1962 USC Trojans football
Consensus national champion AAWU champion Rose Bowl champion
Conference	Athletic Association of Western Universities
Ranking
Coaches	No. 1
AP	No. 1
Record	11–0 (4–0 AAWU)
Head coach	John McKay (3rd season)
Captains	Marv Marinovich Ben Wilson
Home stadium	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (c. 123,538, grass)
Seasons ← 1961 1963 →

1962 Athletic Association of Western Universities football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 1 USC $	4	–	0	–	0	11	–	0	–	0
Washington	4	–	1	–	0	7	–	1	–	2
Washington State	1	–	1	–	0	5	–	4	–	1
Stanford	2	–	3	–	0	5	–	5	–	0
UCLA	1	–	3	–	0	4	–	6	–	0
California	0	–	4	–	0	1	–	9	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The 1962 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California (USC) in the 1962 NCAA University Division football season. In their third year under head coach John McKay, the Trojans compiled an 11–0 record (4–0 against conference opponents), won the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU or Big 6) championship, defeated Wisconsin in the 1963 Rose Bowl, outscored their opponents by a combined total of 261 to 92, and finished the season ranked #1 in both the AP Poll and UPI Coaches Poll.^[1]

Pete Beathard was the team's quarterback, completing 54 of 107 passes for 989 yards with ten touchdown passes and only one interception. (Bill Nelsen also completed 36 of 80 passes for 682 yards and eight touchdown passes with two interceptions.) Willie Brown was the team's leading rusher with 574 rushing yards (and 291 receiving yards). Hal Bedsole was the team's leading receiver with 33 catches for 827 yards and 11 touchdowns.^[2] Bedsole was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.

Two USC players were selected by the Associated Press (AP) as first-team players on the 1962 All-Pacific Coast football team. They were end Hal Bedsole and linebacker Damon Bame.^[3] Bedsole was also a consensus first-team All-American in 1962,^[4] while Bame received first-team All-America honors from the AP.^[5]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance
September 22	No. 8 Duke*		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 14–7	26,400
September 29	at SMU*	No. 9	Cotton Bowl Dallas, TX	W 33–3	14,000
October 6	at Iowa*	No. 6	Iowa Stadium Iowa City, IA	W 7–0	55,300
October 20	California	No. 6	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 32–6	38,500
October 27	at Illinois*	No. 4	Memorial Stadium Champaign, IL	W 28–16	31,375
November 3	No. 9 Washington	No. 3	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 14–0	46,456
November 10	at Stanford	No. 2	Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA (rivalry)	W 39–14	41,000
November 17	Navy*	No. 2	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 13–6	51,701
November 24	at UCLA	No. 1	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (Victory Bell)	W 14–3	86,740
December 1	Notre Dame*	No. 1	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (rivalry)	W 25–0	81,676
January 1, 1963	vs. No. 2 Wisconsin*	No. 1	Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA (Rose Bowl)	W 42–37	98,698
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Game summaries

Duke

#8 Duke at USC

	1	2	3	4	Total
Duke	7	0	0	0	7
• USC	0	14	0	0	14

Date: September 22
Location: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles
Game attendance: 26,400

Scoring summary

1		DUKE	Jay Wilkinson 25-yard pass from Gil Garner (Reynolds kick)	DUKE 7-0

2		USC	Brown 4-yard pass from Beathard (Lupo kick)	Tied 7-7

2	1:30	USC	Hal Bedsole 51-yard pass from Bill Nelsen (Lupo kick)	USC 14-7

^[6]

SMU

Statistics

Receiving: Hal Bedsole 4 receptions, 112 yards, 2 TD^[7]

California

Statistics

Receiving: Hal Bedsole 6 receptions, 201 yards, 2 TD^[7]

Players

The following players were members of the 1962 USC football team.^[8]

Damon Bame, linebacker
Pete Beathard, quarterback
Hal Bedsole, end
Willie Brown, halfback
John Brownwood, end
Ron Butcher
Mac Byrd
Jay Clark
Ken Del Conte, halfback
Craig Fertig, quarterback
Bill Fisk
Mike Gale
Stan Gonta
Ron Heller
Fred Hill
Gary Hill
Phil Hoover
Hudson Houck
Loran Hunt
Tom Johnson
Ernie Jones
Randy Jones
Gary Kirner, tackle
Pete Lubisich, guard
Tom Lupo
Marv Marinovich, guard
Rich McMahon
Bill Nelsen, quarterback
Gary Potter
Ernie Pye
John Ratliff, guard
Lynn Reade
Larry Sagouspe
Armando Sanchez
Denny Schmidt
Ron Smedley
Bob Svihus, tackle
Toby Thurlow
Gary Winslow
Ben Wilson, fullback

Coaching staff and administration

Head coach: John McKay
Assistant coaches: Mel Hein, Mike Giddings, Raymond George, Dave Levy, Charlie Hall, Marv Goux, and Joe Margucci^[9]
Athletic director: Jess Hill^[10]
Senior manager: Mike Leddel^[9]

