No football, no problem. Just come to collegefootballcrazy.com and get some football fever. I’ve got it, and I hope it’s contagious.
As I have said many times on this blog, my focus is from 1967 up until current times. I love the past, but I also love the present and am excited about the future.
The game of football has changed in leaps and bounds since 1967 and will continue to change over the years. But, it’s come a long, long way since I first started following. The players are bigger, stronger and faster.
The leaders of that movement would have to be the University of Southern California otherwise known as USC. Nothing personal, Gamecock fans, but USC is Southern California, not South Carolina. They are the ones with the national titles, Heisman Trophy winners and the most 1st round draft picks of any school.
Right now, the balance of power is in the SEC and Alabama is the best football school in the nation.
But, there was a time when USC was the stuff and that day may come again when the conditions are right.
Back in the 1960s the Trojans had the legendary John McKay as head football coach. McKay was famous for being witty and quick with the tongue. He came up with some hilarious comments while he was coaching.
For example, when he was coaching OJ Simpson, the Juice was given the ball 30 times in one game and the reporters asked why he gave Simpson the ball so often, McKay said, “Why not? The ball’s not heavy and he doesn’t belong to a union”.
On recruiting JK McKay, his son, McKay said he had a distinct advantage, he slept with JK’s mother.
When asked what he thought about his team’s execution, he said, “I’m in favor of it.” Those are just are just a few of very many of them. He was known as very witty and a wise guy, which is why I liked the guy.
McKay led the Trojans to a national championship in 1962 which was way ahead of my time. But, after a few pretty average seasons for USC such as a 7-3 in 1964, the Trojans came into the 1967 season loaded for bear.
Their greatest players that season were the infamous OJ Simpson at tailback and a lot of people thought he should have beaten UCLA quarterback Gary Beban for the Heisman Trophy. No matter what you think of Simpson as a person, he was still an incredible football player and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Nobody can take the talent away from him, he was greatness and a threat to take it the distance every time he touched the football.
The other Pro Football Hall of Fame member was left tackle Ron Yary. Still considered one of the greatest of all time, Yary was the first guy picked in the 1968 NFL Draft and Simpson was the first guy picked in the 1969 NFL Draft.
The Trojans had 5 guys taken in the 1st round of the 1968 NFL Draft including Yary, right tackle Mike Taylor, defensive end/linebacker Tim Rossovich, running back Mike Hull and wide receiver Earl McCullouch. Over all, they had 11 guys picked in the draft that year.
The 1969 draft had Simpson going first and then tight end Bob Klein going in the first round as well. With a total of 8 in this draft, the Trojans dominated in the board room as well as on the field.
But, wait, there’s even more. The sophomores on the 1967 team were also incredible with defensive lineman Al Cowlings and center Sid Smith also going in the first round of the 1970 draft. There were 9 guys total drafted in 1970 including back up quarterback Mike Holmgren who never made an
impact as a player, but as a coach he led the Green Bay Packers to a Super Bowl championship.
USC started the 1967 season ranked 7th and they came out and crushed a bad Washington State team, 49-0. Dropping to 4th in the polls, the Trojans faced a serious challenge with #5 Texas coming to town. The Longhorns were not without talent themselves with former top ranked recruit Bill Bradley at Quarterback and 1,000 yard running back Chris Gilbert who would become the first guy in college football history to top a 1,000 yards rushing in three straight seasons.
Turned out that Super Bill Bradley was a better defensive back than he was a quarterback and USC prevailed in a 17-13 battle. From this win, the Trojans found themselves ranked #2 in the country and they were hot in the media’s eyes.
Next up for the Trojans was the defending national champion, Michigan State. The Spartans had tied Notre Dame for the title in 1966 when they played to the classic, but still dull 10-10 tie. But, this Spartan gang was a far cry from the previous season because of graduation. They had 3 out of the top 5 guys drafted in the 1967 NFL draft with Bubba Smith, Clint Jones and George Webster going 1, 2 and 5 respectively. Then, they had 4 out of the top 8 picks with Gene Washington going at number 8. That was just too much talent for Michigan State to part with and they finished the 1967 season with a nightmarish record of 3-7. After winning a national title, 3-7 is execrable.
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Still, they had some fight in them early on and USC barely escaped East Lansing with a narrow 21-17 victory.
Even though the Spartans were unranked at the time, the #2 Trojans moved to #1 when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost to 10th ranked Purdue.
Now ranked #1, the Trojans easily and I mean easily destroyed an often pesky opponent when they crushed the Stanford Indians, 30-0.
Old nemesis Notre Dame was next and the Irish had been beaten by Purdue. But, Notre Dame was
still ranked 5th in the country and they often gave USC fits on the football field.
But, this season proved to be little problem for the Trojans as they ran through and over Notre Dame for a 24 to 7 win which strengthened their hold on the top spot.
The Trojans almost effortlessly dealt with Washington, Oregon and California before facing their next strenuous test in Corvallis, Oregon against the Beavers.
Oregon State was unranked. But, they travelled to West Lafayette, Indiana in October and surprised the nation by upsetting the Boilermakers, 22-14. Purdue was ranked #2 at the time and they had a really good team.
Next up for the Beavers was 2nd ranked UCLA. Oregon State traveled to Los Angeles and tied the Bruins, 17-17. Oregon State welcomed USC to town with a 5-2-1 record and nowhere to stand in the national rankings.
Legend has it that they grew the grass long, and wet down the field before the game. I was not there, so I cannot say whether that’s true or not. But, when facing a team with great speed, it was often said that a school’s groundkeepers would let the grass grow to slow down the speed. A little water and mud on the field helped out even more.
Whatever the truth is, the Trojans ran into a brick wall in Corvallis and lost, 0-3. The Oregon State Beavers had accomplished something that nobody had ever done before by beating, or tying, three teams ranked 1st, or 2nd. They became forever known as the Giant Killers. Giant Killers
With the loss to Oregon State, USC fell to 4th in the polls with only one game left. But, it was agains the new top ranked team in the country, UCLA.
Cross town rivals, UCLA, had the Heisman Trophy winner that season at quarterback in Gary Beban.
in 1966, the game of the century was Notre Dame and Michigan State and that one fizzled. Centuries sure are short in the game of football because now the game of the century was in Los Angeles, California between rivals USC and UCLA.
It was #4 versus #1. Games of the century should at least be #1 vs #2, but this game was for all the marbles in the Pac 8, and probably in the national title race.
This game did not disappoint with USC taking a hard fought 21-20 thriller. USC really beat up Heisman quarterback Beban, but he was a warrior and kept fighting to the end.
The Rose Bowl win over a surprising Indiana was almost anti-climatic.
The debate will always be which college football team was the greatest of all time and that can never really be answered, and the argument never won. This 1967 USC team may not have been the greatest of all time, but they were a very talented team from the sophomore class on up to the Seniors who had 5 guys taken in the first round of the draft.
This Trojan team should be forever remembered as one that played some good solid football and they won when it counted the most.