Notre Dame at USC

Saturday, December 6, 1930

Notre Dame beat USC 27–⁠0. It was their fifth meeting; after it, Notre Dame led the series 4–⁠1 as played.

AwayNotre Dame10–⁠0 in 1930
27
HomeUSC8–⁠2 in 1930
0

FinalHigh 72°F, low 52°FAttendance 73,967

In the newspapers

  • The Imperial Valley press's story

    Imperial Valley press, December 8, 1930, page 8

    Read the text

    LOS ANGELES. Dec. 6. lyP)- Leaving a trail of destruction behind them, Notre Danes Pough Riders have closed out the great est two year record in all grldiron history. The Irish climaxed a winning streak of 19 straight victories with out a defeat or tie by scoring q smashing 27–⁠0 triumph over South ern CALIFORNIA; widely -heTal6ed offensive eleven before 10000 per sons here Saturday. Although Notre Dame Won 20 straight games back II 1919. 1920 and 1921 before meeting defea-, the present streak is more formidable because every victory was. ever q major eleven without Z real setup in the entire group during two seasons Of play. Thrown on the defensive At the outset Of the game, Southern Cal ifornia had to fight with its back to the wall throughout a one-side5 contest in which Notre Dame dom mated in every department o. play except punting. Notre Dame took the opening kickoff and marched 80 yards down the field lost the ball on downs. recovered it a moment later on the Trojans 20-yard line and had touchdown all in less than SIX min utes of play. After Southern California had stopped Notre Danes first assault. the Trojans lost the ball when z bad pass from center hit Jim Mus lex on the leg and Alvin Culver. big Notre Dame tackle, recovered on his opponents 2O-yard line. Set to stop Notre Danes running at tack, Frank Carideo, Napoleonic quarterback, caught the TTojanS’ defense mapping with flank pass from Marchy Schwartz TO himself the pass was for 10 yards and Ca rideo ran the remaining 10 yards for Notre Danes first touchdown. Lead At Outset Before the end OF the first per iod Notre Dame was ahead 1879. On the last play of the opening quarter, Bucky O’Conre-. East Orange, N. J.. Irishman, who lneypectedly started at fulpack IN place OF ex-student Savoldi and the in jured Mullins, slanted off tackle, and ran 80 yards down the sideGres for Notre Danes second touch down. In this run Ernie Pincke-r. who scarcely looked ike ar all American player ia this game. and Marshall Duffield. both 6lrei – O’Connor and missed hlE. Notre Dame had to---6---nullified IN the second -a--cG zf-s- Dan Hanley had ca-g1- . gas 81 ran unmolested over L-= gca----a because the Irish Tz-s CI+z,.es. In the first five ----1ss II ne third period Not-e Dane ---.--‘-i>e.. 69 yards in seven sV-1 -la-- CT its third touch5oEL 5ci--va--z made runs Of y ard = -this march, and Q CoL-c-, -az-- :

  • The The Daily Alaska empire's story: NOTRE DAME DEFEATS so. GAL. q TO | Most of 9O,O00 Spectators Shocked by Rough Riders Superiority

    The Daily Alaska empire, December 8, 1930, page 5

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    NOTRE DAME DEFEATS so. GAL. q TO | Most of 9O,O00 Spectators Shocked by Rough Riders Superiority LOS ANGELES, Cal, Dec. B. Notre Dame, the wonder football team, last Saturday afternoon de- feated Southern California 27 to 0. The game was witnessed by 90,000 spectators. Most of the great crowd was shocked by the margin of superior ity uncovered by the Rough Riders from South Bend, Indiana. The Trojans never were danger GUS until the game was on it’s last legs and then they started drive which sent the ball to the Rough Riders 25-yard line. AS the game ended Notre Dame celebrated it’s nineteenth straight victory and ended it’s second sea- son without a defeat Rockne’s players outplayed and outsmarted their opponents at all stages. The invaders scored when the game was only few minutes old and growing in power as the con- test progressed, finally turned it into a victory which was little short of the regular routine of a football game.

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.

On the newsreel

  • TROJANS LOSE TO FIGHTING IRISH, 27-0, IN GRIDIRON UPSETRecord throng of 90,000 sees Notre Dame super-team run wild over great University of Southern California eleven, regarded as finest in West, and clinch 1930 football championship in whirlwind display of strategy and…Universal Newsreel, December 8, 1930. Catalog record at the National Archives

Universal Newsreel, National Archives (catalog record). Story titles and words as Universal’s release sheet gives them; the films themselves may still be under copyright, so we link to the record rather than show them.

Before kickoff

Our ratings going in

Our ratings (scores only)

USC 54% 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 91 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