Michigan State defends the belt, 14–0, on the road at San Francisco.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Michigan State came in 21 days into reign #81, which began with a win over Temple, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. It was the last defense: Auburn took the belt in the very next belt game, on January 1, 1938.
For San Francisco this was its 3rd shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 3 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time Michigan State and San Francisco have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Michigan State traveled to San Francisco on November 27, 1937, for a regular season matchup in week 11. San Francisco won 14-0, but Michigan State retained the belt as the defending champion.
Written by Claude, strictly from this site’s own record of the game — the score and what it meant for the belt. CFBD doesn’t have a box score for games this old, so nothing here is invented beyond what’s verifiably on file.
Sources Game record: College Football Data (id 22227) · This game in the downloadable dataset