USC football regular-season history vs Ohio State: 1942
The USC Trojans lost to Ohio State, 28-12, in 1942. The Trojans were in their first season under new coach Jeff Cravath, who took over after interim head coach Sam Barry led the team in the 1941 season following the abrupt death of program patriarch Howard Jones.
Cravath needed one season to find his bearings at USC. The Trojans would end the year with a 5-5-1 record, but they would soon take off under Cravath. They made the Rose Bowl in each of the following three seasons (1943-1945) and four of the next five. USC was beginning to get better in 1942.
The Ohio State team it lost to in 1942 was special.
The Buckeyes finished 9-1 in the 1942 season and won the national championship. Their head coach is someone you might be able to identify.
Paul Brown guided Ohio State to the national title back then. He coached for only three seasons in Columbus, but he made his time there quite memorable. He then went to the pros and turned the Cleveland Browns into one of the most successful pro football franchises of the pre-Super Bowl era. From 1946 through 1949, the Browns competed in the All-America Football Conference and won the championship of the AAFC every year. The Browns moved to the NFL in 1950 and played in six straight NFL Championship Game showdowns, winning three of them. All told, Paul Brown guided the Cleveland Browns to the championship game of their league (either the AAFC or the NFL) in 10 consecutive seasons from 1946-1955. Brown and quarterback Otto Graham formed one of the most successful coach-QB duos in football history, an early version of what Bill Belichick and Tom Brady became several decades later.
Paul Brown’s win over USC in 1942 would not be the last time Brown’s story intersected with USC. Far from it. Brown, as the owner and chief decision maker of the Cincinnati Bengals, picked USC’s Anthony Munoz at No. 3 in the 1980 NFL draft. The decision changed the course of Bengal history, leading to Super Bowl appearances in the 1981 and 1988 NFL seasons.
Paul Brown is one of the greatest innovators in the history of football. USC lost to a master of the craft in 1942 … and as shown by the Trojans’ Rose Bowl berths the next several years, Jeff Cravath definitely learned some lessons from that defeat at the hands of Ohio State.
Ohio State — 1942 National Champions https://t.co/1AyqscAnCR
— Something different (@RealHowardBeale) June 10, 2023
Paul Brown, 1970 @Bengals pic.twitter.com/VZlkene8fd
— Vintage Jerseys & Hats (@PolyesterUnis) January 23, 2023
