The 1941 Rose Bowl: More than just a game

Today, sadly, most of the Cornhuskers who played in the 1941 Rose Bowl game are no longer with us, including Warren Alfson, Wisner and George Abel, Lincoln, about whom this story is based. Though both these men were successes in their chosen professions, they will ever be identified as members of the Nebraska Rose Bowl team of 1940. It has been more than 75 years since that game was played, and Nebraska has gone on to greater glories — long winning streaks, national titles, All Americans, and Heisman Trophy winners. Yet, whenever sports fans in Nebraska get together to talk about great moments in Cornhusker football history, the talk is sure to turn to that great Rose Bowl game of Jan. 1, 1941, the culmination of the first 50 years of Nebraska football.

Coach Biff Jones had replaced Dana X. Bible as head football coach at Nebraska in 1937. Bible was a legend at NU and it was rather like Tom Osborne replacing Bob Devaney years later. People were hopeful, but had their fingers crossed.

As had Coach Bible before him, Biff Jones recruited heavily within the state, and indeed, by 1940, with the exception of three Kansas boys, all members of the squad were from Nebraska. Biff Jones proceeded to meld these boys into a team — a team which became more like a family. One of these Nebraska boys was Warren Alfson, from Wisner.

Alfson had been a standout athlete at Wisner H.S. But after high school there was no money to go to college, so Warren worked on various farms around Wisner for three years before enrolling at the University. At that time freshmen were not eligible for varsity action, so his freshman year was spent as a part of the team that would now be referred to as the Scout Squad. After his freshman year he took a self-imposed “red shirt” year, then came back for the 1938 season, and immediately made his mark on the Cornhusker squad.

In the ‘30s, NU had no financial assistance to give, which was not necessarily the case at some of the other Universities. If there were NCAA rules, they were very laxly enforced. After a game with Baylor, which was nationally ranked at the time, some of the Baylor players and the NU players attended a dance at the Turnpike Ballroom, a popular spot just outside of Lincoln. During the course of the conversation the Baylor players asked how much the Nebraska players were being paid for playing football. When they said that they got nothing, the Baylor players derided them for being chumps and playing for nothing. Then a fight nearly broke out when the Baylor players realized that they had just gotten whipped by a bunch of “amateurs.”

The best the University could do was to line up jobs for the athletes with businesses around Lincoln. A number of the players worked for Lincoln Steel, which was considered good, as was the Concrete plant and a wholesale grocery house, in that the job involved heavy work and players could keep in good shape. (There was no state of the art weight room at NU in that time.) Some other players worked as janitors, newspaper ad salesmen, dry cleaner’s helpers, or case movers at a soft drink plant. The average pay for the part time jobs that the football players held in 1940 was 35 cents per hour.

But using local boys who paid their own way proved to be no handicap to fielding a nationally ranked football team. After a slow beginning in 1938, Biff Jones’ team posted a 7-1-1 season in 1939. Warren Alfson, Harry Hopp, and Herm Rohrig earned All Conference honors that year. Their only loss was to the Missouri Tigers at Columbia, who were led by the great Paul Christman.

1940 was to be a big year for the Cornhuskers, but it didn’t start out that way. The first game of the season the team lost to Minnesota 13-7, when a 66-yard touchdown run by Cambridge’s Butch Luther was called back because of an offside penalty. However, that was the last loss by the Cornhuskers in 1940. The fine Nebraska season was rewarded by an invitation to a Bowl game, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA, on Jan. 1, 1941, to play Stanford. Though the team played well, and the game has been referred to a one of the outstanding games the first half-century of college football, NU lost 21-13.

Even though the Cornhuskers lost their bowl game, the 1940 season was looked upon as a fitting climax to the University’s first half century of football. The team had won the Conference Championship and had played in the school’s first ever Bowl game. Ray Prochaska, Forrest Behm, Warren Alfson, Harry Hopp, Butch Luther, Roy Petch, Eddie Schwartzkoph, and Vike Francis all won All Conference honors, and in addition, Warren Alfson and Forrest Behm were named All-Americans. The game reaffirmed Nebraska as a major power in Collegiate Football, and engendered pride throughout the state. But probably the greatest benefit was the great and lasting relationship that was established among the members of the team.

