Rose Bowl Friday moves to a new decade today with a look at the Granddaddy of Them All between the USC Trojans and the Pittsburgh Panthers. Despite two losses—to California and Notre Dame—the Trojans finished the season ranked No. 1 in the SRS overall, thanks to the No. 11 SOS in the nation. USC also benefitted from not having to travel far for this game, as it handled Pitt, easily, by a 47-14 score. Ouch!

The Panthers would finish No. 9 in the overall SRS, and they were 9-0 when they arrived in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl: the Pittsburgh defense had surrendered just 43 points overall on the season in contributing to wins over Duke, West Virginia, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Penn State. But the SOS was just No. 28, and perhaps the Panthers were a bit overrated, as a result. We know the long train ride would not have helped.

From the start, regardless, the Trojans dominated this game with two touchdown passes in the first quarter and two TD runs in the second quarter. The 28-0 halftime deficit certainly left the Panthers reeling as legendary USC Head Coach Howard Jones went on to win the first of five Rose Bowls with the Trojans—without a loss. As a player, Jones was 28-0-2 with the Yale Bulldogs from 1905-1907, so … he was a winner.

It was 35-0 before Pitt even scored, and USC tacked on two more TD passes after that, running up the score, really. The final Trojans passing touchdown came on a halfback option with a 42-14 lead, probably not something any coach would do today. But Jones was all business when it came to coaching, and four of his USC teams would be named mythical national champions, retroactively. This team was not one of them.

Why not? Good question … for another miniseries in the near future. Stay tuned for that someday soon.