Notre Dame at USC

Saturday, December 4, 1926

Notre Dame beat USC 13–⁠12. It was their first meeting; after it, Notre Dame led the series 1–⁠0 as played.

AwayNotre Dame9–⁠1 in 1926
13
HomeUSC8–⁠2 in 1926
12

FinalHigh 62°F, low 55°FAttendance 74,378

In the newspapers

  • The The Bismarck tribune. (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current's story: POINT AFTER GOAL WINS FOR R0CKNE'S MEN Notre Dame Defeats Univer- sity Of Southern California, Saturday. 13 TO II

    The Bismarck tribune. (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, North Dakota, December 6, 1926, page 1

    Read the text

    POINT AFTER GOAL WINS FOR R0CKNE’S MEN Notre Dame Defeats University Of Southern California, Saturday. 13 TO II Los Angeles, Dec. t-1f’~-Speea on the breaks, head work in the pinchcs, ability to kick goal when it was needed, and battling strategy gave the Notrc Dame football team q IL 10 IL victory over Southern California kcrc Saturday. Troy los. the first Of the five IN terscctonal games it has played printarily because there apparently was 10, single toe in its big squad that could kick the extra point after touchdown. .otre Dame failed 20 do this once, but made good on its other try and thereon hung the victory and the honor. An ups.retched Trojan hand therein an attempt TO block the kick. worked with reverse English and top ped the pigskin just enough to send il over the bar. Irish in Second Place The South Bead team came to defeat at tho hands Of Carnegie Tech last week II headed for home to night with the mythical title of sec ond placc national champion tucked away neatly in the hip pocket Of ITS new tangled silk pants. W in the exception Of the last four minutes Of play the battle was q grim scramble between two evenly matched football machines keyed up to near perfect playing pitch. There was one tumble. that by lIcarndon of L., ht L;ll himself. par:sicn Brilliant The last four minutes, with t”ilirht falling and Parisicn’s general ship functioning in high. brought the South lenders to the top of then form and in that brief period of ar tion Southern California went dowf before Il momcntarily superior foot hall aggregation. Roclnc had pulled his last quarter back out Of the reserve list whcr he sent Parisien to do the trick OF victory. Riley, Edwards and McNal r. had proceed ID him and had shon’ but Parsicn was dazzling. tie sho i: =. yard pass to Nicmic on South crn California; 20 yard line. Thei his uncrring hand heaved another t. Niemic, who went over for the touch down that won. kacr Shows Class Morton kaer. Troy’s great Eroun gamer, lived up to his reputation 10 long advances, but he went out Q the game in the third period after hard tackle out of bounds by Smith. The first period was even so ia as straight football was concerned Il was marked by a flock Of pena ties. kacr provided the fireworks ! this section Of play with II var advance. During the first period, Roekr he’ll his second string men III pla and shifted to his stars only at tn start OF the second period. Riley. screened by interferene so that Troy looked in vain for tn ball, went over for a touchdown. O’Boyle Wins Battle OBoylc kicked the goal and, “A though he did not know it then, h toe had won the game. leather under his elbow and reeis off 80 yard run, the first step t wards Trojan score. kaer ne passed to Behrendt who slid TO II one yard line after Il Al yard ga with an Indian tacklcr holding to heels. kacr buckcd it over. Brice Taylor’s boot failed for II extra point. Williams plungca Over In succession of effective bucl aided by Wheeler and Laranet Southern California forced the b; to Metre Danes II yard line III Z fourth period and then Wil!lar went to first down on the eight-ya mark and next over for Il touc down. Drury, lame in the kn’ could not kick the added point. The early part of the fourth peri was repetition Of the same old stu born battle. With five minutes play and the ball on his 40 yard Iii Rockne sent in Parsien at quar-, and the Notre Dame march to v tory, celebrated in their school sol

Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The text is the machine reading of the page, mistakes and all.

Before kickoff

Our ratings going in

Our ratings (scores only)

USC 58% to win. Notre Dame won as Elo’s underdog.

Officially, Notre Dame leads 51–⁠37–⁠5; as played, 53–⁠38–⁠5 in 96 meetings, counting the 95 since this game.

Recent meetings
2025Notre Dame 34, USC 24
2024Notre Dame 49, USC 35
2023Notre Dame 48, USC 20
2022USC 38, Notre Dame 27
2021Notre Dame 31, USC 16
2019Notre Dame 30, USC 27

Around this game

Notre Dame

USC