A group of former Ivy League All-Stars had a lot of obstacles, including just a few days of practice together, a 13.5-hour flight, and a 13-hour time change, and still, it wasn’t too much overcome.
On Jan. 22, the Ivy League All-Stars defeated a group of Japanese professional football players 24-20 in the Dream Bowl in Tokyo.
Not only that, but the Ivy All-Stars faced some adversity, needing a fourth-quarter touchdown to overcome a 20-17 deficit and earn the victory.
“It was a culturally fabulous week, and the Japanese couldn’t have been better hosts,” said Columbia coach Al Bagnoli, whose staff coached the All-Stars.
The Ivy League team consisted of 52 players whose eligibility has expired. That included players who had competed for an Ivy League school and then finished their eligibility elsewhere.
For instance, the game MVP was running back Isaiah Malcome, who was a second-team all-Ivy League selection during his final season at Penn in 2021. He then went on to play for Saginaw State as a graduate student, where he rushed for 697 yards (5.4 avg.) and six touchdowns this past season.
In the Dream Bowl, Malcome rushed for 45 yards on nine carries and scored a 3-yard touchdown. He also had three receptions for 40 yards.
The Ivy quarterback was Ryan Glover, who was on Penn’s roster from 2017-2019. (There was no Ivy League season in 2020 due to COVID). After that year, Glover spent a season at Cal and competed this past season for Memphis as a backup quarterback.
In the Dream Bowl, he completed 18 of 28 passes for 274 yards. Glover also rushed for 32 yards and scored the game-winning touchdown, an 18-yard run that gave the Ivy League a 24-20 lead with 4:06 left.
“Thank goodness we had Glover available to us,” said Bagnoli. “He had quite a game.”
The team never had a practice together until the group landed in Japan. There were a few Zoom meetings to discuss the playbook, but they met in New York on a Friday night and departed for their trip to Japan on the next day, Jan. 14. The flight was 13.5 hours and with the time change, the team didn’t arrive in Japan until Sunday evening.
“Monday you’re groggy as hell trying to get used to the time change and the length of the flight, so Monday was kind of a wash and we had a walk-through,” Bagnoli said.
The team only had three full days of practice Tuesday through Thursday. Friday was a reduced day and then Saturday was a walk-through at the stadium.
So Bagnoli and his staff had to make things as simplified as possible. Instead of running a no-huddle offense, the team would huddle. And all the players wore wristbands that included many of the plays.
Then again, these are Ivy League players, so they were able to learn the offense and defense quickly.
And they had to play against professionals.
“The running back was the kid who played at New Mexico State and the wide receiver was a guy from Arizona,” said Bagnoli, who guided Columbia to a 6-4 record this past season.
The running back he was referring to was Trashaun Nixon, who was a standout linebacker in college.
After beginning his career in junior college, Nixon recorded 189 tackles, including 22.5 tackles for loss in his two years at New Mexico State. The 6-1, 230-pound Nixon converted to running back in Japan.
Nixon was named the MVP of Japan’s 2022 X-League, his second award after also winning it in 2018. Since 2016, he has been named All-X League each season.
Against the Ivy League, Nixon rushed for 101 yards (5.1 avg.) and one touchdown and added four receptions for 70 yards.
The wide receiver Bagnoli mentioned was Samajie Grant, who as a senior at Arizona in 2016 played both receiver and running back and was an honorable mention All Pac-12 selection. He had seven receptions for 91 yards against the Ivy League All-Stars.
“They have gone out and invested in bringing American players into Japan,” Bagnoli said. “So we played against some talented players.”
The Ivy League players would practice in the mornings and the rest of the day they had considerable time for sightseeing. Included was visiting the U.S. Embassy in Japan.
Bagnoli, who is entering his eighth season at Columbia after guiding Penn to nine Ivy League titles, said the atmosphere surrounding the All-Star game made the event special.
“We played at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium where they held the (2021) Summer Olympic Games so the venue was great and we had 20,000 people,” he said. “So all that made it a better experience for our kids and it is something they will always remember.”
