In 1939, St. Mary’s-Loyola Showdown Was Postponed Because of Polio Scare

Although an outbreak of measles at USC will not lead to the postponement of today’s USC-UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl, there was a time when a major West Coast showdown had to be put off for fear of an epidemic.

The year was 1939. The game pitted St. Mary’s against Loyola. A crowd of more than 50,000 was expected at the Coliseum, and the game was the talk of the town.

“It was an important game, all right,” Burch Donahue, then Loyola’s quarterback, said Friday from his Torrance law office. “But I wouldn’t say it was as big (as today’s USC-UCLA matchup).”

The week before the game, Donahue and starting tackle Bob Link were hospitalized with mild cases of polio, a highly infectious disease that attacks the brain and spinal cord.

Link, whose illness remained in the preliminary stages, made a full recovery. Donahue, however, was paralyzed from the hips down.

The game was postponed at the request of Dr. William Powell, a health officer for Contra Costa County, who said in a statement to St. Mary’s officials: “Based on official information now in my possession, I desire to inform you that if St. Mary’s football team plays Loyola University next Sunday, it will be necessary for me to place the entire squad in isolation for a period of 14 days.”

St. Mary’s stayed home in Moraga. The entire Loyola team was placed in quarantine, and a possible epidemic was thwarted. No other players showed symptoms of the disease.

The game was played 6 weeks later in San Francisco, but without Donahue and Link, and without the original enthusiasm. On Dec. 3, 1939, St. Mary’s beat Loyola, 40-7, at Kezar Stadium, 40-7. A crowd of about 10,000 was on hand.