Some of you may know the name Roy Riegels. Many who don’t know his name will identify him as I tell his story.

The year was 1929. The University of California was playing Georgia Tech in the Rose Bowl. Stumpy Thomason, Georgia Tech’s halfback, had the ball and was hit hard by Bennie Lom, so hard that he “coughed up the ball,” - that’s the way the sportswriters would say it. He fumbled and Roy Riegels picked it up, which you could do in college ball in those days. Riegels began to run. But Stumpy Thomason, who had gotten to his feet, was prepared to tackle him, so Riegels reversed his field, evidently got disoriented, and began to run the wrong way, toward his own goal line.

Georgia Tech didn’t know what was going on but they were content to let him run as long as he was running in the wr…