It’s no secret that USC and Stanford have not exactly been buddy/buddy over the decades. USC didn’t have Stanford over to share girl scout cookies and smores out at the beach on July 4th while watching the fireworks. The two schools didn’t get together for a sleepover/campout while holding hands and singing Kumbaya while looking up at the huge redwood trees in northern California. In other words, they did not care for one another.
USC head coach Pete Carroll and Stanford’s head coach Jim Harbaugh didn’t get along very well, but that’s nothing new.
USC coach John McKay and Stanford coach John Ralston supposedly did not like each other very much, either. The two teams had themselves a rivalry back in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Rivalries and passion are what makes the game fun and especially college football.
The Southern California Trojans won the national championship in 1967, and had played for another in 1968. They were the trend setters of the day playing an African American at quarterback in 1969. Playing a black quarterback in major college football was a not a first as the Big 10 had already been there. Minnesota had won a national championship back in 1960 with a black man playing quarterback by the name of Sandy Stephens. That’s what they tell me, anyway. I wouldn’t know because I was still in a diaper. The Gophers were the first team to win a national championship with a black quarterback. But, a few years later, the Michigan State Spartans started Jimmy Raye at quarterback and they won one version of the national title after a famous tie with Notre Dame. Raye
Even with those pioneers running ahead, a black kid playing quarterback was frowned upon by most back in 1969. It wasn’t commonly done and it took years to overcome the racism at quarterback.
Jim Jones was a three year starter for USC at quarterback and he wasn’t exactly a member of the Los Angeles chapter of the KKK.
The Trojans were big and they were fast and they didn’t mind hurting a few people in their chase for another national title. Besides, the quarterback position, the USC Trojans had an all black defensive line which was the first time this had happened in division 1 football. The Wild Bunch controlled the defensive line of scrimmage. The Wild Bunch
The pollsters had the Men of Troy ranked 5th going into the season. They had lost so much talent from the 1967 and 1968 teams, but were still worthy of a top 10 ranking. Ohio State started the 1969 season ranked 1st and they were awesome with a predominately junior team which had been the Super Sophomores the year before. Arkansas, Penn State and Texas were all ahead of USC going in.
Gone was superstar and Heisman winner OJ Simpson. But, there was no reason for worry, the Trojans had Clarence Davis ready to replace him. Clarence Davis
USC was, after all, Tailback U. The chief running back would not be a problem as long as John McKay was coaching the USC Trojans.
The Trojans started off at Nebraska where they beat a good Nebraska team, 31-21. They crushed Northwestern, 48-7 and then Oregon State, 31-7.
Next up, was Stanford.
When USC won their national championship in 1967, they beat Stanford 30-0. But, 1968 was another deal altogether with the Trojans pulling out a close win over the Indians, 27-24. Yes, Stanford was the Indians back in these years. They weren’t always so politically correct.
Stanford had a fantastic junior quarterback by the name of Jim Plunkett who had started in 1968 as a sophomore and had done really well. But, they lost star receiver Gene Washington and nobody could really replace his production. Plunkett split it up between Randy Vataha, Bob Moore and Jack Lasater, mostly.
The Cardinal, or the Indians, had a potent offense and that was demonstrated in their opening game. It was a lowly team, in San Jose State, but the Stanford offense which was led by Plunkett, got going and scored 63 points in wiping out the Spartans. Of course, San Jose was 2-8 that season, but that doesn’t take anything away from the potency of their offense.
Take nothing away from Stanford quarterback Jim Plunkett. The following season, Plunkett would become the first Mexican-American Heisman Trophy winner the following season and he was hard to stop.
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The following week Stanford roughed up a bad Oregon team, 28-0. Then, the now 17th ranked Stanford Indians traveled east to take on the 8th ranked Purdue Boilermakers and they came up a point short, 35-36. That had to be a spectacular game for the time period. It was Plunkett vs Purdue’s own great quarterback Mike Phipps.
Stanford was 2-1 and on their way down to Los Angeles to take on the 4th ranked USC Trojans.
This game drew a large crowd at the Coliseum and the Stanford Indians led by excellent quarterback Jim Plunkett held a 12-0 lead in the second quarter. The Trojans drove down the field and scored behind a short run by back up tailback Mike Berry.
Then, Tyrone Hudson picked off a Plunkett pass and took it all the way back for a touchdown to give the Trojans a 14-12 lead going into the half.
With about 3 minutes left in the game, and down by 2 points, Stanford quarterback Jim Plunkett hit teammate Randy Vataha on a 67 yard pass that put the Indians in scoring position at the USC 21 yard line. Wow, saying Indians with Stanford kind of messes me up.
Stanford kicked the field goal to go up by one point, 24-23.
The game appeared to be over with USC facing 4th and 5 at their own 20 yard line with no time outs
remaining.
The Trojans called a play that shocked everyone which especially included the Stanford defense, when they handed the ball off to star tailback, Clarence Davis. With about 200 yards rushing on the night, maybe somebody should have seen this coming, but Davis got the first down by about 3 yards.
USC quarterback Jim Jones then threw the ball to tight end Gerry Mullins for a big gain and then wide receiver Sam Dickerson for 18 more yards.
Then, it was back to tight end Mullins once again to put USC inside the 20. With the clock ticking, the Trojans had to get ready quickly and kicker Ron Ayala sprinted in to kick the field goal.
Ayala made the kick as time expired to give USC the 26-24 win over Stanford in something of a thriller.
A great effort was wasted by Plunkett, who threw for about 200 yards and 2 touchdowns against one of the best defenses in the nation, if not the very best.
It had been the second close game in a row for the Indians, both losses and by a combined score of 3 points. Stanford tied 6th ranked UCLA two weeks later, but didn’t lose another game that season finishing the year with a 7-2-1 record. They came within 4 points of going unbeaten in 1969.
The following week, USC tied rival Notre Dame, 14-14. But, they won the rest of their games and won the conference and then the Rose Bowl over Michigan.
Since I first started watching college football in 1967, up until that point in 1969, the Trojans had a 29-2-2 record which was about as good as anybody.