Cal 100: He was a second-team All-America selection, but that's no better than a lot of other Cal athletes. His main claim to fame was a moment of miscalculation that turned into a lifetime of ridiculing.
But it was also a prominent moment in college football history, and when you consider our definition for inclusion in The Cal 100 -- “impact in sports or in the world at large” -- Riegels figures prominently in both aspects. Even though he played at Cal nearly 100 years ago as a lineman, his name lives on, although his moniker is usually Wrong Way Riegels.
Or as Wikipedia puts it, “His wrong-way run in the 1929 Rose Bowl is often cited as the worst blunder in the history of college football.”
Here is a video of his blunder on January 1, 1929, in which Riegels picked up a fumble, and, for some reason, made a U-turn and ran 65 yards the wrong way. He did not, as some reports suggest, cross the goal-line, but was tackled by teammate Benny Lom on the Cal 1-yard line. Cal was forced to punt from there, the kick was blocked for a safety and Cal ended up losing to Georgia Tech 8-7.
The Rose Bowl website adds this bit to Riegels’ story.
Riegels was so embarrassed he almost didn’t return for the second half. However, he showed his captain valor and came back to play a great second half, even blocking a kick. But those two points haunted him and his team until the end. Riegels became a teacher and coached football at California at the high school and junior-college levels. He was elected to the Cal Hall of Fame in 1998. Riegels died in 1993.
He was also elected into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame, and his run became the subject of numerous stories for years to come, including a 1955 Sports Illustrated report, which includes these two paragraphs:
Riegels' mistake, which set up the margin of defeat for California, inspired a massive mail. He was immediately dubbed "Wrong Way Riegels." One letter writer proposed marriage. Others wanted to arrange sponsorship of upside-down cakes, a backward walkathon, a necktie with stripes running the wrong way. Although the 165-pound center put in a fine season with California in 1929 (even making a few All America teams), he remained Wrong Way Riegels.
Now 44, Riegels is an executive of a large cannery, lives in a comfortable Sacramento home with his wife and two boys. "I used to be sensitive," he says, "but everybody else thought it was funny and I finally decided that all I could do was laugh with them. Sometimes my 10-year-old son calls me 'Wrong Way Riegels'—and I don't even spank him for it."
It was the season after his blunder, 1929, that Riegels was named to several All-America teams as a center, but he is remembered only for his one infamous play at the end of the 1928 season.
Riegels died in 1993, and the New York Times headline on his obituary read: “Roy Riegels, 84, Who Took Off in the Wrong Direction in Rose Bowl”
Without that wrong-way run, the New York Times would not have written an obituary about him, but how many other members of our Cal 100 have lives that would warrant a New York Times obituary?
The Cal 100: No. 68 -- Heather Petri
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Cover photo of Roy Riegels courtesy of Cal Athletics
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