Greg Tranter historian, podcaster and author of multiple gridiron books including Buffalo Sports Curse joins us to chat about this 54th Rose Bowl between USC and Indiana and a certain running back that he enjoyed watching play in it.
The 54th Rose Bowl Game
Remembering the 1968 Rose Bowl between Indiana and USC with Greg Tranter
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1968 Rose Bowl memories
We have talked about it multiple times. John McKay was a whale of a head coach in college football and had some tremendously good teams. His squad in the 1968 season may have been one of his best. The Trojans went to the 1968 Rose Bowl game with a 9–1 record, losing only at Oregon State, 3-0 on a muddy field in November. They were still the top-ranked team despite the loss. USC featured a strong running junior tailback that had transferred from a junior college named OJ Simpson. Their opponent on January 1, 1968, in Pasadena, was the Indiana Hoosiers of Coach John Pont. The fourth-ranked and co-Big Ten champion Hoosiers also came into the game with a 9–1 record, losing to a tough Minnesota team, before knocking off rival Purdue a week later. The defenses of both schools played well in this game, but Simpson got his due, scoring on a run in the first quarter and again in the third. Indiana scored only a field goal for a final score of 14-3 Trojans. O J Simpson was named as the player of the game.
Credits
A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com.
Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of ROSE BOWL FOOTBALL GAME, VIEW NORTHEAST, 1923 - Rose Bowl Stadium, from Positive Image Photographic Services.
The other photo above is also from Wikimedia Commons and is of the Rose Bowl construction in 1921.After crowds out-grew Pasadena's Tournament Park, architect Myron Hunt drew up plans for the construction of the Rose Bowl stadium in 1920. On January 1, 1923, USC beat Penn State, 14-3, in the first Rose Bowl game. The stadium was enlarged several times, with the south end completed in 1928, taken by an unknown.
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