1953: USC, 7 vs. Wisconsin, 0

Apparently, even the would-be freeloaders knew the 1953 Rose Bowl Game would be something special. How else does one explain one Bob Sinclair, a 26-year-old from Fairbanks, Alaska, who tried parachuting into the Rose Bowl Game?

Sinclair missed the stadium by feet and was taken into custody by deputies, who in hindsight, should have let the would-be party crasher join the other 101,500 folks who were privy to seeing something nobody had seen before: a Pacific Coast Conference Rose Bowl Game victory.

It wasn’t pretty, nor was it exciting, but USC’s 7-0 victory over Wisconsin was as pristine as one of the Tournament of Roses Parade floats to a West Coast collegiate football structure that was under siege for nearly a decade.

“Significant, perhaps, of the swinging pendulum which brought the PCC its first victory in seven years of the Big Ten pact was the appearance of the Tournament of Roses’ grand marshal, Vice President-elect Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat…. Nixon’s party won this year, too, after a much longer wait – Twenty-four years, to be exact,” wrote the Los Angeles Times’ Jack Geyer.

Nixon didn’t need a parachute to get into the Rose Bowl, but the Trojans needed a 22-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Rudy Bukich to Al Carmichael in the third quarter to end what had become one of the longest running episodes of one-sided sport futility to date.

“Jess Hill showed us a beautifully balanced defense that didn’t have a real weakness,” Wisconsin Coach Ivy Williamson said, referring to his USC counterpart. “We weren’t too surprised, though. We knew we were going up against something terrific.”

“Something terrific” – that bend-but-don’t-break defense – resulted in USC’s ninth victory in 11 Rose Bowl Games. The Trojans allowed Wisconsin 353 yards in total offense, with All-American back Alan Ameche accounting for 133 of those on 28 carries.

“Wisconsin’s highly acclaimed Alan (The Horse) Ameche had his troubles during the first half… in fact, Don might have done just as well… but on the first play from scrimmage in the second half, The Horse stampeded 54 yards before he was lassoed … he must have taken on some hay at halftime,” wrote Geyer.

“That kid made a lot of yards, I know, but he only broke loose once,” Hill said. “He is a great fullback. Ameche is the hardest straight-ahead runner we met all year. You can’t tell me he only weighs 205.”

Listed weight aside, Ameche couldn’t make the important yards: the ones that put him in the end zone. That was the exclusive province of USC in the third quarter, when the Trojans went 73 yards in nine plays behind the arm of Bukich, who replaced injured All-American Jim Sears in the first quarter.

Bukich completed 5-of-6 passes on the drive, the final one to Carmichael coming as the USC receiver found a seam between two defenders at the goal line. He caught the ball and spun into the end zone for the game’s only score – one seen by a future president and unseen by a present gate-crasher.

Attendance
101,500

Weather
74 degrees

Scoring
Third Quarter
USC – Carmichael, 22-yard pass from Bukich (Tsagalakis kick good)

Coaches
USC: Jesse Hill
Wisconsin: Ivy Williamson

Fun Fact
Jesse Hill, the USC coach, became the first man to have played on and coached a winning Rose Bowl Game team.

Individual Stats
Rushing
Wis: Ameche 28-133; Witt 10-47; Burks 7-31
USC: Haw 6-28; Dandoy 5-18; Carmichael 5-17

Passing
Wis: Haluska; 11-26-2; 142 yards
USC: Bukich; 12-20-2; 137 yards; 1 touchdown; Sears; 3-4-0; 21 yards; Dandoy; 3-3-0; 27 yards