| Wins against Kentucky - 1 | Losses against Kentucky - 0 |
Alma Mater: Brown [1917]
Date Born: June 15, 1892
Date Died: October 6, 1986
Overall Record: 24-16 [2 Seasons]
Date | Matchup | UK Result | Score | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1/18/1922 | Kentucky at Vanderbilt | L | 12 - 22 | - |
Obituary - Anniston (AL) Star (October 6, 1986)
Wallace Wade Dies at 94
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Wallace Wade, the former Duke and Alabama football coach who brought the 1941 Rose Bowl to Durham from Pasadena, Calif., after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died this morning after a brief illness. He was 94.
Wade coached in five Rose Bowls and played in one as a member of the Brown University team that lost to Washington in 1916. He coached eight years at Alabama, where he won 61 games, lost 13 and tied three before going to Duke.
At Duke, Wade compiled a record of 110-36-7 in two coaching stints between 1931 and 1941 and 1946 through 1950.
Wade had been hospitalized for the past several weeks, suffering from pneumonia.
Long before the push for academic reforms within collegiate athletics, Wade had commented that football should be put in perspective along with other sports.
"It can be more spectacular, perhaps," Wade said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1981. "But after all, school and college football should be played for the benefit and development of the young man, not to entertain the crowd."
Wade arrived at Alabama in 1923, and his 1925 team won the Southern Conference championship and captured his first Rose Bowl with a 20-19 victory over Washington. The 1926 Crimson Tide club also went to the Rose Bowl and tied Stanford, 7-7.
The 1930 Alabama team whipped Washington State 24-0 for one more Rose Bowl triumph before Wade moved on to Duke.
Duke's 1938 team dropped a 7-3 Rose Bowl decision to Southern California, but he called the Jan. 1, 1942 post-season clash with Oregon State his most memorable because he literally took charge of staging the event with three weeks left.
At the time, Californians were fearful that the Japanese would follow up on their attack on Pearl Harbor. Federal officials also discouraged gatherings of large crowds on the West Coast.
"Finally, I went down to the administration," Wade said in a 1981 interview. "I suggested 'Why don't we invite 'em to play here?'"
Wade said he got the go-ahead from Duke officials, then contacted officials in Pasadena.
"I told them we'll do the best we can and divide the gate receipts the way I consider to be fair. That's all the contract we had," Wade said.
the game ended with a 20-16 loss to the Beavers, although the crowd of 56,000 was the third largest ever to see a game in the stadium that in 1967 was renamed in honor of Wade.
that game was the last Wade would coach until 1946, when he finished his service in the Army and returned to Duke for four years. He had only one losing season in the five years he was back, leading Duke to a 7-3 record in his final campaign in 1950.