USC moving into the Big Ten means that classic USC football games will air on Big Ten Network. It also means that great USC football moments will become the subjects of Big Ten Network documentaries. BTN’s first big USC item: the Trojans’ 1987 football win over No. 5 UCLA, which catapulted the Men of Troy to the 1988 Rose Bowl. We don’t have a precise air date, but it will be part of BTN’s initial effort to include more USC content on its airwaves.
There were lots of big plays in the 1987 USC-UCLA game, but the biggest was Rodney Peete’s unforgettable touchdown pass to Erik Affholter in the fourth quarter. USC fought back from a 13-0 third-quarter deficit to pull off the 17-13 upset win in front of more than 92,500 roaring fans in the Los Angeles Coliseum:
Mal Florence of the Los Angeles Times wrote about Erik Affholter:
As for his touchdown catch, the junior from Agoura said: “The pass wasn’t designed to come my way. I was supposed to clear out with the tight end getting the ball underneath. I just saw the ball at the last minute and pulled it down.”
Affholter added that that it was the first pass he had juggled all season. “I feel if I can touch a ball I should catch it,” he said.
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