FOOTBALL

USC-Notre Dame Pictures Of The Day

First, I’ll start off with the most amazing photo involving USC or Notre Dame.

I first came across this photo in 2017 and it is impossible to forget.

In 1927, USC played Notre Dame before 120,000 at Soldier Field in Chicago. The night before the game, an event was held to hype the game and it featured baseball legends Babe Ruth (in a Notre Dame jersey) and Lou Gehrig (in a USC jersey).

The event also promoted the Stanford-Yale game, which is why Stanford coach Glenn “Pop” Warner (far left) is in the picture along with Irish coach Knute Rockne (center next to Ruth) and USC coach Howard Jones (second from the right). Yale coach Tad Jones (far right, younger brother of Howard) and baseball agent Christy Walsh (center, left of Gehrig), who organized the event.

According to an article in the Dec. 4, 1927 Los Angeles Times, it was an annual All-American dinner thrown by Walsh, who was known as the first baseball agent and agent to Ruth.

Ruth and Gehrig performed a skit at the start of the dinner with Ruth impersonating a Notre Dame player while Gehrig was a USC player.

Below is a photo of Ruth and Gehrig at the game. They were part of the 120,000 in attendance.

Now let’s move forward to 1979.

On Oct. 20, 1979, USC went to South Bend and faced Notre Dame.

Charles White rushed for 261 yards and four TDs while Paul McDonald passed for 311 yards in a 42-23 rout. USC amassed 591 yards in total offense.

Even though 65 points were scored, the first TD did not come until the second quarter on a 12-yard pass from McDonald to wide receiver Dan Garcia. McDonald and Garcia also connected on 26-yard pass down to the Notre Dame 3-yard line.

The duo also connected on a 32-yard pass.

White carried 44 times and the performance was considered the finest of his career to that point.

Dennis Smith and Jeff Fisher had interceptions while Ty Sperling recovered a fumble.

Notre Dame tailback Vagas Ferguson had 187 yards rushing.

52 thoughts on “USC-Notre Dame Pictures Of The Day”

    2. YES! Let’s promise ourselves to stick to sports….unless somebody taunts us —then all bets are off!
      [I always promised myself at the beginning of each trial I wouldn’t cheap shot opposing counsel —but within 15 minutes they’d do something slimy and the war was on].
      More (much more) importantly —thank you to Scott for another great piece on Trojan history….
      #NobodyDoesItBetter

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  2. Scooter,

    I remember those great games. Those games were the epitome of collge football. Big man on big man including tailbacks running like they owned the world. Too bad this game will be a horrible and inexplicable game. With SC’s tendency on offense, Sc will be stopped by the first quarter. Knwoing nd and how dirty they play, they will take out the knee of London and call it a day. They don’t have to injure Solvis, just the only offense that SC has.

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    1. Pasadena, you full of shit and wine cooler. You need to remember to let real football experts reminisce on ND vs. USC games. Here is my credentials as a football expert, 207 tackles, 10.5 sacks, 34.5 TFL and 9 interceptions. Pasadena your credentials is sneaking in wine coolers and sandwiches to the coliseum with your dad….

      Bitch ass wine cooler drinking idiots need to keep your mouth shut.

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      2. My stats are verifiable all over the internet as are yours by your own admission. You wine cooler drinking mother fucker!

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      3. The real sua cravens,

        first off, we did not sneak anyhting in, it was allowed by security. Second, you have no idea about my background. But I do know about football since I played in high school for four years. We ran an offense that on one particular night we had 504 yards rushing. The year i graduated, my high school took CIF 4-A and National Chanmpions.

        So please, go back to your wet dreams and dream.

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    2. I hope the refs don’t screw this up for us —I think USC is ready for a fight. And I don’t see London getting hurt …but I do see it getting plenty dirty…..
      #BottomLine:USCAin’tGonnaRollOver&PlayDeadThisTime

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  3. Check out the picture of Gehrig, there is an athlete for any era. How good would Ruth have been with discipline and training?

    White got stronger in that game, despite 40 plus carries. You could tell he wanted the ball, and you could also tell the ND defense really didn’t want to play after the first half. White and the ND D knew he couldn’t be stopped.

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    1. Most talented (not greatest – quite a bit of inconsistency and underachieving under JRob unfortunately) team in college football history, and not really even close. When Mosebar and Matthews are on the bench behind Munoz, Foster, Budde, Van Horne, and Foote…there’s a reason you have two Heisman-winning RBs…White may not have had the pro career as some other Trojan TBs, but at the college level, he was the best by light years…as tough as some of the other TBs were (and they were), he was probably the toughest…that last drive of that season against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, breaking the two long runs, capping it with the flop, blood running down face from large cut on bridge of nose…if only they hadn’t coasted in second half against Stanford…

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      1. That game was a week after the Stanford debacle when USC tied Stanford 21-21. USC was up 21-0 at the half and in typical John Robinson fashion he took the foot off the gas and let Stanford back in the game. That team shouldn’t have had a close game that year but the combo of Robinson and Paul Hackett always played not to lose instead of running teams off the field.

