COLLEGE FOOTBALL RECORDS

First game:  Sept. 28, 1929 
At stake:  The Victory Bell 
When:  late November 
Where:  LA Coliseum, Los Angeles or Rose Bowl, Pasadena

Misc.:  
The 1967 game had the top two Heisman Trophy candidates in UCLA's 
Gary Beban and USC's O.J. Simpson, the Rose Bowl on the line, and the 
national championship at stake. And then it lived up to the billing as 
"game of the century" as a tight, well-played game. Beban passed for 300 
yards, but when he led the Bruins to a go-ahead touchdown and a 20-14 
lead, USC blocked the extra point. And later in the fourth quarter, just 
as the Trojans seemed bottled up, there went "Juice," bolting for one of 
the most dramatic, sensational runs ever seen -- a 64-yard cutback run on 
which he showed every bit of his world-class speed. Beban won the Heisman, 
Simpson won it the following year.
 
Almost annually for a half-century one or both of the teams went into the 
rivalry with the Rose Bowl on the line. The Trojans are 16-6 over the 
years when the Rose Bowl has been there for the winner.

In 1987, USC trailed, 13-0 in the third quarter, and it could have been 
worse. On the last play of the first half, Eric Turner intercepted a 
Rodney Peete pass and returned it 90 yards, only to have Peete run him 
down and pull him down to prevent a UCLA touchdown. The Trojans scrapped 
back and finally scored the winning points on a sliding, juggling, 
back-of-the-end zone catch by Erik Affholter, who might have been out of 
bounds when he gained complete control, but it went down as a 33-yard TD 
and a 17-13 USC triumph.

The first matchup with national implications came in 1939. UCLA began 
fielding a team in 1919, but USC would not play the public school team 
until 1929, and dealt the Bruins defeats of 76-0 and 52-0, and then the 
teams didn't bother playing again for several years. In '39, both teams 
were undefeated and ranked in the Top 10. USC was able to bottle up UCLA 
star halfbacks Jackie Robinson and Kenny Washington to force a 0-0 tie, 
but the Trojans and their 8-0-2 record were selected for the Rose Bowl 
over the Bruins and their 6-0-4 record.