FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Do Not Disturb John McKay Edition

Did you watch the 1975 USC-Ohio State Rose Bowl on NBCSN last night?

It’s always remembered for Pat Haden throwing a 2-point pass to Shelton Diggs for the Trojans’ 18-17 victory.

But what was up with John McKay sprinting straight to the locker room after the game ended?

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I guess I’ll look into it. I know after USC held off Wisconsin, 42-37, to win the 1963 Rose Bowl, an athletic dept. staffer who had been in the locker room during the fourth quarter and didn’t know who won asked McKay, “What happened?” and McKay shoved him and said, “Get out of my way.” McKay then chewed out the team for 45 minutes after they entered the locker room . . . for a game that just earned USC the national championship.

By the way, Haden’s legacy should be the pass to Diggs and the preceeding 38-yard pass to JK McKay for a TD (shown below). Instead, he became athletic director and forever tarnished his image.

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63 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Do Not Disturb John McKay Edition”

    1. Thank you, Pudly —it’s nice to finally be able to put a face to Owns.
      #ReallyJustASweetKidWhoMeansNoHarm&LovesPuppies

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  2. If anyone had told me in 1975 that the hero of the Notre Dame & Rose Bowl comebacks would end life despised by the majority of Trojan football fans, I would’ve told him he was crazy…..
    #Pat’sStoryDeservedABetterEnding…..

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    1. Michael, the combination of the TD pass and the 2-point conversion is among the best. Haden could have been a hero forever. Instead, he became a domer sidekick announcer and then the huge failure as AD.

      #AMan’sGotToKnowHisLimitations

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      1. “A man’s gotta know his limitations.” [Usually the person John Wayne is saying those words to is about to get shot]…..
        #PatEscapedCowboyJustice….
        #…SoHeHasThat

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      2. Michael, yes, Pat did escape, and where he is, no one seems to know…

        One other thought…John McKay would never have taken the domer sidekick announcer gig.

        #JustNotHowHeRolled

        Liked by 6 people

      4. So true, 67. To put an even finer point on it, McKay said he would “never set foot” on the UCLA or Notre Dame campuses…..
        #PatWasAGreatQB….ButHeWasASellOut

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      6. If s w e will soon see various Pat Haden wills being foisted by various colorful characters…perhaps even Owns will claim to have one naming him as sole heir to the Haden fortune.

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      7. gt —
        May I share a secret? A while back, Pat Haden asked me [and another guy named Clifford Irving] to do a book on his life…. he also asked us to keep the fact that we worked together a complete secret until the time of publication. Clifford and me were flown to Pat’s hideaway in helicopters….while wearing blindfolds. Pat talked to us from inside his oxygen tank….his hair was about 3 feet long.
        #…TheTimeHasComeToCollectMyMillionDollarAdvance…

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      8. If only Howard Hughes had live to see this month he would have been vindicated for being a germophobe. Imagine his joy at seeing everyone with uncut long hair at the grocery store wearing masks and gloves like he used to do?

        #AndTheyCalledHimAWeirdo

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      2. USC and Alabama WILL meet….in the National Championship game.
        [Okay —now that we have Owns’ attention —– I was very surprised to read that “so far Mike Bohn hasn’t had anything substantial to say.” I would have expected Bohn to be way out on a limb by now….negotiating stadium safety guidelines with no input from Carol Folt, daring the governor or mayor to interfere with USC’s right to compete, making bold predictions about who will win. Not taking the lead on this is so out of character]…….

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      3. Pudly –I sure understand that sentiment (it’s just about universal in California). But someday watch the videos (all of which are on youtube) of his former players talking about how they could call or visit Woody at ANY hour to get help on a problem they were struggling with. He was the real deal. In the 60’s and 70’s there were a lot of outwardly gruff S.O.B. college coaches —in football and basketball—-who would give their players the shirts off their backs…[and their players knew it and played hard for them]…..
        #PleaseContrastThatWithSomeoneElseWeBothKnow….
        #…WhoOnlyTalksTheTalk…

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      4. Woody was pre-old school. Not sure which vintage he would be best matched with, but thinking it would be the 1930s or earlier.

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      8. I think the WWII experience left many of those future football coaches with a remnant of violence that was just beneath the surface and got the players attention.

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    2. And…let’s face it…..those other guys were playing behind way better lines and had at least one more second per play to release the ball….

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      1. And on the other hand, Pitt, Amon-Ra, etc were playing against cornerbacks who’ll be selling insurance post-grad and given 8-10yd cushions to boot. The lack of quality cb play in the PAC12 is precisely why it’s thought an air-raid quick slant, hot read type of offense will work. USC has abandoned any plans to seriously compete on a national level, and instead turned to a gimmick offense that’ll allow them to exploit the soon to be irrelevant P12.
        For those who think cb quality isn’t a prob, simply look at two former Trojans that were thought of as 2 of the P12s best when they played: Adoree and Biggie. Adoree has proven capable but not so much to keep the Titans from drafting another cb in Fulton. Biggie? Have no idea… If those were the best and brightest what does that say for cb’s on other teams? It says that’s why Slovis and his receivers got the wide open looks they did.

