In 1928, USC program godfather and architect Howard Jones was beginning to build the Trojans’ first football dynasty.
We noted in our Big Ten tour with Hawkeyes Wire that “USC’s two most important sports figures, football architect Howard Jones and basketball-baseball wizard Sam Barry, both coached at Iowa before they coached at USC. Two Iowa coaches wanted to move west and coach in a different part of the country. The West Coast was alluring and attractive for them, and they changed the course of college sports history by turning USC into a sports juggernaut.”
Jones was around in 1928. Barry would join him one year later in 1929.
In 1928, USC football — under Jones’ watch — created one of the greatest defenses in school history. Washington and Stanford had been the main college football powers in the West in previous years, but a new force was beginning to emerge in Los Angeles as the Pacific Coast Conference evolved.
As we say goodbye to the Pac-12, we remember USC’s unbeaten teams through the decades. We start with the 1928 team which was almost impossible to score against. Not one opponent scored more than 14 points against the Trojans all season long.
Let’s step back into the time machine: