The 1967 Rose Bowl was the 53rd

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of the

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, played at the Rose Bowl in

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, on Monday, January 2. The game matched the #7 Purdue Boilermakers 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 Representati ...

and the unranked

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ''Trojans'', the women's athletic teams are referred ...

of the AAWU (Pac-8). Purdue won 14−13, after USC scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter and opted to go for a

two-point conversion In gridiron football, a two-point conversion or two-point convert is a play a team attempts instead of kicking a one-point conversion immediately after it scores a touchdown. In a two-point conversion attempt, the team that just scored must run ...

to win the game, rather than kicking an

extra point The conversion, try (American football, also known as a point(s) after touchdown, PAT, or (depending on the number of points) extra point/2-point conversion), or convert (Canadian football) occurs immediately after a touchdown during which the sc ...

to tie. Purdue defensive back

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was named the Player of the Game, and the attendance was 101,438. Because

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fell on Sunday in 1967, the game was played the next day.

Teams

Purdue Boilermakers

This was Purdue's first Rose Bowl appearance, and the seventh-ranked Boilermakers were led by All-American quarterback

Bob Griese Robert Allen Griese (pronounced ; born February 3, 1945) is a former American football quarterback who earned All-American honors with the Purdue Boilermakers before being drafted in 1967 by the American Football League's Miami Dolphins. Gri ...

. The team earned their first trip to Pasadena with an record ( in the Big Ten) and finished second in the Big Ten Conference. Purdue's only losses were to #1 Notre Dame and #2

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

(who famously played to a tie on November 19). Conference champion Michigan State was undefeated at in the Big Ten, but the conference's "no-repeat" rule barred the Spartans from returning to Pasadena. Purdue's only other appearance in the Rose Bowl was 34 years later, in January

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USC Trojans

The AAWU (unofficially known as the Pac-8) champion Trojans came into the game with a record ( in Pac-8), ranked in the second ten of the AP Poll and #18 in the UPI coaches poll. They were controversially awarded with the Rose Bowl bid over

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 ...

, despite the Bruins' #5 ranking, record, and victory over the Trojans. Because of a flaw in the schedule, USC played one more conference game than UCLA and had a 4–1 Pac-8 record to UCLA's . Prior to the UCLA-USC game, it was widely assumed that the winner would go to the Rose Bowl. USC was voted in to the Rose Bowl by the AAWU athletic directors before prior to the game with Notre Dame on November 26, a 51–0 shutout loss in Los Angeles. Many thought awarding USC the Rose Bowl was to make up for

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

, when

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses ** South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

and

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 ...

tied for the AAWU title. In that year, it was assumed that if USC upset #1 Notre Dame in its final game, they would get the nod over Oregon State. USC beat Notre Dame 20–17, but Oregon State was awarded the Rose Bowl berth over USC based on a tiebreaker of most recent Rose bowl appearance despite Oregon State's better overall record ( vs. ). The head coach of Oregon State in 1964 was

Tommy Prothro James Thompson "Tommy" Prothro Jr. (July 20, 1920 – May 14, 1995) was an American football coach. He was the head coach at Oregon State University from 1955 to 1964 and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1965 to 1970, compil ...

, who left after the season for UCLA. Another factor may have been an ankle injury sustained by Bruin junior quarterback

Gary Beban Gary Joseph Beban (born August 5, 1946) is an American former professional football player. Beban won the 1967 Heisman Trophy, narrowly beating out O.J. Simpson, and the Maxwell Award while playing quarterback for the UCLA Bruins. He played ...

, the

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and har ...

winner in 1967. USC started the season with six wins, then dropped three of their last four games going into the matchup with Purdue. This was the first of four consecutive Rose Bowl appearances for the Trojans; the Pac-8 did not have a "no-repeat" rule.

Game summary

As 1967 was an odd-numbered year, the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) representative (USC) was designated the home team and wore cardinal red jerseys while Purdue, the visiting team, wore white jerseys with gold pants and helmets. The game was a defensive struggle. Neither team scored in the first quarter and with each team reaching the end zone only once in the second quarter, the halftime score was 7–7. Purdue took a 14–7 lead in the third quarter after a touchdown run by fullback Perry Williams. With less than two minutes to play, USC scored a touchdown on a Troy Winslow pass to

Rod Sherman Rodney Jarvis Sherman (December 25, 1944 – February 6, 2024) was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the USC ...

for 19 yards. Coach John McKay decided to try for a two-point conversion to secure the win against the favored Boilermakers, but Purdue's

George Catavolos George Catavolos (born May 8, 1945 in Chicago, Illinois), is an American football coach. He was a three-year letterman at Purdue and was the Boilermakers' co-captain during the team's 1967 Rose Bowl Championship season; his last-second intercept ...

intercepted the pass in the end zone to preserve the 14–13 victory. Purdue's

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alumni (

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...

Gene Cernan Eugene Andrew Cernan (; March 14, 1934 – January 16, 2017) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. During the Apollo 17 mission, Cernan became the eleventh human being to ...

Gus Grissom Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was an American engineer, pilot in the United States Air Force, and member of the Mercury Seven selected by National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) as Project Mercur ...

, and

Roger Chaffee Roger Bruce Chaffee (; February 15, 1935 – January 27, 1967) was an American naval officer, aviator and aeronautical engineer who was a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program. Chaffee was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he became an Eag ...

), attended the 1967

Tournament of Roses Parade A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

and Rose Bowl game. Less than four weeks later, Grissom and Chaffee died in the

Apollo 1 Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was intended to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbit ...

fire in

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Scoring

First quarter

* ''No scoring''

Second quarter

* Purdue - Perry Williams 1-yard run (

kick) * USC - Don McCall 1-yard run (

Tim Rossovich Timothy John Rossovich (March 14, 1946 – December 6, 2018) was an American football linebacker and a television and movie actor, active from 1977 to 1998. He was the brother of actor Rick Rossovich. Biography Rossovich was born in Palo A ...

kick)

Third quarter

* Purdue - Williams 2-yard run (Griese kick)

Fourth quarter

* USC -

19-yard pass from Troy Winslow (pass failed: interception)

References

{{USC Trojans bowl game navbox Rose Bowl Rose Bowl Game Purdue Boilermakers football bowl games USC Trojans football bowl games Rose Bowl January 1967 sports events in the United States