Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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The Iron Bowl is primar- ily an in-state, provincial feud. Michigan-Ohio State? Can't beat it in pageant ry or meaning beyond athletics, but it hasn't impacted a championship bid in 50 years. Alabama-Auburn? W Army-Navy? BY LOU SOMOGYI hat is the great- est rivalry in college foot- ball? but it was preseason No. 1 USC that was favored to be in the pole posi- tion. Instead, 11-0 Notre Dame will be heading to the Los Angeles Coli- seum with its col- lective eye on the big prize. This is the 11th time Notre Dame will enter the Coli- seum one game away a two-day stop in Tuc- son, Ariz., Notre Dame played nearly a perfect game, outgaining the Trojans 428-146 yards en route to winning 27-0. Epi logue: Not re Fantastic conference showdown, but the two programs have com- bined for three national titles since 1955. For pure drama with national titles consis- tently hanging in the balance for one team or the other, if not both, nothing rivals Notre Dame-USC, which be- gan in 1926. Both programs have won 11 consensus na- tional titles since Notre Dame's first in 1924. No other rivalry in the coun- try can boast that many between them. This year, the game was supposed to have national championship implications again — from either clinching the national champion- ship or having the po- tential to play for it in the ensuing bowl game. It is 4-5-1 in such out- ings. tion: Defending national champion Notre Dame had won 18 straight games, but USC was fa- vored by the odds mak- ers at home in front of a partisan, capacity crowd of 73,967. The 8-1 Trojans had outscored their op- ponents 382-46 and had barely lost to the Fight- ing Irish the previous year, 13-12. Each of Notre Dame's first three wins against USC from 1926- 29 had been by one point. Outcome: Despite DEC. 6, 1930 Notre Dame's Situa- Dame's 43-year-old head coach Knute Rockne was in the prime of his career after clinching his third consensus national title with the win at USC, but four months later he would perish in a plane crash. ation: Fifth-year head coach Elmer Layden, the fullback for Rockne's fabled Four Horsemen backfield for the 1924 na- tional champs, led Notre Dame to an 8-0 start and No. 1 ranking in the third year of the Associated Press poll. All that was standing between the first Fighting Irish na- tional title in eight years was the game at No. 8 USC. Outcome: The game DEC. 3, 1938 Notre Dame's Situ- the long trip by train to Los Angeles, including produced only 151 yards of total offense by USC and 142 by Notre Dame, and turned late in the first half of a scoreless tie when a fake punt at- tempt by Notre Dame