Alaska football history: From the Ice Bowl to a serial killer

Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.

Once upon a time, football was not all that popular in Alaska. For decades, baseball was king, primarily among settlers and whalers, of course. When a new town was established, one of its earliest features was typically a baseball diamond, whether on snow, mudflats, or dry ground. When a wireless station was installed on St. Paul Island in 1911, the first questions were for Ty Cobb’s batting average and the standings.

Football was also far from the second favorite sport in early American Alaska. Curling scores were often front-page news in gold rush Fairbanks. Mushing dominated the Seward Peninsula in the 1910s. There was wrestling, boxing, and hockey, which all waxed and waned through the early 20th century. And basketball was at least useful as an indoor diversion during winter.

Football grew slowly in Alaska. One of the earliest, if not first, organized football teams here was based in Metlakatla, a Utopian Anglican community founded on Annette Island in 1887 by missionary William Duncan after he led a group of Tsimshian acolytes out of British Columbia. There, football was a small part of an all-encompassing effort to transition his followers from their traditional culture to the European preferences of Duncan, including medicine, religion, songs, clothing, and even town layouts.

The distant ancestor of modern high school football in Alaska might be a 1903 New Year’s Day game between the Douglas and Juneau schools. According to accounts from Douglas, “Our team as they played yesterday weighed five pounds to the man (i.e., 50 pounds to the team) less than Juneau.” Their math was either incorrect, or they played with less than a regulation squad, but they nonetheless trounced Juneau 20-0.

One anecdote from the game stands out, perhaps the oldest Alaska football tall tale. During halftime, the Juneau coach claimed one of his players was injured, “his leg practically paralyzed,” and asked if they could substitute in a convenient and conveniently large 20-year-old. The Douglas side agreed, but only if they could substitute in an even larger 19-year-old. With this development, the wounded Juneau player miraculously recovered.

Happy as the Douglas residents were about their rout of the “mainlanders,” they failed in a larger mission to establish a tradition. Until the 1940s, attempts to increase the presence of football were sporadic and ineffectual. The most notable examples of this trend came at the end of this era.

In 1938, Father Bernard Hubbard organized a football game with the Inupiaq residents of King Island (Ugiuvak) as the players. Nicknamed the “Glacier Priest,” Hubbard was a famed Jesuit documentary filmmaker, geologist, volcanologist, and lecturer best known for his overwhelming fascination with Alaska’s varied geography. On Jan. 1, different members of his expedition coached each team as the parka-clad Oogruits (Walruses) defeated the Airgrits (Reindeer) 7-6 in the first football game in King Island history.

Later that year, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner opined that the Golden Heart of Alaska deserved a dedicated football field and bowl game. “Named after the signal feature of the region are the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Sun Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Prune Bowl, and the Coal Bowl. Fairbanks can top them all with the ‘Gold Bowl.’ Why not.” Unfortunately for Fairbanks, Juneau beat them to the name.

On Thanksgiving Day 1939, Juneau hosted the Gold Bowl exhibition between the Sourdough Nuggets and Baranof Bears, two teams of locals created for the event. The University of Washington loaned enough uniforms and gear for 40 players. So, the Nuggets wore the familiar purple and gold while the Bears were adorned in white and gold. Around 700 people watched at Fireman’s Park as the Nuggets beat the Bears 6-0 in a sloppy affair nevertheless celebrated by promoters and city leaders as a civic triumph. Still, though planned as an annual event, there were no more Gold Bowls.

Football’s popularity in Alaska finally rose with the rush of settlers in the 1940s and early 1950s, a demographic boom prompted by the rapidly expanded military presence in the territory. These new arrivals wanted the features of their life in the Lower 48. They desired the same comforts, entertainment, and latest shiny things found in glittering destinations like Peoria, Sacramento, or Tampa. Especially in urban Alaska, the 1940s and 1950s were an era of imports: imported people, wine, liquor, lounge singers, strippers, drag queens, television, movies, music, and fashion. In a way, having ventured to exotic Alaska and proudly calling themselves pioneers, the settlers then wanted to mold the place into a reasonable facsimile of their previous homes.

