SWC75
Bored Historian
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(I'm picking up on this series again, for a while. My plan was to complete the 1950's and pick it up next season with the 1960's but I got a bit sidetracked with the basketball season. There's actually only one more year in the 50's after 1954 with a serious controversy.)
THE SEASON
1954 was the year of the first “split decision” between the AP (writer’s) and the UPI (coaches) poll. It was also the first year we had three teams with perfect records at the top of the heap since 1940. Ohio State, the AP champ, was 9-0-0. So was UCLA, the UPI choice. Then there was Oklahoma, 10-0-0, who finished 3rd in both polls and was now 19 games into their 47 gaming winning streak that would produce the next two national championships.
Unfortunately, two of these teams were constrained by “no repeat” rules about bowl games. Both the Big 10 and Pac 10 had one for the Rose Bowl and the ACC and Big 7, (they would become the Big 8 in 1960 when Oklahoma State joined) had one for the Orange Bowl. This prevented a mega match-up between the AP champ Buckeyes and the UPI champ Bruins in the Rose Bowl as UCLA had lost to Michigan State there the year before. And Oklahoma had beaten Maryland in the 1/1/54 Orange Bowl so they stayed home, (none of these conferences allowed more than one team to go to a bowl game), instead playing Duke, who routed a 6-4 Nebraska team 34-7 in the Orange Bowl.
The fact that the Big 7 had to send a 6-4 team to get slaughtered in a major bowl game revealed a hidden fact behind the Oklahoma dynasty of the 1940’s and 1950s: they were great, and proved their strength in bowl games, (where they went 7-1 from 1946 to 1958), and other intersectional games. But their conference was terrible. Besides the Sooners, the conference produced five other ranked teams besides the Sooners in that period: In 1947 Kansas was 8-0-2 but ranked only 12th and would have fallen further after losing to Georgia Tech 14-20 in the Orange Bowl. In 1949, Missouri was tied for #20 at 7-3-0 and would have dropped out after losing the Gator Bowl to Maryland 7-20. Nebraska was 6-2-1 and ranked #17 by the AP and #18 by the UPI in 1950. They stayed home, even though the Big 7 hadn’t signed the Orange Bowl contract yet. Kansas was back in 1951, going 8-2-0 and ranked #20 by the UPI but unranked in the AP poll. They also stayed home, (there were only seven major college bowls at the time. The conference had to wait another 5 years for a non-Sooner ranked team. Colorado in 1956 reached the magical #20 ranking in the AP in 1956, (but #18 in the UPI) with a 7-2-1 record and managed to beat #19 Clemson 27-21 in the Orange Bowl.
At that point the no-repeat rule was rescinded and Oklahoma went to Miami the next two years, (including when they beat Syracuse.) The Sooners over that time went 122-13-3 (.904), including a ridiculous 71-1-2 in the Big Seven. Their only loss was 13-16 to Kansas in 1946, the first year of the stretch. Bud Wilkinson wasn’t even their head coach yet- Jim Tatum was, (before he went to Maryland.) Bud lost his first Big 7 game on October 31, 1959, when Nebraska beat the Sooners 25-21. He’d been 69-0-2 to that point, with only a 13-13 tie to Kansas in 1947 and a 21-21 tie with Colorado in 1952 marring his league record. Oklahoma was ranked every year: 14-16-5-2-1-10-4-4-3-1-1-4-5. The Sooners were legit but their conference was not and that may have been why they finished behind the Buckeyes and the Bruins in 1954.
