The USC Trojans are about to enter the Big Ten, a reality which will be affirmed at Big Ten media days this week. Michigan State becomes a conference neighbor for USC. If we were to ask which moment is Michigan State’s greatest, it’s not easy to pick the ultimate Spartan football memory.
First things first: The most famous moment in Michigan State history is easy to point to. The 1966 10-10 tie with Notre Dame is by far the most-discussed, written-about event in MSU football annals. Yet, that was not a happy moment for the Spartans or their fans. Notre Dame played conservatively, knowing that a tie would give the Irish the national championship. Michigan State did not lose a game that season and finished No. 2, but the Notre Dame game was not the happiest moment of that season — anything but.
Michigan State did win the national title in the 1965 season, but the championship lost some of its luster when the Spartans were stunned by UCLA in the 1966 Rose Bowl.
Michigan State beat USC in the 1988 Rose Bowl, but that was not one of MSU’s very best teams. The 1965 and 1966 teams are uniformly regarded as better all-time squads.
The 2013 MSU team won the Big Ten title and the Rose Bowl. Those were very special moments for the program. The 2015 team made the College Football Playoff, but then got crushed 38-0 by Alabama in the semifinals at the Cotton Bowl.
The greatest Michigan State football moment might be less a single episode in time and more of a collection of years. Michigan State went unbeaten in 1951 and 1952 under coach Biggie Munn. In 1952, the Spartans won their first national championship, but they didn’t get to play in the Rose Bowl that year because they weren’t yet in the Big Ten — that didn’t happen until 1953. In 1953, Michigan State earned a Rose Bowl berth and won its first Granddaddy.
From 1950 through 1955, Michigan State lost no more than one game in five of those six seasons. MSU had two unbeaten, untied seasons, a national title, and two Rose Bowl wins. The 1951-1953 run produced the unbeaten seasons, the first national title, and a Rose Bowl victory. Pick your moment from those seasons.
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