Benny Lom Benjamin " Benny " 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 Riegels after Riegels ran the ball 69 yards in the wrong direction during the 1929 Rose Bowl . Biography . 1927 season . As a sophomore in his first game with Cal , Lom threw two long forward pass es to win the game . In another game that season , several of Lom ' s passes led Cal to a 13 – 0 win over Saint Mary ' s College of California . The team went 7 – 3 that season and Lom was named as an honorable mention on the " Associated Press " All - America team and was named as a first - team member of Lou Little ' s All - America team . 1928 season and 1929 Rose Bowl . Cal finished with a 6 – 1 – 2 record in the 1928 season and faced the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the 1929 Rose Bowl . In the second quarter , Lom forced a fumble by Stumpy Thomason of Georgia Tech . Lom ' s teammate Roy Riegels picked up the ball at the Georgia Tech 35 - yard line and headed for a touchdown but reversed direction after spinning to avoid tackles and started heading towards his own goal line . Lom chased after Riegels trying to tell him to turn around , but Riegels couldn ' t hear him over the roar from the crowd of 70 , 000 . Lom ultimately caught up with Riegels at Cal ' s own six - inch line . The play was described at the time as follows : " Down the field raced Riegels , the white lines passing beneath his feet , his mind concentrated upon out - running the Georgia Tech team . Lom gradually overtook him . Once it looked as if Lom were going to make a flying tackle of his teammate , as he was within diving distance , but he evidently expected to turn Riegels around . Not until Riegels reached the 1 - foot mark did Lom overtake him . Lom then pulled Riegels by the shoulders and motioned toward tbe opposite goal . Riegels stopped , and at that instant two Georgia Tech players tackled him and threw him over the goal - line . The referee called the ball down at the place where Riegels had been stopped by his teammate . " Recovering the ball inside their own one - yard line , the Cal Bears opted to punt on first down . Lom attempted the punt , but Lom ' s punt was blocked and the ball was recovered by Georgia Tech after a " mad scramble " for a safety that gave Georgia Tech a 2 – 0 lead . Georgia Tech scored a touchdown in the third quarter to make it 8 – 0 . With a little more than a minute left in the fourth quarter , Lom led Cal on a 98 - yard drive to score a touchdown and kicked the extra point to bring the Bears within a point , but the safety proved to be the margin of victory for Georgia . In its coverage of the game , " The New York Times " called Lom " the outstanding hero of the game for the losers . he played smart football , was in every play and carried the ball on sweeping end runs with dash and vigor . " Lom was retrospectively honored in 1953 with the Player of the Game Award of the 1929 Rose Bowl game , one of only two players from the losing team to be selected outright for the honor . 1929 season . The team had a 7 – 1 – 1 record in 1929 . Highlights of the season included a 54 - yard kickoff return on the opening play of a game against the University of Pennsylvania that Cal won 12 – 7 . In a November 1929 game against the heavily - favored University of Southern California Trojans , Lom set up for a punt and ran the ball back for an 85 - yard touchdown after a USC player trying to block the kick was blocked and two USC players were avoided near the line of scrimmage . Cal beat USC 15 – 7 , and Lom ' s performance led the United Press to write : " Standing out above all the others in the California lineup were Benny Lom , the slight Jewish halfback , and Roy Riegels . . . If there ever was any doubt that Lom was a great back he proved it to - day . His long punts continually offset advantages Southern California gained through hard running plays . His passing was deadly . He ripped off long gains with disturbing frequency and finally took the game out of the disputed class by running eighty - five vards through the entire Trojan team to a touchdown , the second for the Bears . " In 1929 , Lom was selected for the All - Pacific Coast first team and was selected as a third - team All - American by the Associated Press and a second - team All - American by the Newspaper Editors Association and the North American Newspaper Alliance , He was also received honorable mentions from Grantland Rice and " United Press " . International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame . Lom was one of ten athletes inducted in 1995 into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame .