Tag: 1977 Rose Bowl

USC prevented Michigan from being No. 1 in the 1976 college football season

USC denied Washington a national title in the 1984 season. Eight years earlier, the Trojans stopped Michigan.

The USC Trojans will watch the Michigan Wolverines and Washington Huskies compete for the national championship of college football on Monday night in Houston. USC denied Washington the national title in the 1984 season. Eight years earlier, USC made sure Michigan would not claim a share of the national championship, though other events also ensured the Wolverines did not stand at the top of the sport.

Michigan would not have won or shared the 1976 national championship primarily because No. 1 Pittsburgh completed its unbeaten season with a win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. However, if the Panthers had lost that game to the Bulldogs, the national title would have been in play for Michigan as the No. 2 team in the country heading into the 1977 Rose Bowl versus No. 3 USC. The Trojans were also hoping Pitt would lose to Georgia, but when Pitt prevailed, USC’s national title hopes also took a hit.

Still: This was No. 2 versus No. 3 in the Granddaddy. It was a huge game. It also marked John Robinson’s first Rose Bowl as USC head coach.

Ricky Bell was the top running back on the 1976 Trojans, but a freshman named Charles White scored a fourth-quarter touchdown for USC to power the Men of Troy to a bruising 14-6 win over the Wolverines in the Arroyo Seco. This was one of many USC victories over Michigan in the Rose Bowl. They are all historic and significant. Only the 1979 and 2004 Rose Bowls are bigger, given that both games sealed a national championship for the Trojans.

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WATCH: Anthony Munoz, Charles White explain why they came to USC

Every #USC fan will love this 3-minute video. Anthony Munoz joins @TrojanConquests and @LBCTrojan Sunday, June 4, at 8 ET, 5 PT.

A lot of college football fans spend the offseason rewatching classic college football games on YouTube. We’ve all done it (or at least, I certainly do). What college football fan doesn’t want to fire up the YouTube machine for Pete Carroll’s national championship, or the 2006 Michigan-Ohio State game if you’re a Buckeye fan, or the 2013 Auburn-Alabama “Kick Six” game if you’re an Auburn alumnus? Your favorite team lives forever on YouTube, and there are plenty of classic games to satisfy nearly every fan’s rooting interests.

Lost in the shuffle, however, are pregame segments. The game footage for a lot of college football classics is readily available. The commercials are edited out. Pregame shows, however, aren’t nearly as common on these archived broadcasts, so when a pregame show emerges, it can be quite a discovery.

We stumbled onto one such gem, the NBC Sports pregame show before the 1977 Rose Bowl between USC and Michigan. By all means, watch USC beat the Wolverines to finish No. 2 in the country in John Robinson’s first season as head coach. However, before you do that, catch the pregame show.

At the six-minute mark of this video, you’ll see a three-minute segment introduced by NBC’s Lee Leonard, who — two years later in 1979 — would utter the first words on a live ESPN broadcast when the cable network began. Bryant Gumbel reported this segment.

You’ll see Anthony Munoz and Charles White, as USC freshmen, explain why they came to USC to play college football. You’ll see head coach John Robinson and assistant coaches Marv Goux and Hudson Houck discuss USC’s recruiting prowess and philosophy. It’s great fun, and it recalls a wonderful time in the school’s storied football history.

Anthony Munoz joins Trojan Conquest Live — co-hosted by Tim Prangley and Rick Anaya — this Sunday, June 4, for a special one-hour conversation at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. Pacific. If you want to go to YouTube on Sunday evening, the show will be named “Trojan Conquest Live 14.” That’s what you can type into the search field on YouTube. If you don’t go directly to YouTube, Tim Prangley — whom you can follow on Twitter — will tweet out the link.

Anthony Munoz joins Trojan Conquest Live at The Voice of College Football, Sunday at 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific. Don’t miss it!

Here’s the three-minute segment on USC football before the 1977 Rose Bowl, starting at 6:03 of the video:

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