USC won its first Rose Bowl and continued to embrace the Granddaddy

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USC football and the Rose Bowl go hand in hand. USC is the greatest Rose Bowl success story in college football. The Trojans are number one in appearances with 34 and wins with 25. They have lost just three Rose Bowls since 1974, one since 1989. They won their first eight Granddaddies before losing their first one in 1946.

ESPN college football historian Bill Connelly recalled the Trojans' first Rose Bowl appearance and victory, part of a foundational time for the sport in the 1920s:

"Jan. 1, 1923: USC 14, Penn State 3; Jan. 1, 1925: Notre Dame 27, Stanford 10; Jan. 1, 1926: Alabama 20, Washington 19. In a four-year span, the Rose Bowl gave us coming-out parties for three eventual blue-blood programs," Connelly wrote. "USC won its first of 25 Rose Bowls in its first year of major college football, then Notre Dame's Four Horsemen led a romp over Pop Warner's Stanford in the only bowl they would choose to participate in until 1970. Then came the big one: Alabama upset mighty Washington, proving that the South could compete in big-time football (and that it was really, really fun to do so). It's called The Game That Changed the South."

USC came of age in the 1920s, but the Trojans had to sustain what they built. Howard Jones did that in the 1930s and into the early 1940s, creating a culture which took root in Los Angeles and enabled the Trojans to remain a powerhouse program for a long time. It's up to today's USC team to restore a standard which hasn't been maintained since Pete Carroll left.

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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC won its first Rose Bowl and continued to embrace the Granddaddy

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