Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1165179
n o r t h w e s t e r n f o o t b a l l • D I G I T A L P R O G R A M • N O R T H W E S T E R N v s . U N L V 23 1949 ROSE BOWL | BY: SKIP MYSLENSKI "Whenever I see Bill," Tunnicliff said with a chuckle, "I always say. 'Thanks for the block.'" The halfback found his way to the 10-yard line and met Bear defender Frank Burk, whom launched himself toward Tunnicliff and wrapped both hands on his shoulder pads at the seven-yard line. "I knew he was going to hit me," he remembers. "But it just ran through my mind, 'I'm going to get to that end zone if I have to carry the whole stadium.' But I think if he had gone for my legs, I wouldn't have scored." But Brunk didn't go for the legs and Tunnicliff did reach the end zone, falling into surface just inside the right flag. "We knew about that play," Brunk would later say. "But it worked even though we had practiced against it." "I knew that play," echoed head coach Waldorf. "We practiced it when I was coach there. It's just that we never used it." "I've studied that play as I've gotten older and that's the great thing about football. You need all 11 guys doing their job," Tunnicliff said recently. "In baseball, if you have a couple good pitchers, you're going to win a lot of games. In basketball, if you have a couple good scorers, you're going to win games. But in football you need all 11 guys doing their job. I've watched that play over and over and over, and everybody did their job. That's why it went." •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Cal would flurry after the kickoff, crossing midfield, but with 43 seconds remaining Pee Wee Day recorded the fourth Wildcat interception of the afternoon and solidified the 20-14 Northwestern victory. Sarkisian, years later, recalled the aftermath, and his memory served as a fitting epitaph for the group honored today. "After the Rose Bowl victory," he recalled, "the photographers asked coach [Voigts] to pose with me holding the football used in the game. I was still in my wet, soiled uniform and I told the coach not to put his arm around me as it would ruin his suit. He looked at me and said, 'I can get a new suit. But I'll never get another football team like this one.'"