The USC Trojans have won 12 College World Series championships. Of those 12, the 1963 title might have marked the high point for baseball in the city of Los Angeles. USC baseball and the Los Angeles Dodgers have won the championship of their sport several times, but only once in the same year. It was 1963.
USC won the College World Series in years when the Dodgers made the World Series — 1974 and 1978 — but the Dodgers didn’t win those two World Series. Only in 1963 did everything come together for both teams in the same year.
We wrote about USC’s 1963 CWS win:
The outlook was grim when the Trojans lost their very first game, typically the game any CWS champion has to win in order to go all the way. Yet, USC defied the odds by running the table for the remainder of the ’63 series. The Trojans edged Holy Cross, 6-5, in their first losers bracket game. USC then eliminated Florida State in another do-or-die game, 4-3.
The semifinals put USC against Missouri. The Trojans were emboldened by their two narrow escapes. They thrashed the Tigers, 12-3, to make the final.
USC’s opening-game loss meant the Trojans had to beat Arizona twice, but Rod Dedeaux’s crew was up to the task. USC won the survival game 6-4, and then took the winner-take-all championship rematch, 5-2.
This was one of four times USC lost Game 1 of the CWS but then ran the table to win the trophy.
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