Notre Dame almost joined this group, which would have made for an ideal four team playoff. Under their new head coach, handsome 26 year old Terry Brennan, who had been a halfback for Frank Leahy’s late 40’s powerhouses and then won three consecutive city championships at Mt. Carmel high school in Chicago, (No, Jerry Faust wasn’t the only coach to go directly from high school ball to the head job in South Bend), the Irish were the pre-season #1 team, followed by Oklahoma, Maryland, Texas, Illinois, Michigan State, Georgia Tech, UCLA, Wisconsin and Mississippi. Ohio State was #20. They all survived the first week, (although only half of them played that week). But Oklahoma, who had beaten #12 California 27-13, slid ahead of the idle Irish, who regained the #1 slot the next week by dominating #4 Texas 21-0. Georgia Tech, Illinois and Michigan State all went down that week. Maryland lost the next one while Brennan’s team fell to perennially pesky Purdue 14-27. Iowa had risen to #3 but they lost in week four. That week Ohio State buried Illinois 40-7 and entered the top 10 at #10. The rankings were churning as Purdue, Duke, Navy and Penn State were all now in the top ten- until they lost in week 5. Wisconsin made it to #2 behind eventual Heisman Trophy winner Alan Ameche and then got handled by the Buckeyes 31-14. Mississippi had made it to #5 but lost to Arkansas 0-6. Minnesota made it to #8 but got blown out by Michigan 0-34.
That boiled it down to the Big Three. In the October 25th poll, Ohio State had risen to #1 in the AP poll and #3 in the UPI. Oklahoma was #2 in both polls. UCLA was #1 in the UPI and #3 in the AP. The Buckeyes scraped by unranked Northwestern 14-7 while Oklahoma beat unranked Colorado 13-6. The Bruins beat formerly ranked California 27-6 and found themselves #1 in both polls on November 1st. Ohio State was #2 in both and Oklahoma #3 in both. Shibusa! They all won blow-outs the next week: the Bruins 41-0 over Oregon, the Buckeyes 26-0 over Pittsburgh and the Sooners 40-0 over Iowa State. This did not change the polls. In week 9, UCLA had a bye while Ohio State beat Purdue 28-6 and Oklahoma handled Missouri. The writers must have treated a bye like a tie because Ohio State now moved into the #1 AP slot while the Bruins stayed #1 in UPI. Nothing changed the next week as both teams ended their season with impressive wins over their greatest rivals: Ohio State 21-7 over #12 Michigan and UCLA 34-0 over #7 Southern California. That ended their regular season seasons and UCLA’s season. Oklahoma blew out Nebraska 55-7 and beat Oklahoma State 14-0 to finish their season.
That set up a surrogate confrontation between Ohio State and UCLA. The Bruins had just crushed USC 34-0 and now Ohio State would play them in the Rose Bowl. Could they top that? No they couldn’t. They beat the Trojans decisively but in a driving rainstorm, 20-7. There was again no poll after the bowls. Would the difference in the two scores against USC have made a difference had there been one? We’ll never know. We could ask California, the greatest 5-5 team of all time. They lost to all three teams! (The other losses were by 6 to 6-4 Oregon and 2 to 8-4 USC.) Maybe we should also ask Kansas, who lost to both UCLA and Oklahoma. The following descriptions of these games are from “50 Years of College Football” by bob Boyles and Paul Guido, “Big Bowl Football” by Fred Russell and George Leonard, “The Buckeyes” by Wilbur Snypp “The Best Little Rivalry in Town” by Jody Brown and “College Football’s Greatest Teams” from The Sporting News.
Pappy Waldorf’s California team hosted Oklahoma in the opener for both teams on September 18. “the confident Golden Bears blundered their upset opportunity with a raft full of miscues but still trailed only 7-6 at halftime. QB Paul Larson converted fumble recovered at the Sooners’ 30 yard line into a TD run in the 2nd quarter but the Bears had to trade it for a 7 yard TD run by OU QB Gene Calume when the Bears booted a poor punt out of bounds at their own 33 yard line…..backbreaking Oklahoma TD came early in 3rd quarter as HB Buddy Leake pitched option pass from near his own goal line to end Max Boydston, who took it 87 yards to score. Larson and end Jim Hanifan, who would turn out to be nation’s most efficient battery, teamed on 16 yard TD in the fourth quarter after Sooners had salted it away at 21-6 on Leake’s 2 yard TD after linebacker Gene Mears fell on a fumble at Cal 25 yard line.” Oklahoma won 27-13.