After playing in the College All Star game, in January, 1941, the professional teams showed interest in several members of the Cornhusker Rose Bowl team, including Warren Alfson. After a bit of soul searching Warren accepted an offer from the Brooklyn Dodger Football team to play in the 1941 season. Professional football was not the big deal it is today. There was no television, of course; radio coverage was local, and the country was just coming out of the great depression, so ticket prices were modest. Hence, the Pro-teams had very little money with which to work. Consequently, players’ salaries were low. When Warren Alfson, a lineman, signed his contract he received a $50 bonus. When asked years later how he spent his big bonus, he laughed and said, “Judging by today’s salaries, $50 doesn’t seem like very much, but it was in line with what everyone else was getting, so I was satisfied. Marge (his new wife) and I had never been to New York before, so we decided to splurge. I took my bonus and we went to a really nice restaurant. We had the most expensive dinner they had on the menu, plus a bottle of wine. Even with all that we still got back $20 change out of the $50.”

Pro Football organizations were shaky in those days and it was not uncommon for a team to fold mid season. For that reason the football players insisted upon being paid following each game. The standard contract was for one season. Long-term contracts were unknown. And then, during the Pro game on December 7, 1941, word came that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. For the players, that day marked a most profound change in their lives. Most of the ‘41 players, both College and Pro, including Warren Alfson and George Abel, would be in the service of their country before another season rolled around.

Warren Alfson went into the Navy in the spring of 1942. When he finally was discharged, in 1945, he had gotten over his desire for a football career. He went back to Wisner, farmed and raised and fed cattle for the rest of his working life. While his professional football career only lasted one year, his association with football, especially Cornhusker football, lasted the rest of his life.

He kept a block of season tickets for the NU games, through the lean times of the ‘50s and through the good times of the Devaney-Osborne-Solich years, until the time of his death. He enjoyed talking football with coffee drinking cronies, making predictions on upcoming games, and dissecting past games.

The association among the members of the “Rose Bowl” team remained strong, like an extended family. They got together frequently. They held season tickets to the Cornhusker games. They served as namesakes, and godfathers to each other’s sons. They kept in touch with frequent telephone calls.

In December, 1965 I was in Lincoln at the time of the 25th anniversary of the Rose Bowl game. The team chose this opportunity for a reunion. It was the last time that Coach Biff Jones came to a reunion and most of the living members of that team were in attendance. I happened to run into Marge Alfson in the lobby of the old Cornhusker Hotel. I mentioned that it was nice that the team could get together for a reunion. She said that it was a special reunion, perhaps because Coach Jones was there. These men of the world, some now powerful “Captains of Industry” were again boys, gathered around their coach. They knew they had been a part of something special, and they enjoyed the experience.

“I’ve never seen anything like this reunion,” Marge said. “No one is even drinking very much. (unlike some earlier reunions). It’s as if they hate to miss out on even one minute of their time together. They’re reliving every play of that whole season.”

George Abel and Warren Alfson, both linemen, were especially close. The Abel family was and is a very rich and powerful family in Lincoln, with interests in many enterprises, especially construction and road building. At one point after the war George contacted Warren and offered him a position in one of the Abel businesses. It was a good offer, and one that probably would have made Alfson extremely wealthy. He considered it seriously, but eventually turned down the offer. As he explained it years later,

“You know, George Abel and I were like brothers. I told George that I respected our friendship more than anything. If the offered job didn’t work out it would probably end our friendship, and I just couldn’t take that chance.”

Warren Alfson was a successful cattle feeder in Cuming County. George Abel took over the family business and achieved great success. He is remembered today for his skill in business and his generous contributions to worthwhile civic endeavors in Lincoln. Both men are members of the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame.

And so it was, with Warren Alfson and George Abel, as it was with so many of the boys who played in that 1941 Rose Bowl game. The two remained best friends — Rose Bowl Warren Alfson, Wisner and George Abel, brothers to the end of their days!