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      2. Yep…team should have won by 20-30 each week (Munoz, Foster, Van Horne, Budde, White, Allen, McDonald, Brenner, Smith, Lott, Browner, Johnson, Banks, Ellison, Matthews, Mosebar – unbelievable collection of talent)…that Notre Dame game was enjoyable though (ND stayed close in first half as I recall, but it eventually broke open), and UCLA game at end of season was also enjoyable.

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      3. Only problem with 1979 team was the D tendency to give up the big play. LSU,ND, and in the Rose Bowl, big play after big play were given up. Stanford won (tied) actually by controlling the ball and got key 3rd down scrambles in 2nd half from qb Turk Shonert (frosh Elway played briefly in 1st half). SC was hurt by two White fumbles, a bad pick from a McDonald, and some questionable calls in the 2nd half. But more than anything Tinsley dropping the last second FG snap … it was all there for an amazing SC 70’s type thrilling win and he dropped the snap. Tough loss that day.

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      4. Rose Bowl was similar – score incredibly deceptive – USC should have scored 40-50 points and moved the ball up and down the field virtually at will, but kept committing stupid mistakes (White fumble on Todd Bell play, failure to convert early from red zone on 4th down, missed FG, etc)…also gave up, like you note, the stupid and unnecessary big play pass right before the half that tied the score up … with discipline, final score is probably 44-9 (over co #1 and 11-0 Buckeyes)…and that would have swung the votes for a national title at least in UPI…

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      6. Pasadena: That is an awesome (albeit tragically awful!) story and insight. USC’s kicker that year was Eric Hipp I believe. Seem to recall he had a good leg (think next year he hit a big kick at end of Tennessee game on the road), but like the team, was sometimes inconsistent. Frank Jordan didn’t have that type of range, but we recall him (and his brother from several years later in the Rose Bowl) being clutch. Ah but for…but as noted above too, if not for the characteristic JRob team glitches, it might still have been overcome if the final score of the Rose Bowl would have reflected the actual degree of physical dominance. SI even remarked on that (as did The Sporting News).

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      7. Steve Jordan–Frank’s younger brother–WAS a clutch kicker.
        Had a great sense of humor, too.
        When he’d nail a long FG in practice we’d do the Carl Spackler scene from Caddyshack for him:

        “oh, he got all of dat one, yes he did!”
        Always got a chuckle from SJ.

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      8. Bourbon – Thank you for that story! That is hilarious awesome. I remember that Rose Bowl (it was 0 degrees F and well below minus windchill in Kansas City that day) and SJ hitting the then Rose Bowl record long FG. They needed every little bit of his leg that day (the one time Ohio State had the more talented squad over USC – Byars, Carter, Tomczak, Lachey, Lowdermilk, Pepper Johnson – and USC still won!).

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    2. If memory serves me right, Charles had a huge gash across the bridge of his nose that bled like Smokin’ Joe Frazier vs Ali. JR just kept calling his number. 28 pitch. 26 power. Rarely, 29 toss to the open field. Mostly power power power, behind quite possibly the greatest college O-line in history: Munoz, Budde, B. Mathews, etc. I think everyone on that O-line was a 1rd draftpick and early All PRO.

      I was a freshman premed with no way to buy alcohol, but I had the 13 inch color TV with rabbit ears, so we met in my apartment with chips and Coors heavy to watch the game.

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      1. I recall watching – and your memory is dead on (that’s exactly how the SI write-up described it). Watching the game, USC dominated, but kept making stupid little JRob era types of mistakes…and that included Hackett’s play-calling (he had been working towards diversifying the offense, with a lot of success it should be added, but sometimes just got a little too clever with the desire to pass – that doesn’t sound familiar does it? haha).

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    3. The Babe looks, well, like Bartolo Colon (at his worst).
      Gehrig–always classy. Glad he wore the SC jersey.

      Of course in ’27 the Babe did smack 60 homers, so the belly musta helped.

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  5. Not a lot of colored people/players in those photos.

    Matter of fact, there weren’t any in the photos shown taken before 1979.

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    2. Dave Roberts lets the game get away early – Dodgers lose 9 – 2. The only good thing that happen tonight is Justin Turner, currently hitting a robust .090 in playoffs, pulled up lame and will be out (hopefully) for the duration of NLCS.

      That means Lux to the infield and somebody with outfield experience in center. What a concept!

