FOOTBALL

If It’s Friday, It’s Time For A USC Notes Column

Former USC offensive tackle Tony Boselli was finally named a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Thursday night.

It was his sixth time as a finalist and Boselli became the first Jacksonville Jaguar in the Hall of Fame.

Boselli is now in the College Football Hall of Fame; NFL Hall of Fame and Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame.

  • Inside the Galen Center, people are talking about how hard Andy Enfield is going after the Maryland job.

Even though Enfield recently received a three-year contract extension, his relationship with the USC administration is frayed.

  • Marcus Allen and Anthony Munoz visited USC this week. It might be Allen’s first visit to campus since 2016. Sources told me USC sent Allen and Rick Caruso to personally court Lincoln Riley so he is ready to assume a role again at USC.
  • USC forward Isaiah Mobley (broken nose) is expected to play Saturday night vs. UCLA.
  • UCLA coach Mick Cronin was sympathetic to USC nearly losing to lowly Pacific earlier this week.

“Trying to motivate your team to play Pacific between Arizona and us might be the toughest task in the history of coaching,” Cronin said.

Who scheduled the Pacific game, Mick?

  • USC women’s basketball has lost seven straight games. And is paying Lindsay Gottlieb $1 million.
  • Former USC assistant coach Tony Bland is the basketball coach at St. Bernard High School. He was making about $365,000 at USC, which makes it even crazier he lost his career over what he admitted was a $4,100 bribe.
  • Former casino magnate Gamal Abdelaziz received the longest prison term of any “Varsity Blues” sentence so far, with Judge Nathaniel Gorton giving a sentence of a one year and one day after Abdelaziz was convicted of paying a $300,000 bribe to get his daughter into USC.
  • And now for some history:
  • Here’s a picture of Pete Carroll at Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif.

Carroll was only 5-foot-4 as a freshman and eventually grew to around 5-11. But he always had big hands so palming a basketball wasn’t a problem.

But the real reason I’m writing this is because also in the Class of 1969 at Redwood was a cross country runner/drama student named Robin Williams.

And more importantly (to me), a year ahead of Carroll was actress Erin Gray, best known for being in the TV show, “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.”

  • The Super Bowl is back in Southern California, so let’s remember the first Super Bowl in 1967 at the Coliseum, with a gorgeous photo of the classic clock atop the scoreboard.
  • This week’s fashionable USC assistant is Mel Hein, who was NFL MVP in 1938. As a center! Hein played in the NFL for 15 seasons (1931-45) before being an assistant coach at USC from 1951-65.

The photo with the sharp flower tie is from 1951. Hein was named to the NFL’s 50th, 75th and 100th anniversary all-time teams.

  • A booster who attended USC in the 1960’s said actor Kent McCord was a member of the football team but John McKay ran him off because he was married. McCord then transferred to Utah.
Kent McCord
Martin Milner (left) and Kent McCord from the TV show, “Adam-12.”
  • In 1970, No. 3-ranked USC defeated No. 16-ranked Alabama, 42-21 in the season-opener and much has been written about that game.

The following week, USC hosted No. 9-ranked Nebraska at the Coliseum. The Cornhuskers led 21-14 before USC tied the game with about seven minutes left. Neither team scored the rest of the game.

Nebraska All-American linebacker Jerry Murtaugh offered this story in a recent interview.

“Now at the end of the game, one of the trainers comes up there and said, ‘There’s two guys from Southern Cal outside who want to talk to you.’ I’m thinking, ‘Oh (no), I got to go out and fight,’ ” Murtaugh said. “I got ready and I went out and there’s their two captains, Greg Slough and Clarence Davis. Slough was a great linebacker All-American, Clarence Davis was the running back, also an All-American. They said ‘We wanted to shake your hand. We had no right being in that game with you guys.’ ”

Image
USC wide receiver Bob Chandler catches a pass and tries to elude Nebraska’s Jerry Murtaugh (42) and Randy Reeves (25) in 1969.

59 thoughts on “If It’s Friday, It’s Time For A USC Notes Column”

  1. I was at Super Bowl I. The crowd was the smallest I can ever remember seeing in the Coliseum. We even were able to walk out on the field, over to the tunnel and behind the bench as there was no security. Went to Super Bowl II also and they wouldn’t let us onto the field that year.

