This Rose Bowl Friday entry is special, because … drumroll, please … it was the first time ever the same team won back-to-back Granddaddies of Them All. That’s right, the defending Rose Bowl champions returned to win a second consecutive Pasadena special. And if you have to click on the link above to see which team is was, we don’t hold you at fault for anything. Or you can just continue reading below, too.

The Pittsburgh Panthers came into this game with an 8-0-2 record having scored 182 points and surrendered just 25 points. The defense had tossed eight shutouts, in fact, although in two of those games, the offense had failed to score as well, resulting in two 0-0 ties: one against Ohio State at home and the other against Nebraska on the road. In addition, 80 of the offensive points came against small schools.

So, the Panthers were great on defense, perhaps, but a little suspect on offense, and against the 9-0 Southern California Trojans in this Rose Bowl, everything collapsed for Pittsburgh. The defending champs had given up just 13 points all year, and only 6 of their offensive points came against lesser competition. USC was No. 1 in the SRS having played the No. 2 SOS overall. It really wasn’t much of a fair matchup, really.

The Trojans started slowly, leading just 7-0 at halftime and 14-0 after the third quarter. But here again there was probably some travel fatigue for Pittsburgh, and USC piled on 21 more points in the final 15 minutes to make it a true blowout at 35-0. Perhaps on a neutral field in the middle of the country, at say a bowl game in Chicago, the 14-0 score would have been the final in this matchup, but alas, that was not to be the case.

USC handed Pittsburgh its worst loss ever up to that point, but the Panthers would return to Pasadena in four years … so wait a month here for that result and exploration. We sort of already covered it in the initial MNC Wednesday post almost five years ago now. We are coming full circle in some ways now here, and as we continue to move through these Rose Bowl remembrances, there will be more overlap to come. Fun!

As for the Trojans, well … it would take six more years for them to return to the Granddaddy, but there were a lot more records yet to be set by the school and its long list of outstanding coaches and players. Stay tuned.