Southern Miss defends the belt, 40–0, at home over Parris Island Marines.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Southern Miss came in 8 days into reign #106, which began with a win over Alabama, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Southern Miss went on to defend it 3 more times before Memphis took it on October 31, 1953, 43 days after the reign began.
For Parris Island Marines this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t; this remains its only belt game.
This is the only time Parris Island Marines and Southern Miss have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Southern Miss defeated Parris Island Marines 40-0 on September 26, 1953 in week 2 of the regular season. As the belt's defender, Southern Miss retained the championship with the victory.
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 63870) · This game in the downloadable dataset