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    3. I know that PFF is quoted as gospel these days, and the whole stumbling into Slovis story helps ease the pain of current Trojan reality, but seeing Hundleys name above Joe B and Tua T calls into question the value of such stats in a vacuum. The phrase “there are lies, damn lies, and statistics” comes to mind.
      IMHO I think it’s forgotten that PFF is a company who’s primary goal is to make revenue. Their main means of doing so is by conveniently molding stats to tell unique contrarian-to-mainstream-media stories in a very self serving way. Context is marginalized if not altogether ignored if it doesn’t help their goal of crafting a narrative that drives visitors to their media property. In this case, their goal is to scoop the ESPN’s of the world on the greatness of Slovis, pointing to how he outperformed JB/TT in one particular statistical measurement. Problem being the % figure they’re basing relativen greatness on fails to account for massive contextual differences in the quality of db/defensive play between the SEC West and the PAC12 South. We’re talking polar opposites. If these types of limited statistical views were worth a damn Hundley wouldn’t have gone undrafted and had to sign on as camp-filler with the Ravens. And sure, with Hundley there were/are other areas he’s lacking when it comes to pro potential, but guarantee if it drove bunches of people to PFFs site (and didn’t wreck their believability) they could pull out a slew of random stats he categorically led the nation in to make folks believe the Bengals shoulda called him.
      Bottom line: the PAC12 is a flag football league and the SEC West is the 3rd NFL conference. Caution should be excercised whenever player comparisons between the two are made.

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      1. Try matching PAC12 qbs in the Super Bowl vs that other league. And I’m wondering, for the sake of conversation, why such a run first league had champions who threw the ball 500+ times this season.
        Oh yeah context, who had the better line? Who was an upperclassman? I guess context only matters when it suits you.

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      2. “Context” sure went out the window when USC kicked the shit out of Cal’s secondary —which was ranked top 5 in the country by all the preseason mags…..
        #TheWord”Context”MustMeanSomethingDifferentToUSCHaters

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  5. Hmmm, this would be a nice get for us..

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      3. We didn’t force him out, but he got a job as position coach at asu not as a grad assistant. Don’t think we were ready for a coach without experience to take over. At least that’s what was being said by everyone here. And rightly so. I have faith that when the time’s right, Chris will be back.

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      3. Just shows you how a high school kid thinks about things day by day. Hour by hour. The way that we think about a commitment can be far different for a young man.
        #noNeedtoGettooExcitedoverAcommitment.
        #signOntheDottedlinePlease.

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    4. Ahhh man, feels good, my first shot across the bow from P76! My local pub probably wouldn’t be my local pub if it weren’t for disagreement and misunderstandings about sports, politics, and Ginger or Mary Ann.
      Not sure if we’ve got a disagreement, misunderstanding, or a hybrid going on here, but the points you raise about quality of line play, whether Burrows first full year in a new system (like Slovis) is helped/hurt by his age, or the SECs transition away from power football ala the Trojans are all valid context-wise… and that was where I was meandering with my point about what PFF does when they start anointing players. In this case, Slovis. Wasn’t intended to be a knock on our QB1, it was all merely to say let’s cool our jets on the media driven hype machine that increasingly races to make declarations reality doesn’t yet back.

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      1. Didn’t take it as a knock on Slovis. Didn’t want to start anything, just looking for such slippery slope this was heading towards.

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      2. Point taken on slippery slopes and likewise on starting something avoidance (intelligent banter aside). Truth of the matter, gray skies or blue, champions or not, I’m unapologetically proud to call myself a Trojan, and will ride with until my time has come. Does it mean I’m gonna turn a blind eye when things have gone south? No. Does it mean I’m gonna try and keep things in perspective, remembering that whatever happens on Coliseum grass a few Saturday’s a year pales in importance compared to what happens with family inside my four walls? Absolutely. Take care & Fight On!

        Liked by 1 person

  6. The reason McKay was hustled of the field immediately after the end of the game is because earlier in the week, someone called in a death threat. The LAPD and FBI got involved and decided it would be best for his safety to get him off the field quickly. McKay joked about it later at a USC function and I had a friend who had a recording of it, but I don’t know what happened to it.

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  7. Memo To: MG

    Harry Callahan : Well, I just work for the city, Briggs!

    Lieutenant Briggs : So do I, longer than you, and I never had to take my gun out of its holster once. I’m proud of that.

    Harry Callahan : Well, you’re a good man, lieutenant. A good man always knows his limitations…

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  8. I bet McKay did not mind avoiding the hand-shake with Woody Hayes, who I understand he did not like…
    As for McKay shouting down people, I do recall my first day at practice. The quarterback rifled a pass to me which I dropped, and McKay walked over and menacingly said, “You drop another pass, you might as well get off this field.”

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      1. Didn’t you see it? Helton sprinted off the field after the Cal loss —- but he tripped over his own foot, fell flat on his face, bruised his lip and had to tell everybody he got an instantaneous cold sore on the way to the presser……
        #HeWasDoingInterviewsWithABustedLipForAWeek….
        #[And,Yes,ItWasLikeADream]…..

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  9. Haden was a good college football player. He had little real SC zeal,unless he was paid for it, and was subpar even at that.Like hellton, he is as they say’laughing all the way to the bank’. I am surprised he didn’t announce ucla football too…

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