At first glance, the game looked almost like a carbon copy of last season's finale. There was Nick Marietti '05 under center as the starting quarterback for the Brown football team, prepared to lead the Bears against Columbia. Even the uniforms were the same. If it were not for the variety of colored helmets interspersed throughout the field, it would have been easy to believe that this game was taking place at Brown Stadium in November.
Instead, the Bears and the Lions were half a world away, squaring off before 12,500 loud fans at the Second Annual Ivy-Samurai Bowl, an event designed to expose Japanese football players and coaches to their American counterparts. Organized to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Kantoh (Greater Tokyo) College Football Association, each American school brought six coaches and four former players and partnered them up with 50 all-stars from seven different Japanese Universities.
"I was called by a man named Satohiro Akimoto who had arranged the whole thing the year before between Harvard and Yale," said Brown Head Coach Phil Estes. "It was so successful that they wanted to do it again and they decided they wanted Brown and Columbia to go over and do the same thing. They wanted to watch American coaches coach, have them teach other coaches how to strategize and see what schemes we used."
Estes accepted the invitation and immediately began selecting which players and coaches would accompany him. The final Brown contingent was made up of Estes, Marietti, linebacker Dan Doublin '05, former tri-captain and safety Anjel Gutierrez '05, running back Joe Rackley '03, Assistant Head Coach Abbott Burrell, Defensive Coordinator Mike Kelleher, Offensive Line Coach Frank Sheehan, Outside Linebackers Coach Paul Frisone and Wide Receivers Coach Joe Leslie.
For Gutierrez, it was a chance to not only play one last game, but also get an opportunity to do it on foreign soil.
"It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to go over to Japan and play football," he said. "Everyone would love to have an opportunity to play one more game. I was fortunate that not only did I have that opportunity, but that it was in Japan."
While Gutierrez and the other seniors were finishing up classes in Providence, their Japanese counterparts were busy learning the Brown offense. When the Bears finally arrived in Tokyo on June 14, Frisone was impressed with how much the players had soaked up.
"All the players and coaches were very proud that (the Japanese players) learned our defense and our offense," he said. "They did a lot of work on their own because they did not want to be embarrassed."
The preparation by the Japanese All-Stars made it easier for the team to come together over the four days between the Americans' arrival in Tokyo and the game. There was, however, still a fair amount of work to be done and a packed schedule to fit it in.
"The intensity that the players had was amazing," Frisone said. "Everything they do is full speed and these guys are fearless. They were far more knowledgeable than I'd expected."
Rackley was also impressed with the Japanese players' excitement.
"The players were just as smart or smarter (than American players), they made great decisions," he said. "They were not as athletic or as big, but they played with as much or more heart."
The Japanese hosts also made sure to give their visitors a chance to experience Japanese culture, taking the Brown and Columbia visitors to various shrines and temples throughout the city. They also gave the Americans a chance to experience Japan's most popular sport: sumo wrestling.
At a visit to the University of Tokyo Agricultural School, the two delegations from the Ancient Eight were given a chance to see how the gargantuan wrestlers practiced. They were also given the opportunity to participate. Frisone accepted, donning the traditional sumo belt, and nothing else. After running through a couple of drills, Frisone was allowed to spar against one of the sumos.
"It was unbelievable," Frisone said. "After I was done they told me I had been one of a handful of westerners allowed into a sumo ring. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - when am I going to be back in Japan?"
The last major activity before kickoff was a clinic the Bears and Lions held for roughly 300 Japanese players and coaches. Each coach discussed the basic philosophy and techniques for specific positions. Estes was a huge draw, speaking to a group of nearly 100.
After four very full days, the Bears and Lions were ready for kickoff at the Komazawa Track and Field Stadium in Tokyo. In front of a crowd of 12,500 and a large TV audience, the two squads battled to a 21-21 tie at the half.
Although the Bears were generally able to overcome the language barrier with the help of an interpreter or English-speaking Japanese teammates, Estes did find it difficult to deliver his usual spirited halftime speech.
"The hardest part is you get so emotional and you can only say one sentence before the interpreter is interpreting," he said. "You can only hope he will say it not only in the same way, but with the same emotion. When it was 21-21 (at the half), I kept on saying 'the Bear will always attack, but the Lion will sleep' and I'm not sure if they were really getting it."
The message certainly must have gotten through somehow, as the Bears dominated the second half, shutting out the Columbia offense for a 38-21 final.
Rackley was named the game MVP after rushing for 177 yards and one touchdown, especially surprising given that he had not played an organized game since 2002.
"It felt good getting back out there. It was kind of like I'd only taken off a summer," Rackley said. "It was great, especially having that one last game and it meant so much to me to come out of retirement and be named MVP."
Even after returning to America, the players and coaches have kept in contact with their overseas counterparts.
"I have gotten so many e-mails from players about how much they learned," Estes said. "One of the quarterbacks wants to play in the N.F.L. and he said I was like a father to him and he wanted to get me the best seats when he was out there. It makes you feel good that they learned a lot."
