Rose Bowl Legend Wallace Wade

ROSE BOWL LEGENDS

Wallace Wade

Wallace William Wade (June 15, 1892–October 7, 1986) was an American college football coach. He was born in Trenton, New Jersey

Wade played football at Brown University. One of his teammates at Brown was Fritz Pollard, who went on to become the first African-American coach in the National Football League.

After working as an assistant coach at Vanderbilt University, Wade was hired as the head coach at the football-mad University of Alabama in 1923. Over the next seven years, Wade's team won three national championships, after winning the Rose Bowl in 1925, 1926, and 1930.
Following his third national championship, Wade shocked the college football world by transferring to Duke University, which had less of a football tradition than Alabama. Though Wade initially refused to discuss his reasons for moving to Duke, he later admitted that the University shared his belief that a school should provide its athletes with a strong academic background.

Wade continued to succeed at Duke, most notably in 1938, when his "Iron Dukes" went unscored upon until reaching the national championship game, where they lost 7-3 to the University of Southern California in Duke's first Rose Bowl appearance. Wade's Blue Devils lost another Rose Bowl to Oregon State in 1942, this one held at Duke's home stadium in Durham, North Carolina.

The change in scenery was a result of the Pearl Harbor attacks, which made the event organizers skittish of hosting a game in California. Wade entered military service after the Rose Bowl loss, and the legendary Eddie Cameron filled in for him as head football coach from 1942 to 1945. Wade returned to coach the Blue Devils in 1946, and continued until his retirement in 1950.

In 1967, Duke's football stadium was renamed Wallace Wade Stadium in his honor. Wade is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. He died in Durham, North Carolina at the age of 94.