The Western Conference added a tenth member (again) to informally be known as the B1G once again, as reflected this week’s Rose Bowl Friday column. The University of Chicago had pulled out fully by 1946, so the league went a few seasons with just nine schools. But all was well in this Granddaddy of Them All as the newest member of the league traveled to Pasadena for the first time, in its first year in the conference.

Starting with the 1950 season, the Michigan State Spartans fielded some of the best teams in the nation, in our retrospective view. Yet only in 1952 did the voters award them a mythical national title. That means in 1953 the Spartans were the Associated Press defending champions; however, in our book they were were going a fourth consecutive crown. That seems crazy, especially since other teams dominated headlines then.

But we digress: this 1953 MSU team came into the Rose Bowl with an 8-1 record, a No. 3 AP ranking, a No. 2 SRS ranking, having played the No. 13 SOS in the nation. The team’s only loss had come midseason in a strange road trip to Purdue, where the Spartans failed to score. Otherwise, the MSU offense had scored 212 points in its other eight regular-season games combined. Chances are the “good” version would show up.

As for the opponent, it was the UCLA Bruins, making their third appearance in Pasadena (1943, 1947)—but still looking for their first victory in the Granddaddy. The Bruins were also 8-1 thanks to a narrow road loss at Stanford, and UCLA held the No. 5 AP ranking, the No. 9 SRS ranking, and the No. 24 SOS rating. Outside of that road loss to the Indians, the Bruins defense had given up just 27 points in their eight victories.

This looked like a classic matchup of offense versus defense on paper, for sure, and the 101,000 fans who showed up expected to see something special. And that they did! The UCLA defense forced two first-half fumbles on the way to its offense scoring the first two touchdowns of the game. The Spartans scored in the second quarter to cut the halftime deficit in half, setting up an exciting second half of entertaining football.

MSU dominated the third quarter, scoring twice on short rushing TDs, to take a 21-14 lead heading into the final quarter. But then the Spartans fumbled again, and the Bruins scored what seemed to be the tying touchdown. However, UCLA missed the extra point to trail by a single point, and then MSU halfback Billy Wells returned a punt for 62 yards with less than five minutes left to score the game’s final touchdown.

The 28-20 score doesn’t seem to do the game narrative justice, but it’s what we have to look at now. The Spartans gained just 202 yards on offense while losing four fumbles; the two teams combined for 10 turnovers, in total, which is quite shocking. One other noteworthy reality? MSU had eight Black players on their team, representing a full 25 percent of the total number of Black athletes involved in B1G football.