Two weeks later the Golden Bears traveled to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes. “Ohio State DT Dick Helinski fell on a fumble by Cal HB Sebastian Bordonaro on game’s third day. And Howard “Hopalong” Cassidy whisked 26 yards to the score practically before Cal and buckled on its chinstraps. Cassidy followed another fumble recovery by linebacker Hubert Bobo with a sweep to set up a 17 yard play action pass from QB Dave Leggett to end Bill Michael for a 14-0 lead. QB Paul Larson kept the Bears in the game with a 68 yard kick-off return to set up Hal Norris’ TD plunge that sent Cal off the field trailing only 14-7 at halftime. Larson hit 3 straight passes in the third quarter and raced 13 yards only to fumble at the Ohio 5 yard line. But Cal end Jim Hanifan gobbled up the loose ball in the end zone for the touchdown. Larson missed the tying extra point and threw the interception to set up Cassidy’s clinching 29 yard TD bolt.” Ohio State won 21-13.
Four weeks alter Cal hosted UCLA. “Tailback Primo Villanueva was a major cog in UCLA’s 400 yard single wing offensive machine, scoring twice and tossing an 8 yard TD pass to wingback Johnny Herrmann in the 4th quarter. Villanueva dashed 40 yards to set up his own 3 yard TD at the end of an 8 play 75 yard march in the 1st quarter. His thrilling broken field dash of 26 yards provided the Bruins with a 14-0 lead in the second quarter. Cal QB Paul Larson set a Cal record with 25 completions for 280 yards. Larson led 62 yard scoring advance in the second quarter which was capped by HB Sammy Williams 7 yard trip around left end. The Bears lost fumble to kill promising marches at the Bruins 13 yard line in the 1st quarter and 3 yard line in the 3rd quarter….UCLA FB Bon Davenport launched himself for a short TD at the end of a 64 yard march in 4th quarter.” UCLA won 27-6. The Golden Bears had given a good account of themselves in each game but had come up short each time.
The Bruins’ second game that year had been against Kansas, a 32-7 win in LA that I haven’t found a description of. The Sooners hosted the Jayhawks three weeks later and blew them away 65-0. I also don’t have a description of that but it wasn’t pretty. (Neither was UCLA’s 72-0 win over Stanford on the same day). I did find this highlight film of the OU-Kansas game here on You-Tube:
But the big comparison was UCLA and Ohio State vs. Southern California. The Trojans came into the UCLA game 8-1-0 and ranked #7. Their coach Jess Hill, was not awed by the Bruins: “We’re impressed by the fact that UCLA is considered the #1 team in the nation. But I’m from Missouri and so are my players. We will have to be shown.” One of the first things they saw was “a 48 yard air bomb from tailback Primo Villanueva to end Bob Heydenfeldt, who burned defender Linden Crow to make the reception.” That gave the Bruins a 7-0 lead but the Trojans fought hard and that was also the halftime score. USC seemed to have taken the momentum early in the third quarter when they drove to the UCLA 8 yard line. But Bruin Jim Decker stepped in front of a pass at the goal line intended for Leon Clarke and “sped the length of the field.” The 100 yard lightning bolt didn’t count, however as it was partially called back because of a clip that put the ball on the Trojan’s 23. “Then Ron Calabria popped up to intercept Villanueva’s pitch and the Bruins, too, came away empty handed.”
Then, very late in the third quarter, the dam burst. Bruin DB Johnny Hermann returned another interception 44 yards to the USC 22. Five plays later, fullback Bob davenport, the Sam “Bam” Cunningham of his era, made one of his patented leaps over the goal line form the 1 to make it 14-0. Hardeman Cureton knocked the ball from Jon Arnett’s hands on the kickoff and recovered the fumble USC 15. Two plays later Villanueva hit Terry DeBay with a 15 yard TD pass to make it 21-0. Sam Brown returned a punt 27 yards and Rommie Loudd caught an 8 yard TD from reserve QB Doug Bradley. The Trojans tried to respond and got to the UCLA 29 but were stopped. Another interception gave the Bruin reserves the ball on the Trojan 12”Two running plays lost 7 but then Brown hooked up with Bruce Ballard in the end zone and that added up to the final 34-0 count.”
UCLA held the Trojans to 5 yards rushing and out-gained them 260-108 with 5 interceptions thanks to their fabulous line of ends Bob Long and Rommie Loudd, tackles Jack Ellena and Hardeman Cureton, guards Jim Salisbury and Sam Boghosian and center John Peterson. Jess Hill, after the game, said “the Bruins richly deserved their #1 rating in the nation. Their line is very, very powerful, better defensively than offensively. They didn’t really march on us but defensively they certainly had us. But we weren’t doing badly until the dam broke.”
