American football was demonstrated within the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on 8 August, at 8 in the evening, the only time it has been a demonstration sport at the Olympics. In 1904, a series of college games in the St. Louis area is described in the 1904 Official Report (Spalding Version), but they had no significant connection to the Olympic Games.
The 1932 demonstration was a single game played by American college players from the East, representing Yale, Harvard, and Princeton; and the West, representing Cal Berkeley, Stanford, and Southern Cal. Newspapers noted that the game was a test of football’s new rules. The game was scoreless for three quarters, but the East team led until deep in the fourth quarter, 6-0, after a touchdown by Burton Strange, but Eddie Mays, Jr. missed the extra point attempt. When Gus Shaver, of Southern Cal, scored for the West with seconds remaining on a fourth-down play, the extra point by Ed Kirwan gave the West the victory, 7-6.
The head coaches for the two teams were Howard Jones, coach of the University of Southern California at the time, and Tad Jones, former head coach at Yale. They were brothers. The assistant coach for the West team, under Howard Jones, was Glenn “Pop” Warner, who had coached Jim Thorpe at Carlisle Indian School.
USA