By Bert Hancock
Entertainment giant Bing Crosby predicted this regarding the upcoming 1942 showdown between USC and UCLA for the Rose Bowl: “Southern Cal has the power. UCLA has a brilliant passing game. The attack that clicks pockets the Rose Bowl key.” Other legendary performers were split. Red Skelton put his faith in UCLA, while Jimmy Cagney offered, “The Trojans should turn in their best game of the year. I have to ride with them.” Joan Crawford simply projected, “The Bruins, 18 to 12.” As the oddsmakers called it a virtual tie, it’s no wonder there was confusion on the favorite.
Though UCLA was considered to have the more potent program this season, the Bruins had never defeated the Trojans, at best getting a few ties in the battles. The series started so one sided in 1929 (USC grinding up UCLA 76-0) that both sides agreed to better judgment to suspend things after two years until UCLA could field a competitive team. As a former Bruin suffering through those massacres confessed, “The USC-UCLA game was like a practice for USC.”
UCLA proved itself by tying the mighty Trojans upon resumption in 1936. Even so, after several more fights, the Bruins still had failed to vanquish their rivals, with a particularly costly 0-0 tie in 1939 keeping them out of the Rose Bowl and putting USC in–again.
The 1942 season paths developed into UCLA’s favor, with USC going through a rebuilding process after losing its great coach, Howard Jones. Even so, the Bruins’ own guy, “Babe” Horrell, had confused the school alumni thus far with erratic season-to-season results, even free falling to 1-9 in 1940, his second year, after a strong first year.
UCLA's Great Passer, Bob Waterfield
The only thing truly consistent with UCLA is it thus far had never made it to the Rose Bowl. And standing before it was a team it had never beaten but always despised. Future Bruins coach “Red” Sanders (who led UCLA to its only national title in 1954), would later emphasize, “The game (USC battle) is not life or death. It’s more important than that!” It seemed fitting, in a twisted way, that the two schools had bludgeoned one another toward a 7-7 tie the year before–one day before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
As Bing Crosby had accurately gauged, the contest would pit USC’s running game against the prowess of Bob Waterfield (later an NFL great with the Rams) and UCLA’s passing. Waterfield was more than a fantastic passer, though, and his running, defense (critical interception that led to a score), and punting gave UCLA a 14-7 lead, which it owned late into the contest.
USC, though obviously not as talented this time as its opponent, battled back to threaten twice, each time firing passes into the end zone that nearly were completed.
In the end, though, UCLA had survived the Trojans’ efforts while claiming the school’s first Rose Bowl berth against southern power Georgia. UCLA also won back its Victory Bell, a large bell that USC had stolen previously as a prank and only agreed to return if it could be held by the winning team.
The Bruins would fall to the Bulldogs, 9-0, and then–in typical “Babe” Horrell fashion–slide to 1-8 the following year, including two losses to USC.
While the status quo had returned with a vengeance and UCLA would not defeat USC with regularity until the 1950s, the school had broken through an immovable barrier.
