1948 Rose Bowl

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1948 Rose Bowl
Bowl Game
1 2 3 4 Total
USC 0 0 0 0 0
Michigan 7 14 7 21 49
Date January 1, 1948
Stadium Rose Bowl
Location Pasadena, California
MVP Bob Chappuis (Michigan)
Favorite Michigan by 15
National anthem Spirit of Troy
Halftime show Spirit of Troy
Attendance 93,000 (estimated)[1]


The 1948 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game. It was the 34th Rose Bowl Game, and the second since the Big Nine conference and PCC agreed to an exclusive agreement to match their conference champions. The Michigan Wolverines defeated the USC Trojans 49-0. Michigan halfback Bob Chappuis was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game when the award was created in 1953 and selections were made retroactively.[2] Jim Brieske's record of seven PATs remains unbroken. The 1948 game is tied with the 1902 Rose Bowl for the most points scored by a team, and the largest margin of victory, in Rose Bowl history. Michigan defeated Stanford University by the same 49-0 score in the 1902 Rose Bowl. In a special Associated Press poll following the 1948 game, Michigan replaced Notre Dame as the 1947 National Champion by a 226 to 119 margin. This game had the first television telecast of a bowl game in Los Angeles, by local station KTLA.[3] It was also the first time a U.S. motion picture newsreel was taken in color.[4]

Contents

[edit] Teams

[edit] USC Trojans

USC had tied with Rice 7-7. They defeated number 4 ranked Cal in October. The matchup with the defending conference champion Bruins in the UCLA-USC rivalry game saw USC win 6-0. The 1947 Notre Dame-USC game had 104,953 on hand, the highest attendance for a football game in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum[5], to see 7-0-1 Rose Bowl bound USC lose to 8-0 Notre Dame 38-7. USC dropped from 3 to 8 in the final poll before the game.

[edit] Michigan Wolverines

The 1947 Michigan Wolverines, known as the "Mad Magicians" won the Big Nine title on the strength of strong offense and defense. They shut out four opponents, including Ohio State 21-0 in the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry game. The only marginally close game was a 14-7 win at number 11 Illinois, the reigning Big Nine and 1947 Rose Bowl champion. [6]


[edit] Game Summary

Bob Chappuis and Bump Elliott were the stars for the Wolverines. Jack Weisenburger scored three touchdowns. Nine Rose Bowl records were set. The current record of 9 Points after touchdowns set by Jim Brieske still stands as of the 2008 Rose Bowl

[edit] Scoring

[edit] First Quarter

MI Jack Weisenberger, 1-yard run (Brieske kick)

[edit] Second Quarter

MI Jack Weisenberger, 1-yard run (Brieske kick)
MI Bump Elliott, 11-yard pass from Bob Chappuis (Brieske kick)

[edit] Third Quarter

MI Yerges, 18-yard pass from Bob Chappuis (Brieske kick)

[edit] Fourth Quarter

MI Jack Weisenberger, 1-yard run (Brieske kick)
MI Gene Derricotte, 45-yard pass from Hank Fonde (Brieske kick)
MI Dick Rifenberg, 29-yard pass from Howard Yerges (Brieske kick)

[edit] Aftermath

Notre Dame was awarded the AP National Championship. USC would lose to Michigan 49-0 in the Rose Bowl, leading Michigan to also claim a national championship. The official final AP poll, taken before the bowls, had Notre Dame #1 (107 first place votes) and Michigan #2 (25 first place votes). Michigan won the Rose Bowl 49-0 over USC while Notre Dame did not play in a bowl game. Detroit Free Press sports editor Lyall Smith arranged a post-bowl, open AP poll with only Michigan or Notre Dame as choices. After much lobbying, Michigan won that unofficial poll 266-119.[7]

The Wolverines would continue their winning streak through the 1948 football season, going 9-0. Because of the no-repeat rule, the Northwestern Wildcats would represent the Big Nine as the second place team in the 1949 Rose Bowl. The Wolverines season 1,788 passing yards was a record that would stand until 1979.

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Official 2007 NCAA Division I football records book - PDF copy available at NCAA.org
  2. ^ 2008 Rose Bowl Program, 2008 Rose Bowl. Accessed January 26, 2008.
  3. ^ Rose Bowl Game History - KTLA
  4. ^ Kane, Joseph Nathan; Steven Anzovin, Janet Podell (1997). Famous First Facts: A Record of First Happenings, Discoveries, and Inventions in American History, Lecture notes in mathematics 1358. H. W. Wilson Company; 5th edition. ISBN 0824209303. “Warner Brothers-Pathe started showing this first color newsreel to theater audiences on 5 Jan 1948. It was made using the Cinecolor process.” 
  5. ^ 2002 NCAA Records book - Attendance Records page 494 (PDF)
  6. ^ Louis M. Guenin - The Perfect Season. Michigan Today Volume 30, Number 3, Fall 1998.
  7. ^ Natural Enemies, 142-7. ISBN 1589790901. 
Preceded by
1947 Rose Bowl
1948 Rose Bowl
1948
Succeeded by
1949 Rose Bowl