Now it was Ohio State’s turn – in the Rose Bowl. “An old song lyric goes: it never rains in southern California: it pours.” Both teams were in the rain but not singing in it. The mud was described as “ankle deep”. Woody Hayes was furious when the school’s bands were allowed to march on the already chewed up field at halftime. “They turned it into a quagmire. Eighty million people saw the bands march in the parade. Why did they have to march at halftime, so why did they have to march on that muddy field at the time? They shouldn’t have been permitted on the field. They don’t have any business ruining it when the game was the big thing. The bands are great and I am for them. But football comes first. If you don’t think so, put the bands in the Rose Bowl without the football teams and see how many people you draw.” Boyles and Guido report “This incident because the first example of Hayes failing to win friends among west coast fans and the sporting press.
Ohio State scored after two second quarter USC fumbles. Jim Parker recovered the first one and a 69 yard drive resulted in a Dave Leggett one yard keeper. Leggett then recovered a a pitch-out that slipped through Jon Arnett’s hands at the Trojan 35. “Bobby Watkins smashed through tackle for 14 yards and on the next play caught a pass from Leggett for a touchdown. He grabbed the ball at the 7 and carried a couple of Trojans over the goal with him.”
The one bright spot for the home team was “the finest play of the game, the finest in all Rose Bowl history” according to Oliver Kueckle of the Milwaukee Journal. It was an 86 yard punt return by Aramis Dandoy. Paul Zimmerman wrote the Los Angeles Times: “There was little more than 5 minutes of the second quarter remaining when Dandoy cut loose with the most brilliant run the afternoon to put the Trojans within temporary striking distance. Hubert Bobo, back to kick, had to duck away from two charging Trojans and barely got the ball away. the punt was a line drive affair that went 55 yards before Dandoy fielded the dribbling ball on his 14. The Trojan eluded two on-rushing Buckeyes and fought his way to midfield where George Belotti, a 231 tackle, served up the key block. The fleet Trojan fid a neat job of eluding Bobo after that as he sped toward the end zone.”
That made it 14-7 at the half instead of 14-0 but it was to no avail. Neither team could make much headway on the chewed up field in the second half but the buckeyes managed a 77 yard drive in the fourth quarter, capped by a 9 yard pass from Leggett to Jerry Harkrader. The kick was blocked but Ohio State still won easily 20-7. They outgained the Trojans 370-206, with 305 of their yards coming on the ground.
Woody Hayes capped his complaints about the bands by making the case for his team as #1: “There are four and possibly five Big Ten teams I’d rate ahead of the Trojans”. Russell and Leonard report that “He chided the writers for not ranking his team higher in the pre-season forecasts.” They add: “Southern California coach Jess Hill was complimenting the conquerors at his press conference when someone relayed Hayes’ statement that four Big Ten teams could beat his Trojans. ‘Just say for me I’d like to play them on a dry field.’” When writers suggested that UCLA’s 34 point win over USC meant that they were better than the Buckeyes, Hayes also cited the field conditions: “My coaches who sat in the press box said we would have beaten USC by a higher score on a dry field. They thought our men would have gone a little farther on every play. Ohio State is definitely the #1 team in the nation. I don’t think UCLA could have lived up to that schedule of ours.“ Dick Hyland of the LA times, countered: “the UCLA Bruins could take them both in the same afternoon. If the Buckeyes are the best collegiate team in the country, then the United States Marine Corps is a bunch of sissies.” Bing Crosby tried to promote a post season match between not the Bruins and the Buckeyes but rather UCLA and Oklahoma, (since neither could be in a bowl game) but the NCAA denied permission for such a game. Maxwell Stiles of the Los Angeles Mirror suggested the “no repeat” rule be dumped. “We should play our champion each year or get out. If we can’t beat them with our best, we shouldn’t try to do it with our second best.”
