During one of the tackle stunts, John Wayne injured his right arm and wore it in a sling when he wasn't filming. He learned how to throw and write left-handed and his character in the film is the same, while the Duke was really right-handed.
Carol Williams, in this 1953 film, credits her dad Steve (John Wayne) with saying, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." Vincent Lombardi was recorded as saying something like that in 1959 when he coached the Green Bay Packers. For years, many sportswriters wrongly attributed the source of the remark to Lombardi. The real source of the quote was UCLA Bruins coach Red Sanders. A former sportswriter for the Los Angeles Herald and Express, Bud Furillo, said he first heard Sanders say it after UCLA lost their 1949 game to USC, which was then coached by the film's technical advisor Jeff Cravath. No doubt the writers of this movie remembered having read or heard the phrase, and they included it in the screenplay.
The external scenes at the college were shot at Pomona College. The building where John Wayne calls to Donna Reed at the end of the film is the Hall of Music at Pomona. Portions of the film were shot at Pomona College and Loyola Marymount University, and various Los Angeles high schools, including Loyola High.
Several Loyola Marymount football players played in the football scenes.