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Southern Cal Trojans |
UCLA Bruins © |
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Played November 20, 1976 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, California |
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Teams' Belt Records
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Team |
Belt Reigns |
Overall Record |
Home Record |
Away Record |
Neutral Record |
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W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
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| Southern Cal | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | .813 | 3 | 0 | 1 | .875 | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 |
| UCLA © | 3 | 13 | 2 | 2 | .824 | 6 | 2 | 0 | .750 | 6 | 0 | 2 | .875 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 |
Previous Belt Meetings: None
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1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
Final |
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Southern Cal |
0 |
7 |
3 |
14 |
24 |
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UCLA |
0 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
14 |
The 2nd ranked, 9-0-1 UCLA Bruins of coach Terry Donahue hosted the 3rd ranked, 8-1 Southern Cal Trojans of first year coach John Robinson. The winner would claim the Pac 8 championship, the Rose Bowl berth & The Belt. Southern Cal dominated the game behind the running of All-American RB Ricky Bell leading 24-0 in the 4th quarter before the Bruins rallied for 2 touchdowns but fell short 24-14. Both defenses dominated the 1st half with the only points coming early in the 2nd quarter when Southern Cal’s All-American S Dennis Thurman grabbed a fumble in midair from UCLA’s All-Pac 8 RB Theotis Brown before returning the ball 47 yards for a touchdown giving the Trojans a 7-0 lead they held at the intermission. Early in the 3rd quarter, Southern Cal pushed the lead to 10-0 with a 42-yard field goal from PK Glen Walker. Starting late in the 3rd quarter, the Trojans drove 61 yards in 8 plays with the touchdown coming just 0:13 into the 4th quarter on a 1-yard run by Bell. The key play on the drive was a pass interference penalty called against UCLA’s All-Pac 8 CB Levi Armstrong giving the Trojans the ball at the UCLA 1-yard line. Bell scored on the next play. Southern Cal’s All-Pac 8 LB Rod Martin intercepted UCLA's QB Jeff Dankworth & returned the ball 17 yards giving the Trojans the ball again at the UCLA 35-yard line. Southern Cal's QB Vince Evans got the touchdown on a scrambling 36-yard run giving the Trojans an insurmountable 24-0 lead with 10:49 left in the game. UCLA got a 9-yard touchdown run from Brown & a 1-yard touchdown run from Dankworth to close the scoring. Evans finished with 79 yards passing with an interception while Bell rushed for 167 yards with his touchdown. Dankworth threw for 90 yards with an interception in the loss. UCLA finished the season 9-2-1; ranked 15th nationally while the Trojans finished 11-1, Pac 8 Champions & ranked 2nd nationally. UCLA would play for The Belt again in 1978.
