• Michigan Drives The Trojans Mad (1948)

    I can’t get enough of these diagrammed wire photos from yesteryear..especially those that capture the brilliance of Bob Chappuis and the Mad Magicians, here exposing the USC defense in the ‘48 Rose Bowl: The Wolverines pounded USC 49-0 and delivered Fritz Crisler a national championship is his final game at the helm of the Blue.    Time Magazine did a nice job in describing the beating: Southern Cal’s beefy bruisers, the West Coast champs, were not clubbed to death. They were just hoodwinked and whipsawed by Michigan’s slickers. Jack Weisenburger, Crisler’s sturdy spinning fullback, started most of Michigan’s backfield ballet and ball-handling hocuspocus, and chewed through the center of Southern Cal’s bewildered line for three Michigan touchdowns.