      Knowing Roberts planned propensity for generating utterly stupid moves/mistakes, Julio Urias will start in center tomorrow night.

      Can’t wait to read Roberts’ about to be published autobiography, “Fire in the Hole.”

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      1. My Dear Friend Owns,
        Hard to kill teams as talented as the Dodgers and the Trojans —but it can be done with just the right people in charge….

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      2. Late to revisit, but as we discussed, you could see this coming when he needlessly brought him in and pulled Scherzer prematurely…entrusted with pitching riches (even if diminished, still way more than most have the benefit of) imaginable, and yet can’t coax a quality start out of the hoard in the first four games of a series…some other managers have notoriously mismanaged pitching, but this has been one that will be long remembered if they don’t come back (which isn’t impossible, when you can have Scherzer, Buehler, Urias…if you use them correctly, no reason you can’t win three in a row…not like you didn’t do it in the previous 111 wins, right?).

        Liked by 2 people

      3. James –Love the “never die spirit”! Hey, THEORETICALLY we could sweep the last 3!
        #”There’sNothingToItButToDoIt”
        —“Damn Yankees”

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  8. The Dodgers look dead……Urias was over used this season, and they all swing for home runs on every pitch. Manny Mota…………was the greatest at hitting the ball where it was pitched, and keeping the innings going.. The current Dodgers players either strike out, or hit long fly balls, and you cannot hit home runs every game to win ball games.
    Trey Turner, has been a big disappointment in this series.

    Taylor will move to third tomorrow night, and Pujois will play first with Pollock, Bellinger, and Mookie in the outfield.. I don’t see a Dodger victory unless the bullpen can shut Atlanta down which is unlikely. This could be the end of a nice era in Dodger baseball with Seager, Taylor, Kershaw, Jansen, and probably Pollack gone.

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    1. The Dodgers win because they hit more home runs than their pitchers give up.

      HotLanta hits lotsa homers in a City known to launch homers. Predictable outcomes.

      Manny Mota–a great Dodger of the past–would not even make it to the Majors today. Regrettably–to a guy who learned thinking man’s baseball in the 60’s/70’s–
      MLB is all about putting the barrel onto a 91-94 MPH fastball at the right launch angle….or striking out.

      Gotta wonder how the Dodgers would do with Bauer and Kershaw?*
      *asks this Giants fan.

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      1. Dodger Game plan: Hit more home runs than pitchers give up.
        Substitute jump balls for “homeruns” and corners for “pitchers” and you have the Trojan game plan.

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      2. Yep – HR Derby – like playing whiffle ball in back yard. Like all sports, has degenerated a bit in terms of skill, while athleticism has increased…yet size of playing surface remains unchanged.

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      3. Small point. Athleticism HAS increased (faster, stronger players who can jump higher, cover the tennis court better, throw further & harder)….BUT…. ‘skill sets’ (in the old fashioned sense of the phrase) have not, sadly, improved. When I watch today’s QB’s, boxers, tennis players, etc., I can’t help thinking back to the technical perfection and discipline shown by the athletes of the last generation. I mean, crap, I don’t know if there is a boxer alive who can throw a left uppercut the way the young Mike Tyson did…or match the net skills of Rod Laver.

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      4. Agreed – exactly right … there are exceptions, but as a general matter…and in all sports (except hockey – it to has suffered somewhat, but not as much, and not due to diminished skill – in fact, skill is probably at an all-time high, but the increased athleticism…the size of the ice being the problem shows when the top players compete on the slightly bigger surface during Olympics).

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      5. Leave it to you to bring up the great point about the the challenges presented by the different surfaces at the Olympics….
        [Also the gentler rules in the boxing ring –which pretty much eliminate the possibility of knockout victories — often reveal the lack of skill in the heavier weight classes]….

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      6. MG-Know you know boxing better than me, but I have followed it fairly closely…great point…with heavyweights it’s always been rare (Ali, young Holmes, young motivated Bowe, motivated Lewis, now to an extent Fury)…but skill definitely not accentuated…results in a kind of dumbing down of sports…but that may just be personal aging bias (“You meddling kids!”)…

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      8. MG – Definitely not Wilder, and with Fury I qualified it with “to an extent” – hearkening back to our pre-fight discussions. Fury isn’t just a big person. He has skill and smarts. The appearance I think misleads many. I honestly see a lot of Hagler in his style. Not Ali or Holmes, but also not just a big puncher.

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  9. Everyone keeps stating the Trojans this year are so super talented. I totally disagree. The talent is concentrated at just wide receiver, and in the defensive back field. I say our talent level is average at the running back and quarterback positions, and very weak on the offensive and defensive lines,tight end and linebacker positions. I also don’t see terrfic speed in our on offense and defensive personnel which often use to separate our football teams in the past from the competition.

