Big Ten primer: Purdue's greatest football moment

The Purdue Boilermakers do not have many great football moments in what has largely been a snake-bitten Big Ten gridiron history. That reality — that Purdue doesn’t have a whole lot of shining moments to point to — makes it easier to identify the best moment the Boilermakers have ever enjoyed on a football field. It came against USC.

The Trojans did not have a great team in 1966. That team lost to UCLA and endured several defeats in what was simply not a strong year for John McKay’s program. The best was yet to come for USC. The Trojans were about to embark on one of their most successful extended runs in school history. In 1967, USC won its second national championship under McKay and began a stretch in which it would win three national titles in eight seasons. The Trojans won the AAWU/Pac-8 championship six of the next eight seasons. In 1966, they were still trying to figure things out. Their selection in the 1967 Rose Bowl against Purdue was controversial. 9-1 UCLA frankly deserved to be in the game.

Purdue did not play the best team from the West Coast. The Boilermakers, led by future Super Bowl champion quarterback Bob Griese, nipped USC 14-13 when the Trojans’ game-deciding 2-point conversion attempt in the fourth quarter failed.

This is the only Rose Bowl Purdue has won. It is the only New Year’s Six bowl the Boilermakers have won. This was as good as it gets for the school from West Lafayette, Indiana.

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