The one time Michigan played a non-USC opponent in the L.A. Coliseum
The folks at Wolverines Wire are probably aware of this. Are you? Michigan really did play a football game in the Los Angeles Coliseum in which the opponent was not the USC Trojans.
We mentioned earlier on the weekend that Michigan had visited the Los Angeles Coliseum to play USC. It happened only once, but it did happen: in 1957. USC then went to Ann Arbor in 1958.
That closes the book on the Wolverines’ history in regular season games in the Coliseum, right?
Wrong.
Younger fans have never lived in a world in which teams other than USC played home games in the Coliseum, but UCLA and USC shared that venerable stadium for decades.
It used to be the case that UCLA was a tenant of the Coliseum alongside USC. When the teams played in the Coliseum, it wasn’t a road game for UCLA. It was a shared home field.
UCLA and Michigan have not played a large number of regular season games over the years, and most of the time, those regular season meetings have been in Ann Arbor. The teams also met in the 1981 Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston and the 1983 Rose Bowl Game.
They also more recently met when UCLA played its home games at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena. However, UCLA didn’t move from the Coliseum to the Rose Bowl Stadium until 1982.
So, when Michigan visited UCLA in the 1972 season, that game was played in the Coliseum. It was 10 years before UCLA changed home venues.
Michigan won the game, 26-9.
The all-time series between UCLA and Michigan stands at 8-3 for the Wolverines. The breakdown of games by location: six in Ann Arbor, three in Pasadena (one for the Rose Bowl Game, in 1983), one in Houston (the 1981 Bluebonnet Bowl), and that 1972 game in the Coliseum.
1972 pic.twitter.com/ivc5wfyumy
— Something different (@RealHowardBeale) June 10, 2023