I couldn’t find any video on this game but here are some images:
Buckeyes Rose Bowl Rewind: National championship glory in the mud of 1955
Flashback: Woody Hayes Secures His First National Championship With a 20-7 Win over USC in the 1955 Rose Bowl
Aramis Dandoy Running with the Football Pictures | Getty Images
THE SEASON
1954 was the year of the first “split decision” between the AP (writer’s) and the UPI (coaches) poll. It was also the first year we had three teams with perfect records at the top of the heap since 1940. Ohio State, the AP champ, was 9-0-0. So was UCLA, the UPI choice. Then there was Oklahoma, 10-0-0, who finished 3rd in both polls and was now 19 games into their 47 gaming winning streak that would produce the next two national championships.
Unfortunately, two of these teams were constrained by “no repeat” rules about bowl games. Both the Big 10 and Pac 10 had one for the Rose Bowl and the ACC and Big 7, (they would become the Big 8 in 1960 when Oklahoma State joined) had one for the Orange Bowl. This prevented a mega match-up between the AP champ Buckeyes and the UPI champ Bruins in the Rose Bowl as UCLA had lost to Michigan State there the year before. And Oklahoma had beaten Maryland in the 1/1/54 Orange Bowl so they stayed home, (none of these conferences allowed more than one team to go to a bowl game), instead playing Duke, who routed a 6-4 Nebraska team 34-7 in the Orange Bowl.
The fact that the Big 7 had to send a 6-4 team to get slaughtered in a major bowl game revealed a hidden fact behind the Oklahoma dynasty of the 1940’s and 1950s: they were great, and proved their strength in bowl games, (where they went 7-1 from 1946 to 1958), and other intersectional games. But their conference was terrible. Besides the Sooners, the conference produced five other ranked teams besides the Sooners in that period: In 1947 Kansas was 8-0-2 but ranked only 12th and would have fallen further after losing to Georgia Tech 14-20 in the Orange Bowl. In 1949, Missouri was tied for #20 at 7-3-0 and would have dropped out after losing the Gator Bowl to Maryland 7-20. Nebraska was 6-2-1 and ranked #17 by the AP and #18 by the UPI in 1950. They stayed home, even though the Big 7 hadn’t signed the Orange Bowl contract yet. Kansas was back in 1951, going 8-2-0 and ranked #20 by the UPI but unranked in the AP poll. They also stayed home, (there were only seven major college bowls at the time. The conference had to wait another 5 years for a non-Sooner ranked team. Colorado in 1956 reached the magical #20 ranking in the AP in 1956, (but #18 in the UPI) with a 7-2-1 record and managed to beat #19 Clemson 27-21 in the Orange Bowl.
At that point the no-repeat rule was rescinded and Oklahoma went to Miami the next two years, (including when they beat Syracuse.) The Sooners over that time went 122-13-3 (.904), including a ridiculous 71-1-2 in the Big Seven. Their only loss was 13-16 to Kansas in 1946, the first year of the stretch. Bud Wilkinson wasn’t even their head coach yet- Jim Tatum was, (before he went to Maryland.) Bud lost his first Big 7 game on October 31, 1959, when Nebraska beat the Sooners 25-21. He’d been 69-0-2 to that point, with only a 13-13 tie to Kansas in 1947 and a 21-21 tie with Colorado in 1952 marring his league record. Oklahoma was ranked every year: 14-16-5-2-1-10-4-4-3-1-1-4-5. The Sooners were legit but their conference was not and that may have been why they finished behind the Buckeyes and the Bruins in 1954.
Notre Dame almost joined this group, which would have made for an ideal four team playoff. Under their new head coach, handsome 26 year old Terry Brennan, who had been a halfback for Frank Leahy’s late 40’s powerhouses and then won three consecutive city championships at Mt. Carmel high school in Chicago, (No, Jerry Faust wasn’t the only coach to go directly from high school ball to the head job in South Bend), the Irish were the pre-season #1 team, followed by Oklahoma, Maryland, Texas, Illinois, Michigan State, Georgia Tech, UCLA, Wisconsin and Mississippi. Ohio State was #20. They all survived the first week, (although only half of them played that week). But Oklahoma, who had beaten #12 California 27-13, slid ahead of the idle Irish, who regained the #1 slot the next week by dominating #4 Texas 21-0. Georgia Tech, Illinois and Michigan State all went down that week. Maryland lost the next one while Brennan’s team fell to perennially pesky Purdue 14-27. Iowa had risen to #3 but they lost in week four. That week Ohio State buried Illinois 40-7 and entered the top 10 at #10. The rankings were churning as Purdue, Duke, Navy and Penn State were all now in the top ten- until they lost in week 5. Wisconsin made it to #2 behind eventual Heisman Trophy winner Alan Ameche and then got handled by the Buckeyes 31-14. Mississippi had made it to #5 but lost to Arkansas 0-6. Minnesota made it to #8 but got blown out by Michigan 0-34.