    Yes we USE TO BE super talented at all positions, and had depth in the Pete Carroll era, but gradually that has faded away.

    Bottom line the new head coach has to improve recruiting. Today, we are a 6 man flag football team instead of a True Trojan football team consisting of 22 talented football players at all positions with depth on the bench.

    Let’s hope on Saturday we “Don’t Remember the Alamo” watching this football game. We need alot of help in this one 1) Sam Houston is not coming to South Bend with extra troops to fight a losing battle against an army wearing gold helmets, and 2) I have a feeling at the beginning of the 4th Qtr COACH Donte is going to turn to his assistants and say ” WHO ARE THOSE GUYS” AND I THINK I JUST SAW KNUTE ROCKNE SITTING ON TOP OF THE GOLDEN DOME LAUGHING AT ME WHILE POINTING TO THE SCOREBOARD.

    John Mckay broke the Notre Dame curse……….The only way to turn this program around is to 1) Hire a Coach who can Recruit Physical/Tough/and Talented Football Players and 2) Beat ND on a consistent basis. If you do that winning the weak Pac 12 will take care of itself. Mckay, recruited players that would match up with Notre Dame whoever is our new coach needs to do the same thing since we play them every season. Uncle Fester Clay Helton made a huge mistake thinking it was enough to recruit players that match up with Washington State’s Air RAID, and the rest of the weak Pac 12 which was a huge mistake.

    By the way……..Luke Fickel just beat ND on their home field … Not an easy thing to do, and in my mind because of this he should be at the very top of our list to be the next football coach at USC..

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    1. The reason McKay broke the curse has to do with an intense, almost unexplainable amount of ‘want to.’ I heard McKay speak about getting the shivers each time he emerged from the tunnel at South Bend —not fear shivers —combat shivers. He said his hands would be shaking and he felt the adrenaline shooting thru his body. If you watch the old ABC videos of the team introductions, McKay looks more focused than you’ve ever seen any other coach —he’s staring, angrily, into the camera. He’s out for blood. He know his team is too. Compare that to Helton laughing and proclaiming “Happy Saturday, everybody!” to the ESPN audience.
      #Helton,WithHaden,Folt&Bohn’sHelp,TurnedUSCIntoAJoke….
      #NoteToDonte:Don’tPlayToyDiplomatOnSaturday…..
      #FightOn

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    2. MG-It came across in some of his most famous statements…after the 1966 game saying he would never lose or be ‘out-athleted’ by them again…and the quip about the best deal one could expect from referees in South Bend…don’t think it was any accident USC (Haden…Haden! the good times!) was passing for touchdowns at the end of the 1974 game…any more than it was an accident he sent Sam Bam in to set the record to humiliate Woody in 1972…

      The man believed, cared, and was a winner/competitive…didn’t just reserve that for the Rose Bowl, or Notre Dame, or UCLA…I remember from the previously mentioned dumpster dive retrieved SIs that in 1972 they featured the Stanford game and he supposedly said “The Rose Bowl no longer belongs to Radcliffe…”

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      1. Joe Kennedy Sr. said he loved Bobby the best of all his sons “because he wants to win the way I want to win.”
        McKay –like a General Patton —wanted to win.. There might not be a place at USC for a ‘take-no-prisoners’ man like that today…..

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  10. Everyone wants to win, but don’t know how including Clay Helton. Mckay had a formula for success- Match up each player at every position with what ND has in terms of size, and strength. Mckay’s ultimate secret weapon was recruiting players with speed which is an element ND lacked in the Parseghian era. Once Mckay recruited the players to match up with ND winning games against other teams in the conference became easy.

    John Mckay was one of the greatest coaches college football will ever see. His I formation on offense is still used today on occassion which is quite remarkable. The key for the future of SC football is getting bigger, faster, and more physical football players especially on the offensive line. I also believe we need a true duel threat QB like Rodney Peete, or Vince Evans which will help until recruiting improves. We need to move the chains on offense, win the time of possession with a balance of the run and pass, and then play like monsters on defense with terrific speed.

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  11. Everyone talks about the great accomplishments of Anthony Davis, but another couple of Notre Dame Killers- Were Linebacker Richard “Batman” Wood, and Safety Charles Phillips. The Batman was everywhere on defense due to his terrific speed, and very few teams had enough speed to run away from him. Safety Charles Phillips could really stick opposing running backs and wide receivers. Our current linebackers are an embarrasment to watch first of all they are slow, and also very slow.

    Coach Goux use to take his players to see the Wild Bunch movie. Clay Helton, would take his team to see Cinderella, and Alice in Wonderland.
    Time for a new culture at SC…………WINNING FOOTBALL GAMES MATTERS……..BEATING NOTRE DAME AND UCLA REQUIRED.

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