LSU defends the belt, 26–3, at home over Rice.
AP poll, week 2: Rice unranked at LSU No. 1 · No. 1 that week: Navy. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
LSU came in 322 days into reign #121, which began with a win over Ole Miss, with 4 defenses already behind it; this was its 5th defense. LSU went on to defend it 6 more times before Tennessee took it on November 7, 1959, 371 days after the reign began.
For Rice this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
It was the first of 3 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time it is 1–1–1. Every meeting →
About this game
LSU, defending the belt, defeated Rice 26-3 on September 19, 1959. The home victory allowed LSU to retain the lineal championship.
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 34938) · This game in the downloadable dataset