Happy New Year, 1969

The pairings for postseason bowl games can often be about as enthralling as the lopsidedness of one's head on New Year's morning. Anacin will be a 10-point underdog, and so will the opponent for the No. 1 team out there in Pasadena, Miami, Dallas or New Orleans. Elsewhere it will be a lot of No. 6s going against a lot of No. 10s, almost all of them from the Southeastern Conference. Every now and then, however, the fates and the sponsors accidentally get together and up comes a day that makes it look as though Sonny Werblin and David Merrick have bought the NCAA. Such a day is upon us.

That's the opening paragraph of Sports Illustrated's Dec. 23, 1968, preview of the college-football bowls. Dan Jenkins goes on to write, ...

What has occurred this time is a jolly good stirring up of geography and conference champions. The Southwest and the Southeastern will be after one another in both the Cotton and the Sugar, as Texas plays Tennessee and Arkansas plays Georgia, and the East has a shot at the Big Eight in the Orange, where Penn State meets Kansas. The six teams involved have won a total of 52 games and lost only four. And in the runner-up bowls we find the Southwest against the Big Eight in the Bluebonnet and the Southeastern against the Big Eight in the Gator.

But as interesting and action-crammed as all of these games threaten to be, they could be played simultaneously in the parking lots outside the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, and hardly anyone would want to climb to the top row to glance over at them. ...

Indeed, the Dec. 31 Kentucky New Era told me that the ABC affiliate out of Nashville was going to show the Bluebonnet Bowl, but I opted for a Mod Squad on Bowling Green's Channel 13, instead. I'm tuning in today 1969, though--undefeated No. 1 Ohio State vs. undefeated No. 2 Southern California--and I'm not bothered at all that Paducah's Channel 6 is pre-empting a Perry Mason rerun this afternoon to show it.

So here we go. 

Here's a lovely co-ed to welcome us to the broadcast.

Here's the Rose Bowl.

Here are Curt Gowdy and Kyle Rote, looking sharp.

Here are the captains and the coin toss.

Here are your officials for today's game.

Here are the No. 1 Buckeyes, surrounding Coach Woody Hayes for their final pre-game instructions.

O.J. Simpson (bottom, 32) and a teammate are back deep for the Trojans.

Here's the kickoff.

I have no idea who's going to win. Let's watch.