The 1928 football season had both the USC Trojans and the Georgia Tech Golden Tornado claim national championships.
Vance Maree blocked the ensuing punt which gave Georgia Tech a safety deciding the 8–7 win.
NYU halfback Ken Strong led the nation in scoring as an individual, with 162 points, and tallied some 3,000 total yards from scrimmage.
In New Orleans, Georgia Tech beat Tulane, 12–0, and in Dallas, Texas narrowly lost to Vanderbilt, 13–12.
After its first two wins over Ashland College (65–0) and Thiel (38–13), Carnegie Tech beat Washington & Jefferson, 19–0.
Olympic, nominally an amateur team of former college players, had beaten Stanford 12–6 earlier.
A crowd of 90,000 packed the stands while 5,000 others in the Bronx watched from roofs and fire escapes within view of Yankee Stadium.
In the final minute, Army drove to within one foot of the goal line, but the whistle sounded before the Cadets could snap the ball.
[3] In the New York Daily News the following Monday, reporter Francis Wallace first related the story in an article entitled, "Gipp's Ghost Beat Army.
"[4] The big game in the South was in Atlanta, where Vanderbilt (6–0–0) visited Georgia Tech (5–0–0), and the home team won 19–7.
Nebraska, which had not played Oklahoma during the last two seasons, renewed a rivalry that became one of the most notable in college football.
Iowa (6–0–0) hosted Wisconsin (6–0–1) in a meeting of unbeatens, with the visitors handing the Hawkeyes their first loss, 13–0.
Today he was George Gipp, Red Grange and Chris Cagle rolled into one human form and there was nothing Carnegie Tech had that could stop his march.
Army (7–1–0) and Nebraska (6–0–1) met at West Point, with the Cadets beating the visiting Cornhuskers, 13–3.
In Los Angeles, USC hosted Notre Dame, winning 27–14, to close its season at 9–0–1.
In one of the final games of the 1928 season, once-tied Tennessee hosted unbeaten Florida in Knoxville.
Florida finished 8–1, Tennessee 9–0–1, and unbeaten and untied Georgia Tech won the conference championship outright.
As the lone post-season college football game, the Rose Bowl matched the California Golden Bears, co-champions (with USC) of the Pacific Coast Conference, against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, nicknamed the "Golden Tornado" as well as the "champions of the South".
Playing linebacker, California center Roy Riegels scooped up the fumble at the 34 and dashed, unimpeded, toward the end zone.
Though Riegels was not tackled in his own end zone, California chose to punt from there on first down, and Benny Lom's kick was blocked by Tech's Tom Jones, and Cal's Stan Barr fell on the ball for the safety.
Georgia Tech's 2–0 lead at halftime was extended to 8–0 after Stumpy Thomason ran for 15 yards for a score, and the conversion failed.
Lom's pass to Irv Phillips, and Barr's extra point, made it 8–7 with a minute left.
An onside kick attempt failed, and Georgia Tech ran out the clock to win the other national championship.
[11] Professor Dickinson concluded that the University of Southern California Trojans were "the national football champions of America for 1928".
Unbeaten and untied Georgia Tech was ranked third because, Dickinson said, "its schedule was easier than the other contenders".
[1] On January 4, 1929, the Jack F. Rissman national intercollegiate trophy was presented by Professor Dickinson to the USC football squad, and Coach Howard Jones, at a student rally on the Los Angeles campus.
For the benefit of the crowd, Dickinson added "that even had he taken into consideration the victory of Georgia Tech over California on New Year's Day that the University of Southern California would have still be rated at the top," though Georgia Tech would have ranked second instead of third after its Rose Bowl win [12] The consensus All-America team included: