The 1979 Rose Bowl was a

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

played in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

, on January 1, 1979. It was the 65th

Rose Bowl Game The Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, traditionally played on January 1 (New Year's Day) at the Rose Bowl (stadium), Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on ...

. The

USC Trojans The USC Trojans (also Southern California Trojans) are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ...

, champions of the

Pacific-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

, defeated the

Michigan Wolverines The Michigan Wolverines comprise 29 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan. These teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except wo ...

, (co) champions of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

, Charles White and Michigan

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

Rick Leach Rick Leach (born December 28, 1964) is a former professional tennis player and coach from the United States. A doubles specialist, he won five Grand Slam doubles titles (three at the Australian Open, one at Wimbledon, and one at the US Open) ...

were named the Players of the Game.

Teams

Michigan

Michigan came into the game ranked fifth in both major polls with a 10–1 record, with their only loss to

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

. The Wolverines tied for the Big Ten title with Michigan State, and earned the Rose Bowl berth because the Spartans were on probation. Michigan had been to the previous two Rose Bowls,

USC

USC came into the game ranked third in both major polls with an 11–1 record. In September, USC decisively defeated then #1 ranked

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

24–14 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, but subsequently suffered their lone defeat to new Pac-10 member

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is one of the largest ...

, falling 20–7 in Tempe in mid-October. USC defeated

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

17–10 to win the Pac-10, and then closed out the regular season by defeating defending national champion Notre Dame USC had also defeated Big-10 regular season co-champion Michigan State in late September. The Trojans entered the game as five-point

Charles White's "Phantom Touchdown"

USC had driven deep into Michigan territory in the second quarter. At the three-yard line in a dive over the middle towards the goal-line, Charles White was hit hard by Michigan's great middle linebacker Ron Simpkins and fumbled the ball before he entered the end-zone. The ball was recovered by co-captain linebacker Jerry Meter. The officials for this game were made up of a Pac-10/Big Ten crew. Upon White's fumble, the

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...

(a Pac-10 official) immediately and correctly marked the ball around the one-yard line and signaled that there had been a change of possession. Then the line judge, a Big Ten official, came running in raising his hands signaling that White had scored This touchdown has become known as White's "Phantom Touchdown" as he was awarded the score after first fumbling, and entered the end-zone without the ball. This has been confirmed by White himself. The touchdown put USC up 14–3 and they added a field goal before halftime. The only score in the second half was an extended play by Michigan in the third quarter that resulted in a 44-yard touchdown pass.

Earthquake

A mild earthquake, 4.6 on the

Richter scale The Richter scale (), also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale, is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Richter in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg, and pr ...

, took place shortly before halftime but caused

Scoring

;First quarter: * USC - Hoby Brenner, 9-yard pass from Paul McDonald (Frank Jordan kick) ;Second quarter: * Michigan - Gregg Willner, 36-yard field goal * USC - Charles White, 3-yard run (Frank Jordan kick) * USC - Frank Jordan, 35-yard field goal ;Third quarter: * Michigan - Roosevelt Smith, 44-yard pass from

(Gregg Willner kick) ;Fourth quarter: * No scoring

Aftermath

Earlier in the day at the

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed only ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, #2 Alabama upset #1

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

, 14–7. USC vaulted into the #1 spot in the UPI poll, while Alabama was first in the AP poll. The loss was Michigan's third straight in the Rose Bowl and fourth consecutive in major bowls; their most recent postseason win was in January

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

. Two years later, they returned to Pasadena and won the Rose Bowl. This was the fifth straight win for the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl and ninth in the last ten. USC returned the following year and successfully defended their title. This was the final Rose Bowl for television broadcaster

Curt Gowdy Curtis Edward Gowdy (July 31, 1919 – February 20, 2006) was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC S ...

;

Dick Enberg Richard Alan Enberg (January 9, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including N ...

took over play-by-play duties the following year.

References

External links

Summary at Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan Athletics HistoryPac-12 Conference
– 1979 Rose Bowl – video
YouTube
– Michigan's 44-yard touchdown pass {{USC Trojans bowl game navbox Rose Bowl Rose Bowl Game 20th century in Pasadena, California Michigan Wolverines football bowl games USC Trojans football bowl games January 1979 sports events in the United States Rose Bowl