As we say goodbye to the Pac-12 and lament its passing, we recall the great moments in the conference’s football history. USC obvious created many of them, and we are remembering the unbeaten teams in USC history, such as 1928 and 1932, among many other seasons.
It is also important, in reflecting on the full history of Pac-12 football, to recall the moments when non-USC schools stood tall and represented the West in grand style on the national stage. Few examples were more impressive, significant, or memorable than what the Washington Huskies did on January 1, 1992.
A crowd of over 103,000 in Pasadena witnessed a battle of teams ranked in the top four. The Rose Bowl had epic games with national championship significance in the 1960s and 1970s, when USC was at its height and Ohio State and Michigan ruled the Big Ten. The 1980s came and went without a huge Rose Bowl. The 1979 season gave us a 3-versus-1 Rose Bowl between USC and Ohio State, but there wasn’t another top-four Granddaddy until the 1991 season, when Washington — No. 1 in the coaches’ poll — faced No. 3 Michigan. The teams were No. 2 and No. 4 in the Associated Press Poll leading into the game.
Don James and Washington finished No. 2 in 1984. They wanted the big prize in 1991. They got it with a 34-14 smackdown of a very good Michigan team led by future NFL quarterback Elvis Grbac. The beatdown gave Washington the coaches’ poll national championship and a split with Miami.
Even now, more than 30 years later, we all wish Washington could have played Miami in a winner-take-all battle. Still, U-Dub got one of the biggest “dubs” in Pac-10 history.
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