And in the 1940s, football finally established itself as a regular presence in Alaska. There were still no proper high school or locally sponsored teams as there were for other sports. Instead, the military provided the entertainment. Teams like the Fort Richardson Raiders represented Alaska in exhibitions against all comers, including games against civilians, a matchup that favored the servicemen. There are a few more standards for military service than the general public. For example, in 1945, the Raiders beat the Civvies 12-0, the latter a team of civilian Anchorage residents.

During the 1940s, collegiate football was more popular than the professional version, and bowl games were the sport’s foremost spectacle. The supply, however, was minimal. While the New Year’s tradition has been expanded and debased in years since, there were only eight real bowl games in 1950. This was the setting for the grandest, most ambitious attempt at football in Alaska history.

In 1948, some Fairbanks sportswriters, businessmen, and university leaders dreamed that Alaska could compete with the Rose Bowls and Cotton Bowls. So, organizers planned the first Ice Bowl for Jan. 1, 1949, between the University of Alaska, now the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and airmen from Ladd Air Force Base, now Fort Wainwright. The most significant hurdle was not the weather or cost but the lack of a university football team. In most places, teams exist before games, but allowances must be made this far north. In a striking example of that sourdough spirit, 35 students, roughly 20% of the male enrollment, volunteered to play in the two weeks between the announcement and actual game. Maybe half of them had played for an organized team, high school or college.

On Dec. 31, 1948, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner declared, “The only New Year’s day football game in the country where admission is free will get under way with the dull thud of mukluk on frigid pigskin at 11 a.m. tomorrow.” In the comfortable present, the game time temperature of 25 degrees below zero may sound like a romantic, rugged context for a historic football game, a northern Lambeau, but the reality was a bit more physically reckless than inspiring. The university team stumbled onto the snowy turf in their makeshift uniforms. By rule, no player could be on the field for more than five minutes before being replaced by a warmer body.

The Ladd Flyers were heavily favored, but it was a day of surprises. Per the Daily News-Miner game account, “Five hundred fans scorned the 25-below zero weather to stomp on the sidelines and watch — through the frozen vapor of their own breath — the college and air force squads mush to a scoreless tie ... The football itself exhibited an entirely new set of tricks in mid-air as punts lofted from caribou mukluks and passes wobbled off mittens.” Compared to surviving footage, the stated attendance was an optimistic estimate. As there was no winner, a trophy donated by Austin “Cap” Lathrop was not awarded. It was an uninspiring exhibition enjoyed by some as a novelty but overlong on ambition compared to what it delivered. The campus newspaper declared the tie a “moral victory” given their underdog status.

Three more Ice Bowls followed. In 1950, the university team beat the Flyers 3-0 on a field covered in 10 inches of snow. It was the type of game where a six-yard quarterback sneak was described as “one of the few successful runs.” In 1951, the two teams tied again. After three years, the Ice Bowls had produced a grand total of three points scored. The following year, the Ladd team defied precedent and scored 47 unanswered points. It is up to the eye of the beholder as to which is the worse spectator experience, a tense 0-0 tie or an embarrassing 47-0 blowout. With the attendant decline in interest and pride, there were no more Ice Bowls and little mention of them until enough time had passed to allow for nostalgia.

The first varsity football team in Anchorage history began play in 1951. Short on uniforms and players, the Anchorage High School squad’s biggest problem was a severe lack of opponents. In their first game, on Sept. 15, 1951, they played a team of adult servicemen, the Elmendorf Jets. They unsurprisingly lost 24-12.

Despite a relatively brief football history, Alaska has produced several professionals. Fifteen players born in Alaska have played in the NFL, including two who began their professional careers in 2023, Brandon Pili and Tyree Wilson. The first NFL player from Alaska was George Nix (1895-1978). Born in Howkan, the Haida Nix was, like many Alaska Natives, parted from his family and sent to boarding schools, first in Oregon, then the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, now the Haskell Indian National University. As in Metlakatla, football at Haskell was one of many activities meant to transition Alaska Natives and Native Americans away from their traditional culture. Despite his context, Nix prospered as an athlete.

He played with fellow Alaskan Frank Peratrovich at the Chemawa Indian School in Oregon and Haskell. During this time, the Oregon Statesman described Peratrovich as “one of the greatest football tackles that the Indians ever had, and one of the real stars of the Northwest.” After Haskell, Peratrovich eventually returned to Alaska, where he was a celebrated civil rights leader. His brother, Roy, married Elizabeth Peratrovich.

