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USC football history month: the only time the Trojans played Clemson

You might recall an unfortunate incident earlier this year, in which the president of the University of South Carolina referred to “California” in a speech, reviving the old debate: Is South Carolina or Southern California the “real” USC?

Trojans of all ages know it’s the school in Los Angeles, not the Palmetto State, but for Clemson Tiger fans, local ties and rivalries put South Carolina at the center of the conversation.

So, when you look at the photo attached to this story, sure: We’re being clever rather than technically precise. We certainly looked for an archived photo of the one time the USC Trojans and Clemson Tigers played on a college gridiron, on October 22, 1966, in the Los Angeles Coliseum, but we couldn’t find one.

The next best thing was to find an old photo from that era which had “USC” in it… and we luckily found one in our fantastic USA TODAY photo library.

Technically, then, the photo you see is from 1964, not 1966. You can also see — with that grassy hill — that it’s not the L.A. Coliseum in the picture. It’s Clemson’s Memorial Stadium, with the Tigers in dark home jerseys running onto the field to play the South Carolina Gamecocks. That’s the team the Tigers wanted to “beat the hell out of.”

Okay, so we tried to be cute… but now that we have your attention in USC football history month, let’s simply note that there was a time — only once, but it did happen — when USC and Clemson played.

A Greenville (S.C.) newspaper writer named Jim Anderson had a “Top Of The Morning” column in the Greenville News. Anderson reportedly discovered how the Tigers spent part of their time in Los Angeles in the days immediately preceding that 1966 game, visiting Hollywood stars of the era and an emerging young talent named Bruce Lee.

The 1966 Clemson Tigers went 6-1 in the ACC and were champions of the conference. Clemson legend Frank Howard — whose name graces Howard’s Rock inside Memorial Stadium — coached the 1966 Tigers. They lost three games to teams ranked in the top 10 at the time of kickoff. USC was one of them. The Trojans were No. 5 heading into the Clemson game in late October.

Interestingly enough, USC — just like Clemson — lost three games in 1966 to opponents which were ranked in the top 10 at kickoff time: No. 8 UCLA, No. 1 Notre Dame (that year’s national champion) and No. 7 Purdue in the Rose Bowl.

On this day, however, USC was the vastly superior team. Page 101 of a recent Clemson football media guide unearthed the basic barebones stats for the game. Clemson rushed 26 times for only 33 yards. The Tigers gained just 126 yards all game long, throwing two interceptions. USC rushed for 273 yards and collected over 440 yards of total offense.

Final score: USC 30, Clemson 0.

The teams had never met before, and they haven’t met since.

The “real” USC, though, was able to show Clemson who was boss, once upon a time.

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