Jack Crabtree (born November 19, 1935) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

who was the

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

of the

1958 Rose Bowl The 1958 Rose Bowl was the 44th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Wednesday, January 1. The heavily-favored Ohio State Buckeyes of the Big Ten Conference defeated the Oregon Webfoots o ...

, despite the fact that his team lost the game.

Early life

Crabtree grew up in Lakewood, California and attended Excelsior High School in nearby Norwalk where he starred at quarterback. He attended

San Bernardino Junior College San Bernardino Valley College is a public community college in San Bernardino, California. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The college has an enrollment of 17,044 students and covers . Valley College is also a ...

before attending the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

and became the starting quarterback for the

Oregon Ducks football The Oregon Ducks football program is a college football team for the University of Oregon, located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The team competes at the NCAA Division I level in the FBS and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12). Although ...

team in his senior season of 1957.

Rose Bowl

In 1957, Crabtree led the Ducks to a tie for the

Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (including a ...

championship with Oregon State. Since Oregon State had gone to the Rose Bowl the previous year, the unranked Ducks earned a berth in the

against heavily favored and top-ranked

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. In the game, Crabtree completed 10 of 17 passes for 135 yards—huge numbers for those days—and the Ducks nearly pulled off a major upset, tying the game 7-7 in the second quarter and holding the score until the fourth quarter when a Buckeye field goal put Ohio State ahead for good, 10-7. For his heroics in a losing effort, Crabtree was named Rose Bowl MVP, one of only two players from a losing Rose Bowl team to win the award outright.

Cal Cal or CAL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Cal'' (novel), a 1983 novel by Bernard MacLaverty * "Cal" (short story), a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov * ''Cal'' (1984 film), an Irish drama starring John Lynch and Helen Mir ...

Benny Lom Benjamin Lom (June 29, 1906 – June 29, 1984) was an American college football player who played for three seasons for the University of California, Berkeley Golden Bears, and was best known for his attempt to stop his own teammate Roy Riege ...

, who tackled teammate "Wrong Way" Riegels in the

1929 Rose Bowl The 1929 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game and the 15th annual Rose Bowl Game. Played on January 1, 1929, the game saw the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (also known at the time as the Georgia Tech Golden Tornado) defeat the California Golde ...

, is the other; several players from losing teams have shared the award with players from the winning school. Crabtree was named to the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1998.

Pro career and retirement

Crabtree was drafted in the 12th round of the

1958 NFL Draft The 1958 National Football League draft had its first four rounds held on December 2, 1957, and its final twenty-six rounds on January 28, 1958. Both sessions were held at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia. This was the 12th and final year in ...

by the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

before spending two years in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. In 1960, he played briefly with the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

and Los Angeles Chargers of the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

. Following his retirement from football, he worked for the

Champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, an ...

sportswear company, becoming manager of its

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sales force. He now lives in Portland, Oregon.

Legacy

Crabtree was named to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 and the University of Oregon Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crabtree, Jack People from Norwalk, California Players of American football from Eugene, Oregon Players of American football from Los Angeles County, California Living people American football quarterbacks Philadelphia Eagles players Los Angeles Chargers players Denver Broncos (AFL) players Oregon Ducks football players San Bernardino Valley College alumni 1935 births