Per an excellent review of his career by Matt Tunseth in 2015, Nix was known at Haskell as “the football demon from Alaska” while also wrestling, running track, boxing, and playing basketball. After Haskell, the interior lineman played for the Hominy Indians, a traveling professional football team comprised solely of Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

[George Nix, Alaska’s NFL pioneer]

In 1926, he joined the Buffalo Rangers of the NFL, thus becoming the first Alaskan to play in the league, which was itself in only its seventh season. In case you were wondering, the Rangers, which ceased operations after the 1927 season, are not in the lineage of the modern Buffalo Bills franchise, which began play in 1960. Nix played two games at guard before being released after a midseason coaching change, ending his brief NFL career.

The all-time leader in games played in the NFL by a player born in Alaska is 1984 Service High graduate Mark Schlereth. The two-time Pro Bowler played 156 games from 1989 to 2000. His son, Daniel, also born in Anchorage, was better at baseball and played four seasons in the major leagues.

Perhaps the most notorious NFL player born in Alaska is Robert Rozier. He grew up in California but was born in Anchorage while his father, an airman, was stationed here. In 1979, the defensive end played six games for the St. Louis (now Arizona) Cardinals, followed by a brief stint in the Canadian Football League.

After his brief football career, Rozier fell under the sway of Yahweh ben Yahweh, leader of the Black supremacist cult Nation of Yahweh. A self-described “death angel” for the cult, Rozier admitted to participating in the murder of seven people but was sentenced to only 22 years in prison after agreeing to testify against Yahweh. As the attorney for another sect member said, “The government makes a deal with a seven-time killer, and he gets 22 years in prison. That’s a deal that would make Monty Hall proud.”

He served only 10 years but returned to prison in 1999 after bouncing a $66 check in California. Due to the state’s three-strikes law, he was sentenced to 25 years to life. As of writing, he is a guest of the Mule Creek State Prison, having spent far more years imprisoned on check fraud than as a serial killer.

Of the fifteen players born in Alaska who have played in the NFL, several others, like Rozier, did not have strong ties to Alaska. They were raised elsewhere and graduated from schools far away. The list does not include some notable Alaskans, who, while not born here, more truly represented the state in the NFL. For example, West High’s Rocky Klever played for the New York Jets from 1982 to 1988. And Mao Tosi graduated from East Anchorage High in 1995 and played for the Arizona Cardinals from 2000 to 2001. Players like Klever and Tosi will be the subject of a future article.

[3 NFL rookies with Alaska roots are living their dreams and proud of where they come from]

Key sources:

“20 to 0.” (Skagway) Daily Alaskan, January 3, 1903, 1.

“AHS Gridders Bow to Jets, 24-12.” Anchorage Daily Times, September 15, 1951, 5.

“Chemawa Braves Go to Haskell.” Oregon Statesman, September 9, 1922, 2.

Cole, Dermot. “Ice Bowl Offered Frozen Football on New Year’s in Fairbanks.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, December 29, 1993,

“Douglas Doings.” [Juneau] Daily Alaska Dispatch, January 2, 1903, 1.

“First Ice Bowl Clash Tomorrow.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, December 31, 1948, 1, 8.

“Gold Bowl for Fairbanks—Why Not.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, December 3, 1938, 2.

“Gold Bowl Grid Game Big Event.” [Juneau] Daily Alaska Empire, November 24, 1939, 5.

Henry, Tom. “Ice Bowl Classic is Tradition in North.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, December 24, 1951, 4, 5.

“King Island Eskimos Play for Ice Bowl.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, January 3, 1938, 7.

List of all NFL players born in Alaska, USA. Pro Football Reference.

Meyers, Georg Nelson. “No Decision in Ice Bowl Grid Tussle.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, January 3, 1949, 1.

“Oogruits Overcome Airgrits in Ice Bowl.” New York Times, January 3, 1938, 24.

“Post Raiders Dump Civies in Mud, 12-0.” Anchorage Daily Times, September 24, 1945, 5.

Tunseth, Matt. “George Nix, Alaska’s NFL Pioneer.” Anchorage Daily News, January 31, 2015.

Zarnke, Randall. “Gridiron in the Far North.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, January 11, 2009, E1, E6.

“Zero Hour Nears for Gold Bowl.” [Juneau] Daily Alaska Dispatch, November 22, 1939, 1, 5.