60,415 football fans at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum? It doesn't sound too unusual until you realize that the year was 1971, and the home team was neither USC nor the Los Angeles Rams, but rather the Cal State Fullerton Titans.
Their opponent: The famed Grambling Tigers from Louisiana.
Borrowing from Sherman and Mr. Peabody, let's set the Way Back Machine to 1971:
Cal State Fullerton was in its second year of college football.
The SEC was in their infancy of integrating football in the south.
And 217 miles from Grambling, LSU would be fielding their final all-white team.
The civil rights movement was very much alive in urban Los Angeles, and the city was only three years removed from the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. The Watts Riots had occurred only six years prior.
But this was about football, and community.
Before the designation Historically Black Colleges and Universities was coined, Grambling College (now Grambling State University) was its most well-known example, mainly due to the excellence of its football program and the number and quality of players the Tigers had sent to the professional ranks.
Grambling didn't come west very often, and the game was an event in southern California and was in particular a source of pride in the African-American community. Records show that the game was covered by all the major local newspapers at the time, including the New York Times.
Both teams were helmed by legends: Grambling's Eddie Robinson was at that time well on his way to a College Football Hall of Fame career. Fullerton State's Dick Coury had already made a local name for himself at Mater Dei High School and would go on to a very successful career in the pro football ranks.
Los Angeles resident Marvin Gaye, having just released his groundbreaking What's Going On album for Motown Records a few months earlier was named honorary chairman of the event. The Jackson 5 and Diana Ross were in attendance. L.A. "Soul" radio station KPFK and Black Associated Sports Enterprises were major players in promoting the event and boosting attendance.
Grambling brought their famous 135-piece high-stepping Tiger Marching Band to entertain at halftime. Fullerton would never produce a marching band in their 23-year football history.
The game almost didn't take place because only two weeks before the scheduled kick-off, Titan assistant coaches Bill Hannah. Dallas Moon and Joe O'Hara were killed in a small plane crash while returning from a scouting trip.
After intense soul-searching and encouragement from the victims' widows, it was decided that the game would go on as a tribute to the fallen coaches. Their names were quickly added to the cover of the game program. In December, Fresno State graciously agreed to play Fullerton in what became known as the Mercy Bowl. Proceeds from the game and other fundraising means were donated to the families of the coaches and the pilot.
So, what about the game? It would be no disservice to the young, second-year Titans to say they were overmatched that day. Despite the best efforts of Fullerton's Mike Ernst, Terry McClean, Chris Jaramillo and linebacker-extraordinaire Buster La Coste, the Tigers dominated play, winning 59-26. Grambling's Herman Christophe, who rushed for 129 yards, and quarterback Matthew Reed led the Tigers' offense that day.
As a footnote, 12 members of Grambling's 1971 team were later selected in the NFL draft. Cal State Fullerton finished the season at a very respectable 7-4, including a 17-14 win in the Mercy Bowl over Fresno State, played at Anaheim Stadium.