In the 1929 Rose Bowl, Georgia Tech went against UCLA. It was a terrific football game. A player for UCLA by the name of Roy Riegels recovered a fumble in the first half of play and raced for the goal line. The only problem was he went the wrong way. Fortunately, one of his teammates tackled him just short of the goal or he would have scored a safety for the opposing team. As a result, he put his team in such a precarious position that it led to a safety by the other team and that turned out to be the margin of victory for Georgia Tech.

When half time came, Roy Riegles and the rest of his team went into the locker room. It was more like a tomb. The coach didn’t say anything until about two or three minutes before the half-time ended when he said, “Go back out, fight hard.” Then he went on to say, “The same ones who started the game will start the second half.” Roy Riegels was sitting over in the corner of the locker room crying. He knew what had happened. The players went out, the coach looked back and there was Riegels. He said, “Come on, that includes you. You heard what I said. Those who started the first half will start the second half.”

Reigels said, “I can’t, coach. I’ve embarrassed you. I’ve embarrassed our team. I’ve embarrassed myself. I can’t go out there and face all those people. I can’t do it.” Coach Price looked at him and said, “Riegels, the game is only half over. Get out there and get going.” Roy go up and played the game of his life. They never saw such a football player that second half Roy Riegels got a second chance.

-From Steven Lombardo, “God of the Second Chance” – Preaching May/June 1999

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