1944 Rose Bowl
| 1944 Rose Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 30th Rose Bowl Game | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 1, 1944 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1943 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Rose Bowl | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Pasadena, California | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Norman Verry (G) – USC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 68,000 | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1944 Rose Bowl, played on January 1, 1944, was a college football bowl game, the 30th Rose Bowl game. This was the only Rose Bowl game to feature two teams from the same conference (Pacific Coast Conference), necessitated by the travel restrictions imposed by the war effort. This game determined the champion of the Pacific Coast Conference for the 1943 college football season. The USC Trojans defeated the Washington Huskies, 29–0, in a one-sided game.
The favored Washington Huskies team had a record of four wins and no losses in its abbreviated season, without any Pacific Conference games. Their opponents were Whitman College, the Spokane Air Command, the March Field Flyers, and again against the Spokane Air Command.
By the time Washington arrived in Pasadena for the game, they had lost a dozen players to active military duty, including two of their best backs, Jay Stoves (who had transferred from Washington State, which did not field a team due to the war) and Pete Susick. Washington filled its roster holes with Navy V-12 trainees and draft rejects who recently arrived on campus, leaving only 28 players available for the game. Oddsmakers made the Huskies two-touchdown favorites to beat USC, but the fielded team differed greatly from that of the regular season.
The USC quarterback, Jim Hardy, threw three touchdown passes to lead the Trojans. This victory was the Trojans' seventh Rose Bowl victory and also gave them their Pacific Coast Conference championship. For the first time, the Rose Bowl was broadcast on the radio abroad to all American servicemen, with General Eisenhower in Western Europe allowing all troops who were not on the front lines to tune in and listen. This was the first Rose Bowl radio broadcast abroad to American servicemen, as General Dwight D. Eisenhower allowed all troops in western Europe not on the front lines to tune in and listen.
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