Hawkeyes’ last game against USC in the Coliseum was a colossal collapse

It was eight years after USC running back O.J. Simpson won the Heisman Trophy and 18 years before he was charged with two murders.

Yet, the topic was broached by Iowa’s football coach the last time the Hawkeyes played the Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the topic wasn’t the Heisman.

“USC murdered us,” Bob Commings said following his Iowa team’s 55-0 loss to USC in 1976 before 55,518 fans at the Coliseum. “It was embarrassing.”

What a time to be alive. For one thing, a football coach could say his team got murdered and no one would raise a brow. For another, Iowa played Penn State and USC on consecutive weeks 49 years ago, and neither was a Big Ten rival.

Playing other major-college programs in the nonconference portion of the schedule was just something the Hawkeyes did. Compare that to 2025, when Iowa hosted Albany and Massachusetts, several weeks before it was to make its return to the Coliseum.

FCS program Albany is 1-8. At 0-9, UMass is the only winless team out of the 134 in FBS.

No one between West Branch and West Hollywood thinks USC will beat Iowa 55-0 when the two hook up Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum. The 6-3 Hawkeyes have allowed just 45 points over the last four games.

Of course, no one saw 55-0 coming when Iowa last rolled past the USC campus to the fabled Coliseum.

That’s because the week before the Hawkeyes got drubbed by USC, they went East and beat then-11th ranked Penn State, 7-6. It was shocking.

After that game, Commings had an interview session with reporters interrupted when he was told he had to take a phone call.

“It’s probably the president,” Commings quipped.

Penn State had missed a 25-yard field goal try with 47 seconds left. Now, teams get scared if their opponents have a 55-yard try to win a game.

When the Nittany Lions scored their touchdown with 9:01 left to pull within 7-6, they went for a two-point conversion and failed. There was no overtime back in those days, and Penn State coach Joe Paterno had no use for a tie.

Iowa’s defense was the winner on the two-point try, and thus the winner for the day.

Several hundred fans greeted the Hawkeyes when they flew into Cedar Rapids that night. Commings was given a bouquet of roses.

“This has been a long time coming,” Commings said, “but judging by the way these guys played today, there should be a lot more of them.”

The Hawkeyes, you see, had entered the 1976 season with 14 straight non-winning seasons. The Penn State win was on the heels of a 41-3 triumph over Syracuse, and Iowa was sitting at 2-1. It was heady stuff around here at the time.

The Hawkeyes had the No. 1-rated defense in the Big Ten. Until they took the Coliseum field to face the vaunted Trojans.

USC outgained Iowa 512 yards to 77. Charles White rushed for 120 yards, Ricky Bell for 117. The Hawkeyes had one completed pass, and minus-11 yards passing.

Dick Miller wrote this in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner: “Traveler II, the thoroughbred stallion who is supposed to circle the coliseum track after every USC touchdown, had to scratch in the final quarter. By that time he had already logged a mile and three-quarters, and rider Dick Saukko had been to the post more often than Willie Shoemaker.”

USC was penalized 14 times for 169 yards, but it just didn’t matter.

There was no welcome-home for the Hawkeyes when they flew home early the next morning. They had six days before they had to play a home game, against Ohio State.

Iowa finished that season 5-6. Two years later, Commings was fired. “Dummies don’t beat Joe Paterno,” Commings said as he faced criticism as his coaching tenure neared its end.

Three years later, Iowa finally had a winning season. It was the start of more than four decades of mostly winning ball. The Hawkeyes need one more victory this month for their 13th-straight winning season.

You could say scheduling Albany and Massachusetts instead of two nonconference national powers has helped, but why quibble? Just be glad 55-0 losses are no longer part of the Hawkeyes’ equation. They make for long flights home.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com