Trojans Beat Irish, Lose to Beavers on Same Day

Seldom in college football history had a great victory turned so bitter in so short a time.

Thirty-five years ago today, USC stunned top-ranked and unbeaten Notre Dame, 20-17, before 83,840 at the Coliseum.

Then, before it got started, the party died.

As jubilant Trojans streamed into Enoch’s Restaurant in South Gate for the victory banquet that evening, crushing news arrived.

Faculty representatives of the Athletic Assn. of Western Universities had just voted to send Oregon State, not USC, to the Rose Bowl game.

Years later, Trojan tailback Mike Garrett remembered it like this: “At Enoch’s that night, I walked in and I think it was Craig Fertig who came up to me and said: ‘Guess what? They picked Oregon State.’ I felt sick. I felt like I’d gone to a wedding that had changed to a wake.”

USC Athletic Director Jess Hill called it “the rankest injustice that ever occurred in the field of intercollegiate athletics.”

USC and Oregon State finished as conference co-champions at 3-1, but did not play each other. The Beavers had the better overall record, 8-2 to USC’s 7-3.

In the game, Notre Dame had cruised so easily to a 17-0 halftime lead it seemed as if it was on the way to 50-0.

The Trojans rallied back to 17-13 with a minute and a half left and found themselves on the Irish 15 facing fourth and eight.

During a timeout, USC receiver Rod Sherman told Coach John McKay he could “get a step” on defensive back Tony Carey.

“Go ahead, take it to the huddle,” McKay said.

It worked. Fertig passed to Sherman at the three, just as Carey climbed onto his back. Sherman tumbled into the end zone.

The Times’ Jim Murray said it best: “If any Irish eyes are smiling today, bring a shillelagh down over his ears.”

Also on this date: In 1981, Alabama’s Bear Bryant, at 68, passed Amos Alonzo Stagg in coaching wins. The Crimson Tide’s 28-17 win over Auburn was Bryant’s 315th, passing Stagg’s 314. . . . In 1958, the Boston Red Sox signed a 19-year-old rookie named Carl Yastrzemski and gave him a $100,000 bonus. . . . In 1977, Bob Meusel, who played in the Yankee outfield with Babe Ruth, died at 81 in Downey.