The 53rd Rose Bowl Game

As part of our look back at the Rose Bowl games, we remember the epic game played on January 1, 1967 between the USC Trojans and the Purdue Boilermakers with historian Troy Derengowski of The Indiana Sports Radio and Radio Troy.

Monday, January 2, 1967, marked the Rose Bowl played between the #7 Purdue Boilermakers of the Big Ten Conference and the unranked USC Trojans of the AAWU. The contest started off as a defensive struggle as either team scored in the first quarter. Both teams found the end zone in the second quarter though to make the halftime score 7-all. Jack Mollenkopf, the head coach of the Boilermakers, mad a rousing halftime speech. Purdue’s fullback Perry Williams ran the football across the goal line in the third to put the Indiana team ahead 14-7. The game came down to the last two minutes to play. USC scored a touchdown on a Quarterback Troy Winslow scoring strike to Rod Sherman of 19 yards. Southern Cal Coach John McKay decided to go for two-point and the win. Purdue's George Catavolos got in the way of this idea literally when he intercepted the pass in the end zone to preserve the 14–13 Boilermaker victory.
Purdue defensive back John Charles was selected as the Player of the Game.

Purdie Spoils 03 Jan 1967, Tue The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, Hawaii) Newspapers.com

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: Wikipedia, Newspapers.com, Troy Derengowski's research and, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com.

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of Purdue University football coach Jack Mollenkopf centered on a overlay of yellow roses, in a photo by Darin Hayes and two football svg public domain images from Wikimedia Commons as well as a modified A University of Notre Dame football helmet Supa Snoopa.