100 years ago in Spokane: Chronicle sports editor heads to California to referee Rose Bowl

George Varnell was the Spokane Daily Chronicle’s sports editor – but he was also “the dean of football referees in the West.”

He was on his way to Pasadena, California, to referee what the Chronicle called “the annual New Year’s East-West Tournament of Roses football classic” – aka the Rose Bowl.

The game in 1923 – sorry, the first day of 1924 – would be between the University of Washington and the U.S. Naval Academy.

The Chronicle said that Varnell “took command of the first Tournament of Roses game in 1920 when Harvard defeated Oregon by a score of 7 to 6.”

From the crime beat: A “robber gang” rampaged through Yardley and Parkwater, just east of Spokane, breaking into two post offices and many of the area’s businesses and residences.

The gang’s first stop was the Western Cedar Pole Preserving plant’s tool house, where they stole a hammer, a chisel and a pair of pliers, which they used to break into the other businesses and houses.

One of the victims, H.W. Algeo, of Yardley, was not pleased with the police response.

“When I called the sheriff’s office about 10:30 p.m., they asked me if I thought it would do any good to send a man out to investigate,” Algeo said. “I told the man on the phone I certainly did think so. My house was the first one robbed and if reasonably prompt action had been taken, the burglars would have been caught.”

A police spokesperson said responders misunderstood Algeo’s phone message and believed the robbers were long gone.