That boiled it down to the Big Three. In the October 25th poll, Ohio State had risen to #1 in the AP poll and #3 in the UPI. Oklahoma was #2 in both polls. UCLA was #1 in the UPI and #3 in the AP. The Buckeyes scraped by unranked Northwestern 14-7 while Oklahoma beat unranked Colorado 13-6. The Bruins beat formerly ranked California 27-6 and found themselves #1 in both polls on November 1st. Ohio State was #2 in both and Oklahoma #3 in both. Shibusa! They all won blow-outs the next week: the Bruins 41-0 over Oregon, the Buckeyes 26-0 over Pittsburgh and the Sooners 40-0 over Iowa State. This did not change the polls. In week 9, UCLA had a bye while Ohio State beat Purdue 28-6 and Oklahoma handled Missouri. The writers must have treated a bye like a tie because Ohio State now moved into the #1 AP slot while the Bruins stayed #1 in UPI. Nothing changed the next week as both teams ended their season with impressive wins over their greatest rivals: Ohio State 21-7 over #12 Michigan and UCLA 34-0 over #7 Southern California. That ended their regular season seasons and UCLA’s season. Oklahoma blew out Nebraska 55-7 and beat Oklahoma State 14-0 to finish their season.
That set up a surrogate confrontation between Ohio State and UCLA. The Bruins had just crushed USC 34-0 and now Ohio State would play them in the Rose Bowl. Could they top that? No they couldn’t. They beat the Trojans decisively but in a driving rainstorm, 20-7. There was again no poll after the bowls. Would the difference in the two scores against USC have made a difference had there been one? We’ll never know. We could ask California, the greatest 5-5 team of all time. They lost to all three teams! (The other losses were by 6 to 6-4 Oregon and 2 to 8-4 USC.) Maybe we should also ask Kansas, who lost to both UCLA and Oklahoma. The following descriptions of these games are from “50 Years of College Football” by bob Boyles and Paul Guido, “Big Bowl Football” by Fred Russell and George Leonard, “The Buckeyes” by Wilbur Snypp “The Best Little Rivalry in Town” by Jody Brown and “College Football’s Greatest Teams” from The Sporting News.
Pappy Waldorf’s California team hosted Oklahoma in the opener for both teams on September 18. “the confident Golden Bears blundered their upset opportunity with a raft full of miscues but still trailed only 7-6 at halftime. QB Paul Larson converted fumble recovered at the Sooners’ 30 yard line into a TD run in the 2nd quarter but the Bears had to trade it for a 7 yard TD run by OU QB Gene Calume when the Bears booted a poor punt out of bounds at their own 33 yard line…..backbreaking Oklahoma TD came early in 3rd quarter as HB Buddy Leake pitched option pass from near his own goal line to end Max Boydston, who took it 87 yards to score. Larson and end Jim Hanifan, who would turn out to be nation’s most efficient battery, teamed on 16 yard TD in the fourth quarter after Sooners had salted it away at 21-6 on Leake’s 2 yard TD after linebacker Gene Mears fell on a fumble at Cal 25 yard line.” Oklahoma won 27-13.
Two weeks later the Golden Bears traveled to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes. “Ohio State DT Dick Helinski fell on a fumble by Cal HB Sebastian Bordonaro on game’s third day. And Howard “Hopalong” Cassidy whisked 26 yards to the score practically before Cal and buckled on its chinstraps. Cassidy followed another fumble recovery by linebacker Hubert Bobo with a sweep to set up a 17 yard play action pass from QB Dave Leggett to end Bill Michael for a 14-0 lead. QB Paul Larson kept the Bears in the game with a 68 yard kick-off return to set up Hal Norris’ TD plunge that sent Cal off the field trailing only 14-7 at halftime. Larson hit 3 straight passes in the third quarter and raced 13 yards only to fumble at the Ohio 5 yard line. But Cal end Jim Hanifan gobbled up the loose ball in the end zone for the touchdown. Larson missed the tying extra point and threw the interception to set up Cassidy’s clinching 29 yard TD bolt.” Ohio State won 21-13.
