Day 9: Cliff Montgomery '34

A 1934 Rose Bowl ticket and Cliff Montgomery's player of the game medal



Yesterday I profiled Lou Little's last great quarterback at Columbia, Claude Benham '57. Today, I focus on his first, 1934 Rose Bowl MVP Cliff Montgomery '34.

Cliff Montgomery had it all: athletic ability, brains, and movie star looks. On one New Year's weekend in Southern California, he put all three to good use.

Montgomery led his Lions into the Rose Bowl against a heavily favored Stanford team on January 1, 1934. One local reporter thought the Lion squad was so small that they looked like "Pomona High School in blue jerseys."

But the Lions won that historic game, 7-0, thanks to the famous "KF-79" play that fooled the Indians and brought glory to Morningside Heights.

Even though it was Al Barabas '35 who scored that winning touchdown, Montgomery was voted the games most outstanding player.



Ready for his close up!


A day later, Montgomery was in Hollywood... literally. Studio executives thought he was a natural for the movies and the nimble-footed courageous lion did a screen test with future cowardly lion Bert Lahr and the nimble-footed Ginger Rogers.

But Coach Little convinced Montgomery to come back to school, and Montgomery thanked him for it later. His career varsity record as a starter was an incredible 23-3-2.





A bit later that year he led the College All Stars to a stunning 0-0 tie with the defending NFL champ Chicago Bears in the first ever Chicago Charities College All-Star Game. More than 79,000 people were at that game. Montgomery became a pro himself the next year, joining the Brooklyn Dodgers football team, but left football as a player for good after one season.



Montgomery's 1935 football card by gum maker National Chicle


Cliff Montgomery's heroic days were not over after college. In World War II he was credited with saving the lives of 400 of his fellow sailors during the 1945 battle of Okinawa.

He later became a successful executive at McGraw-Hill and a longtime football referee. Montgomery was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1963.


And One More Thing...

All summer, I've been talking up the brand new football program at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. The excitement surrounding the team has been amazing, especially in this economic climate. The Monarchs started things out with a 36-21 win over Chowan last Saturday. ODU's head coach wrote a very special acknowledgement to the fans this week that I want every Columbia fan to read. The importance of a raucous crowd at home games is crucial.