Rose Bowl

Paddy O’Riley and Ossie Merrill, Bellport high school football heroes, enroll in distant colleges; Paddy at a small school in the East, where he is barely a substitute, and Ossie at a powerhouse-football school, where he is an instant star and all-American candidate. They leave behind Cheers Reynolds, who is fond of Paddy, who works in her family’s drugstore, but she loves Ossie almost as much as he loves himself. Paddy makes friends with team fullback Dutch Schultz, who accompanies him on vacation, and they arrive back in Bellport just as Ossie is also coming home on break. Florence Taylor is also in town on a film junket. Unknown to any of the others, Paddy and Florence had gone to high school together. Back at school and three years later, Paddy and Dutch learn that their football team could get invited to the coveted Rose Bowl to play against Ossie’s team, if it could get enough publicity (pre-BCS days) that would attract a large crowd. They are soon up to their hip-pads in publicity when the newspapers learn that Paddy is in love with Cheers, who is in love with Ossie, who is in love with Florence, who loves Schultz. The Eastern team gets invited. Cheers, on an innocent mission, is discovered in Paddy’s room the night before the game by Coach Soapy Moreland, who suspends Paddy from the team and orders him to turn in his uniform which, based on the unrealities that this film portrays as college football (even in the 1930’s), he probably had hanging on a hook in his hotel room closet.