USC vs Notre Dame 2013
Venue:
Alternates each year between Notre Dame Stadium and LA Memorial Coliseum
Trophy:
Jeweled Shillelagh
First Meeting:
12-4-1926
Notre Dame won 13-12
Last Meeting:
11/29/2008
USC won 38-3
Number of Meetings:
80
Series Record:
Notre Dame Leads
42-33-5
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USC Notre Dame Tickets |
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Notre Dame Stadium Parking Lots
South Bend,
IN
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Notre Dame Stadium
South Bend,
IN
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Classic Games:
November 16th, 1929- USC and Notre Dame meet up for the 4th time in history, and decide to play at Soldier Field. The game brings the largest recorded attendance in NCAA History, as 112,912 people attend the game. Notre Dame just edges USC, and wins 13-12.
November 27th, 1954- With 5:52 left in the game, USC is holding on to a 6 point lead in a 17-16 game. Notre Dame quarterback, Ralph Guglielmi drops back, and throws a 72 yard touchdown pass to receiver Jim Morse, and the Irish go on to edge the Trojans in the final minutes, 23-17.
November 30th, 1974 “The Comeback”- The teams meet in 1974, and the Irish jump out to a 24 point lead, and have held the Trojans scoreless, until USC Running Back, Anthony Davis scores on a 7 yard pass with 10 seconds left in the first half. The Trojans come out in the second half, trailing 24-7, and proceed to score 48 unanswered points in 17 minutes. USC goes on to win 55-24, and College Football historians consider this game one of the top 10 greatest games in USC history.
November 25, 1978- Under the leadership of Joe Montana, the Fighting Irish come into the game on an eight game winning streak, and on their way to the Cotton Bowl. However, the Irish defense falls apart, and in the 4th quarter, the Irish trail 24-6. Montana finds his rhythm though, and Notre Dame comes back to lead the game 25-24 with 45 seconds left. USC gets the ball, and after a questionable call, they move into field goal range, and win a heartbreaker, 27-25, with a field goal in the remaining seconds.
Notre Dame vs. USC
Notre Dame and USC are among the most elite programs in college football, with each school winning 11 national championships and 7 Heisman Trophies. This football rivalry began in 1926 and is considered one of the most important rivalries in college football, and is often called greatest intersectional rivalry in college football.
The origin of the series is quite often recounted as a "conversation between wives" of Notre Dame Head coach Knute Rockne and USC athletic director Gywnn Wilson. The rivalry began with USC looking for a national rival. USC dispatched Wilson and his wife to Lincoln, Nebraska, where Notre Dame was playing Nebraska on Thanksgiving Day.
On that day Knute Rockne resisted the idea of a home-and-home series with USC because of the travel involved, but Mrs. Wilson was able to persuade Mrs. Rockne that a trip every two years to Southern California was better than one to snowy Nebraska.
Mrs. Rockne spoke to her husband and on December 4, 1926, USC became an annual fixture on Notre Dame’s schedule.
While “a conversation between the wives story" remains the classic explanation for starting the series, college football historian Murray Sperber, uncovered a different explanation for the creation of the series that contradicts the story. Sperber documents that the series was created primarily for financial and political reasons, and that Rockne’s resistance to the series is misstated. During the 1920’s, many college institutions, including the Big Ten sought to combat the commercialism that was steadily increasing in college athletics. Part of the concern over commercialism stemmed from the large money payouts teams would receive by traveling long distances to play in bowl games.
Notre Dame had difficulty scheduling local Western Conference opponents because of a ban placed on member schools from playing them. They were initially forced to seek out opponents nationally to fill its schedule, often traveling far away to do so. After Notre Dame started winning landmark games against college big names such as Yale and Army, Notre Dame started to grow in popularity and could command more money for games it scheduled. Coach Rockne realized how lucrative an annual trip to Los Angeles would be for the football program. Notre Dame's west coast alumni began lobbying Rockne to bring the team to the Rose Bowl as a season finale on a yearly basis. The Rose Bowl committee favored this arrangement; however the Pacific Coast Conference had reservations. Specifically, two members schools, Stanford and California refused to play Notre Dame "on account of Notre Dame's low scholastic standards." Since Notre Dame was a Catholic school, its academics were considered inferior at the time. USC's coach, Gus Henderson reached out to Rockne through correspondence stating that "USC would welcome the chance to play Notre Dame New Year's Day in Pasadena." While Rockne favored playing USC, Stanford, which won the Pacific Coast Conference title, had first choice and eventually realized that playing Notre Dame would be lucrative, and the two played in the 1925 Rose Bowl.
No matter what the truth is behind the real reason for the rivalry, each game presents new and exciting events and is a game that keeps you glued to the television.
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