The 1955 Rose Bowl was the 41st edition of the college football

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...

, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Saturday, January 1. The top-ranked

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tre ...

of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representativ ...

defeated the USC Trojans of the Pacific Coast Conference, 20–7.Rose Bowl 1955
, from RoseBowlHistory.com. Ohio State head coach

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...

came into his first Rose Bowl tied for the national championship with PCC champion

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. However, #2 UCLA was locked out of the game because of the "no-repeat" rule.

Teams

Ohio State

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Dave Leggett threw eleven passes, completing six, one a touchdown pass to Robert Archbald Watkins Jr. Halfback Hopalong Cassady ran for 92 yards and led the Buckeyes to 304 yards on the ground and an overall advantage of 360-206 yards in total offense.

USC

The only touchdown by USC was an 86-yard punt return by Aramis Dandoy.

Game summary

The teams played in the first rainstorm to hit Pasadena during a Rose Bowl in more than 50 years. The fans were under umbrellas, and it rained during the entire game, turning the field to mud.Lesmirises, Doug
Buckeyes Rose Bowl Rewind: National championship glory in the mud of 1955.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 16, 2009 Quote: "Through mud, slime, murk and driving rain, Ohio State's dauntless Buckeyes today reached the all-time zenith of the University's football history. Ploughing through muck in the fog and semi-darkness, the Buckeyes vanquished Southern California, 20 to 7, in the worst weather conditions of Rose Bowl history."

Scoring

First quarter

:''No scoring''

Second quarter

* OSU – Dave Leggett 3-yard run (Tad Weed kick) * OSU –

Bob Watkins Robert Cecil Watkins (born March 12, 1948) is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major Lea ...

21-yard pass from Leggett (Watkins kick) * USC – Aramis Dandoy 86-yard punt return (Sam Tsagalakis kick)

Third quarter

:''No scoring''

Fourth quarter

* OSU – Dick Harkrader 9-yard run (Weed kick blocked)

Aftermath

* Ohio State shared the national championship with UCLA for the 1954 season. It was the first "split" championship in college football, when the writers selected the Buckeyes and the coaches chose the Bruins. * This was the first time a West Coast team had been affected by the "no-repeat" rule, which was not in place when

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

appeared in three straight ( 1949,

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

). It happened once more, when

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

had to stay home three years later. When the PCC disbanded in 1959, the "no-repeat" rule was dropped by the new

AAWU The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

and Washington won the next two Rose Bowls in 1960 and 1961. The Big Ten kept the rule in place from the late 1940s into the early 1970s, although

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

made consecutive appearances, the 1961 game was as an "at-large" selection. After the rule was dropped, the first to return in successive years was

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

in 1974, the sole win for the Big Ten in that decade.

Game notes

* The game was played in the rain; Coach Hayes was not happy that the bands performed the halftime show on the already muddy field

References

{{USC Trojans bowl game navbox Rose Bowl Rose Bowl Game Ohio State Buckeyes football bowl games USC Trojans football bowl games Rose Bowl January 1955 sports events in the United States