References

v t e USC Trojans football
Venues	Athletic Park (1895–1898) Fiesta Park (1897–1898, 1902, 1904–1906, 1916) Chutes Park (1900) Prager Park (1903) Bovard Field (1904–1910, 1914–1915, 1917–1923) Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1923–present) Jones Field/Kennedy Field (practice)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Notre Dame Stanford UCLA: Victory Bell
Culture & lore	Traveler George Tirebiter Giles Pellerin "Fight On" Spirit of Troy Student Body Right Tommy Trojan Tribute to Troy Athletics scandal 1967 "Game of the Century" "Bush Push" 2007 Stanford game So This Is College
People	Head coaches Starting quarterbacks NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911–1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
National championship seasons in bold

v t e College football national champions (poll era)
1936–1949	1936: Minnesota (AP) 1937: Pittsburgh 1938: TCU 1939: Texas A&M 1940: Minnesota 1941: Minnesota 1942: Ohio State 1943: Notre Dame 1944: Army 1945: Army (AP) / Oklahoma A&M (Coaches) 1946: Notre Dame 1947: Notre Dame 1948: Michigan 1949: Notre Dame
1950s	1950: Oklahoma (AP, Coaches) 1951: Tennessee 1952: Michigan State 1953: Maryland 1954: Ohio State (AP) / UCLA (FWAA, Coaches) 1955: Oklahoma 1956: Oklahoma 1957: Auburn (AP) / Ohio State (Coaches, FWAA) 1958: LSU (AP, Coaches) / Iowa (FWAA) 1959: Syracuse (AP, Coaches, FWAA, NFF)
1960s	1960: Minnesota (AP, Coaches, NFF) / Ole Miss (FWAA) 1961: Alabama (AP, Coaches, NFF) / Ohio State (FWAA) 1962: USC 1963: Texas 1964: Alabama (AP, Coaches) / Arkansas (FWAA) / Notre Dame (NFF) 1965: Alabama (AP, FWAA) / Michigan State (Coaches, FWAA, NFF) 1966: Notre Dame (AP, Coaches, FWAA, NFF) / Michigan State (NFF) 1967: USC 1968: Ohio State 1969: Texas
1970s	1970: Nebraska (AP, FWAA) / Texas (NFF, Coaches) / Ohio State (NFF) 1971: Nebraska 1972: USC 1973: Notre Dame (AP, FWAA, NFF) / Alabama (Coaches) 1974: Oklahoma (AP) / USC (FWAA, NFF, Coaches) 1975: Oklahoma 1976: Pittsburgh 1977: Notre Dame 1978: Alabama (AP, FWAA, NFF) / USC (Coaches) 1979: Alabama
1980–1991	1980: Georgia 1981: Clemson 1982: Penn State 1983: Miami (FL) 1984: BYU 1985: Oklahoma 1986: Penn State 1987: Miami (FL) 1988: Notre Dame 1989: Miami (FL) 1990: Colorado (AP, FWAA, NFF, USAT/CNN) / Georgia Tech (Coaches) 1991: Miami (FL) (AP) / Washington (Coaches, FWAA, UPI/NFF)

v t e Pac-12 Conference football champions
Pacific Coast	Washington (1916) Washington State (1917) California (1918) Oregon & Washington (1919) California (1920) California (1921) California (1922) California (1923) Stanford (1924) Washington (1925) Stanford (1926) Idaho, Stanford, & USC (1927) USC (1928) USC (1929) Washington State (1930) USC (1931) USC (1932) Oregon & Stanford (1933) Stanford (1934) California, Stanford, & UCLA (1935) Washington (1936) California (1937) California & USC (1938) USC (1939) Stanford (1940) Oregon State (1941) UCLA (1942) USC (1943) USC (1944) USC (1945) UCLA (1946) USC (1947) California & Oregon (1948) California (1949) California (1950) Stanford (1951) USC (1952) UCLA (1953) UCLA (1954) UCLA (1955) Oregon State (1956) Oregon & Oregon State (1957) California (1958)
AAWU	UCLA, USC, & Washington (1959) Washington (1960) UCLA (1961) USC (1962) Washington (1963) Oregon State & USC (1964) UCLA (1965) USC (1966) USC (1967)
Pacific-8	USC (1968) USC (1969) Stanford (1970) Stanford (1971) USC (1972) USC (1973) USC (1974) California & UCLA (1975) USC (1976) Washington (1977)
Pacific-10	USC (1978) USC (1979) Washington (1980) Washington (1981) UCLA (1982) UCLA (1983) USC (1984) UCLA (1985) Arizona State (1986) USC & UCLA (1987) USC (1988) USC (1989) Washington (1990) Washington (1991) Washington & Stanford (1992) Arizona, UCLA, & USC (1993) Oregon (1994) USC & Washington (1995) Arizona State (1996) UCLA & Washington State (1997) UCLA (1998) Stanford (1999) Oregon, Oregon State, & Washington (2000) Oregon (2001) USC & Washington State (2002) USC (2003) USC (2004) vacated USC (2005) vacated California & USC (2006) Arizona State & USC (2007) USC (2008) Oregon (2009) Oregon (2010)
Pac-12	Oregon (2011) Stanford (2012) Stanford (2013) Oregon (2014) Stanford (2015) Washington (2016) USC (2017) Washington (2018) Oregon (2019) Oregon (2020) Utah (2021) Utah (2022)
National championships in bold