1940 Rose Bowl

The 1940 Rose Bowl, played on January 1, 1940, was an American Football bowl game. It was the 26th Rose Bowl Game. The USC Trojans defeated the Tennessee Volunteers 14-0.^[2] Ambrose Schindler, the USC quarterback, was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game when the award was created in 1953 and selections were made retroactively.^[3] USC ended a 23 game Tennessee winning streak and the Trojans scored the first points against the Volunteers all season.

Teams

The Rose Bowl committee had both USC and Tennessee on their list and it was likely that USC and Tennessee would play each other.^[4][5] The Volunteers were offered a berth in the Sugar Bowl on November 25.^[6] The Volunteers also were in the mix for the 1940 Cotton Bowl, which would have pitted them against the #1 Texas A&M Aggies.^[7] But the Rose Bowl committee did not extend official invitations until December 10, 1939.^[8]

University of Tennessee Volunteers

Tennessee came into the game after shutting out all of their opponents. They were led by two All-American guards, Ed Molinski and Bob Suffridge, however, were forced to play without their star tailback George Cafego, who fell victim to a knee injury against The Citadel earlier in the year.^[9] With a 7-0 win in the Auburn game, Tennessee officially was extended an invitation.^[10]

USC Trojans

The Trojans opened the season against Oregon, tying the Ducks 7-7 with 7:00 minutes remaining in the game. They scored 3 straight shutouts, becoming ranked #8 following the second, a 26-0 win over Illinois. A November 4 game featured #7 USC defeating #11 Oregon State 19-7. On November 25, at Notre Dame, #4 USC defeated the #7 Irish 20-12. A win over Washington by scoring in the last 1:15 set up the very first epic UCLA-USC rivalry matchup.

Kenny Washington, Woody Strode, Jackie Robinson and Ray Bartlett starred on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team, in which African Americans made up three of the four backfield players.^[11] This was a rarity to have so many African Americans when only a few dozen at all played on college football teams.^[12] The Bruins also were undefeated, and ranked #9. This was the first UCLA-USC rivalry football game with national implications. It was the first game in the rivalry with the Rose Bowl on the line for both teams. The attendance of 103,303 was the second largest college football crowd ever in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. UCLA attempted a pass on fourth down, instead of kicking a field goal. Bobby Robertson of USC knocked down Ned Matthews’ 4-yard pass in the end zone with less than 5 minutes to play to preserve the tie for USC. The Pacific Coast Conference voted to have USC, with a 7-0-2 record play in the Rose Bowl instead of UCLA with a 6-0-4 record.^[8] Art Cohn, sports editor of the Oakland Tribune implied that race may have been a factor in the decision, since teams from the south refused to play against African Americans.^[13] After the regular season, the Trojans were named National Champions.^[14]

Game summary

Trojan backs Granny Lansdell and Ambrose Schindler rushed for 51 and 81 yards respectively, for a team total of 229 yards rushing. Schindler scored one touchdown and passed to Al Krueger—the hero from the 1939 Rose Bowl—for the other. Coach Howard Jones earned his fifth Rose Bowl victory, his second straight conquest.

Scoring

Second Quarter

USC - Ambrose Schindler 1-yard run (Jones kick)

Fourth Quarter

USC - Al Krueger 2-yard pass from Schindler (Gaspar kick)

Aftermath

USC coach Howard Jones died in the summer of 1941. He had a 5-0 record in the Rose Bowl. Joe Schell, the captain of the USC Trojans who became an oil company owner and a California State Assemblyman, died on April 8, 2008.^[15]

USC bases its 1939 National Championship claim on winning the Dickinson System, a formula devised by a University of Illinois professor which awarded the only championship trophy between 1926 and 1940. In 1939, Dickinson was the only poll or system to rank the Trojans number one.^[14] USC's stance, however, is in keeping with that of most other schools which won the Dickinson title; only Notre Dame, which won the Dickinson crown in 1938, does not claim a major national title for that year. Since at least 1969, USC had not listed 1939 as a national championship year; but in 2004, USC once again began recognizing the 1939 team as national champions after it determined that it qualified.^[16][17][18]

Ambrose "Amblin' Amby" Schindler went on to be the MVP in the 1940 College All-Star Game. He was inducted into the San Diego Hall of Champions Breitbard Hall of Fame in 1973.^[19] He was inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997.^[20] He was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 2002.

Tennessee player William "Bill" Barnes would eventually coach the UCLA Bruins football team to the 1962 Rose Bowl.

References