Four weeks alter Cal hosted UCLA. “Tailback Primo Villanueva was a major cog in UCLA’s 400 yard single wing offensive machine, scoring twice and tossing an 8 yard TD pass to wingback Johnny Herrmann in the 4th quarter. Villanueva dashed 40 yards to set up his own 3 yard TD at the end of an 8 play 75 yard march in the 1st quarter. His thrilling broken field dash of 26 yards provided the Bruins with a 14-0 lead in the second quarter. Cal QB Paul Larson set a Cal record with 25 completions for 280 yards. Larson led 62 yard scoring advance in the second quarter which was capped by HB Sammy Williams 7 yard trip around left end. The Bears lost fumble to kill promising marches at the Bruins 13 yard line in the 1st quarter and 3 yard line in the 3rd quarter….UCLA FB Bon Davenport launched himself for a short TD at the end of a 64 yard march in 4th quarter.” UCLA won 27-6. The Golden Bears had given a good account of themselves in each game but had come up short each time.
The Bruins’ second game that year had been against Kansas, a 32-7 win in LA that I haven’t found a description of. The Sooners hosted the Jayhawks three weeks later and blew them away 65-0. I also don’t have a description of that but it wasn’t pretty. (Neither was UCLA’s 72-0 win over Stanford on the same day). I did find this highlight film of the OU-Kansas game here on You-Tube:
But the big comparison was UCLA and Ohio State vs. Southern California. The Trojans came into the UCLA game 8-1-0 and ranked #7. Their coach Jess Hill, was not awed by the Bruins: “We’re impressed by the fact that UCLA is considered the #1 team in the nation. But I’m from Missouri and so are my players. We will have to be shown.” One of the first things they saw was “a 48 yard air bomb from tailback Primo Villanueva to end Bob Heydenfeldt, who burned defender Linden Crow to make the reception.” That gave the Bruins a 7-0 lead but the Trojans fought hard and that was also the halftime score. USC seemed to have taken the momentum early in the third quarter when they drove to the UCLA 8 yard line. But Bruin Jim Decker stepped in front of a pass at the goal line intended for Leon Clarke and “sped the length of the field.” The 100 yard lightning bolt didn’t count, however as it was partially called back because of a clip that put the ball on the Trojan’s 23. “Then Ron Calabria popped up to intercept Villanueva’s pitch and the Bruins, too, came away empty handed.”
Then, very late in the third quarter, the dam burst. Bruin DB Johnny Hermann returned another interception 44 yards to the USC 22. Five plays later, fullback Bob davenport, the Sam “Bam” Cunningham of his era, made one of his patented leaps over the goal line form the 1 to make it 14-0. Hardeman Cureton knocked the ball from Jon Arnett’s hands on the kickoff and recovered the fumble USC 15. Two plays later Villanueva hit Terry DeBay with a 15 yard TD pass to make it 21-0. Sam Brown returned a punt 27 yards and Rommie Loudd caught an 8 yard TD from reserve QB Doug Bradley. The Trojans tried to respond and got to the UCLA 29 but were stopped. Another interception gave the Bruin reserves the ball on the Trojan 12”Two running plays lost 7 but then Brown hooked up with Bruce Ballard in the end zone and that added up to the final 34-0 count.”
UCLA held the Trojans to 5 yards rushing and out-gained them 260-108 with 5 interceptions thanks to their fabulous line of ends Bob Long and Rommie Loudd, tackles Jack Ellena and Hardeman Cureton, guards Jim Salisbury and Sam Boghosian and center John Peterson. Jess Hill, after the game, said “the Bruins richly deserved their #1 rating in the nation. Their line is very, very powerful, better defensively than offensively. They didn’t really march on us but defensively they certainly had us. But we weren’t doing badly until the dam broke.”
Now it was Ohio State’s turn – in the Rose Bowl. “An old song lyric goes: it never rains in southern California: it pours.” Both teams were in the rain but not singing in it. The mud was described as “ankle deep”. Woody Hayes was furious when the school’s bands were allowed to march on the already chewed up field at halftime. “They turned it into a quagmire. Eighty million people saw the bands march in the parade. Why did they have to march at halftime, so why did they have to march on that muddy field at the time? They shouldn’t have been permitted on the field. They don’t have any business ruining it when the game was the big thing. The bands are great and I am for them. But football comes first. If you don’t think so, put the bands in the Rose Bowl without the football teams and see how many people you draw.” Boyles and Guido report “This incident because the first example of Hayes failing to win friends among west coast fans and the sporting press.
Ohio State scored after two second quarter USC fumbles. Jim Parker recovered the first one and a 69 yard drive resulted in a Dave Leggett one yard keeper. Leggett then recovered a a pitch-out that slipped through Jon Arnett’s hands at the Trojan 35. “Bobby Watkins smashed through tackle for 14 yards and on the next play caught a pass from Leggett for a touchdown. He grabbed the ball at the 7 and carried a couple of Trojans over the goal with him.”
The one bright spot for the home team was “the finest play of the game, the finest in all Rose Bowl history” according to Oliver Kueckle of the Milwaukee Journal. It was an 86 yard punt return by Aramis Dandoy. Paul Zimmerman wrote the Los Angeles Times: “There was little more than 5 minutes of the second quarter remaining when Dandoy cut loose with the most brilliant run the afternoon to put the Trojans within temporary striking distance. Hubert Bobo, back to kick, had to duck away from two charging Trojans and barely got the ball away. the punt was a line drive affair that went 55 yards before Dandoy fielded the dribbling ball on his 14. The Trojan eluded two on-rushing Buckeyes and fought his way to midfield where George Belotti, a 231 tackle, served up the key block. The fleet Trojan fid a neat job of eluding Bobo after that as he sped toward the end zone.”
That made it 14-7 at the half instead of 14-0 but it was to no avail. Neither team could make much headway on the chewed up field in the second half but the buckeyes managed a 77 yard drive in the fourth quarter, capped by a 9 yard pass from Leggett to Jerry Harkrader. The kick was blocked but Ohio State still won easily 20-7. They outgained the Trojans 370-206, with 305 of their yards coming on the ground.
Woody Hayes capped his complaints about the bands by making the case for his team as #1: “There are four and possibly five Big Ten teams I’d rate ahead of the Trojans”. Russell and Leonard report that “He chided the writers for not ranking his team higher in the pre-season forecasts.” They add: “Southern California coach Jess Hill was complimenting the conquerors at his press conference when someone relayed Hayes’ statement that four Big Ten teams could beat his Trojans. ‘Just say for me I’d like to play them on a dry field.’” When writers suggested that UCLA’s 34 point win over USC meant that they were better than the Buckeyes, Hayes also cited the field conditions: “My coaches who sat in the press box said we would have beaten USC by a higher score on a dry field. They thought our men would have gone a little farther on every play. Ohio State is definitely the #1 team in the nation. I don’t think UCLA could have lived up to that schedule of ours.“ Dick Hyland of the LA times, countered: “the UCLA Bruins could take them both in the same afternoon. If the Buckeyes are the best collegiate team in the country, then the United States Marine Corps is a bunch of sissies.” Bing Crosby tried to promote a post season match between not the Bruins and the Buckeyes but rather UCLA and Oklahoma, (since neither could be in a bowl game) but the NCAA denied permission for such a game. Maxwell Stiles of the Los Angeles Mirror suggested the “no repeat” rule be dumped. “We should play our champion each year or get out. If we can’t beat them with our best, we shouldn’t try to do it with our second best.”
I couldn’t find any video on this game but here are some images:
Buckeyes Rose Bowl Rewind: National championship glory in the mud of 1955
Flashback: Woody Hayes Secures His First National Championship With a 20-7 Win over USC in the 1955 Rose Bowl
Aramis Dandoy Running with the Football Pictures | Getty Images