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    1. I bought 4 tickets for about $60 for that game. There was a cocky guy on the team that played the Packers that day (KC?), Williamson or something like that who bragged about breaking helmets, and Green Bay ran a power run with 4 blockers right at the guy, and he was knocked out of the game.

      The game was not built up like today. It felt like a regular season game, and the Packers killed it.

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  2. Another Friday, another great history day. I had never heard the story about the ’71 Nebraska game and Davis and Slough. Great sportsmanship and a respect for the integrity of the game. Here is a quote from the Neb LB:

    “They came here in 1969 and that was huge, and they beat us by 10,” Murtaugh said. “We’d go out to Southern Cal, our guys weren’t leery. We were a 14 point underdog, we’re rated ninth in the country, they’re rated third.

    “Our guys on defense, we weren’t scared. They were so excited to get in there and play Southern Cal. Rated third in the country, we should have beat them. We had them beat, but I will blame the offense as I always do. They had three fumbles and two interceptions.”

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    1. It seems like Scott comes to some kind of spiritual crescendo on Fridays — I think maybe he visits every major place of worship in Los Angeles on Thursday night…..

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      1. Well said. Scott is today’s Jimmy Breslin or H. L. Mencken — a mostly noble purist who’s supremely disappointed with any institution that currently exists or ever has existed….
        #EspeciallyIfHe’sPartOfIt….

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  4. What happened to Tony Bland isn’t crazy at all, it’s what should have happened. The crazy, actually stupid, thing is that Bland would risk his career over $4,100.

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      1. You’re probably right…..but, having read about Bland, I wouldn’t be surprised if it really was just $4100…..
        #PrincipleOfGreekTragedy:ArroganceBeforeTheFall

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  5. If they ever choose to replace the transfer portal with a time portal, my top 4 priority signings would be:
    • Erin Gray
    • Linda Carter
    • Barbie Benton
    • Suzanne Somers

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    1. Why couldn’t we have gotten Erin Gray as head coach instead of Carroll?
      We’d have had fewer wins but the press conferences would have been better…and the topless dives from the high board would have been more fun….
      #IsThatTooMuchToAsk?

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      5. Don’t laugh, Mister B. Given the current crew’s vulnerability to bullshit & spin, game balls for losses would have saved him.
        #”Oh,LookCarol–HeSignedMine!”

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I was at that Auburn game– the Tigers’ fans were beside themselves with confidence and spirit, I have never seen anything like it.

      And then the first play of the game Auburn throws an interception, and SC marches in for an easy touchdown. Game over!– Those “loyal” fans were booing Auburn in the 4th quarter.

      And so this Georgia guy explains that he and every down South fan hates SC. Why?– for the same reason I hated the Boston Celtics with Bill Russell, and the Yankees with Mickey Mantle. Fans hate a dynasty that is not their favorite team.

      Quite frankly, I take it as a compliment that this guy gets so Riled (or is it Riley) up over SC football. This is a sign that the Trojans may be on their way back!

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    2. When a monitoring agency severely punishes a school [by INVENTING a new standard called “institutional control”] for not knowing that an agent is wooing a star player AWAY from school….. you know something besides “monitoring” is going on….
      Luckily for the NCAA Pat Haden studied the penalties (forfeitures, loss of bowl games, loss of scholarships) and came to the conclusion, “this seems fair to me.”

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      2. MG, I know Haden has been tar-and-feathered for his Sark hire, and especially the charity shenanigans, but I give him a pass with the SC draconian sanctions because I think he believed he could not win an appeal with the NCAA kangaroo court, and he might have been right.

        Still, if I had been in his shoes, and as a do-or-die lawyer myself, I would have tackled that damn NCAA with everything I’ve got (which probably is not much).

        Liked by 1 person

      3. John –I think the trick would have been figuring out a solid federal jurisdiction argument…and getting the NCAA off their home court…

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Your endless whinging about the unfairness of the NCAA brings to mind one of my favorite cartoons (I think from the New Yorker). A man is sitting in the doctor’s office looking like he just received the worst news a doctor can give. The doctor says “well, look at it this way, why not you?”

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  8. Clarence Davis got it right in 1970 when he told the Nebraska captain “We had no right being in that game with you guys.” (SC went 6-4-1).
    The Cornhuskers had 5 turnovers, and this game was their only blemish as they went 11-0-1 that year and were crowned National Champions

    And Nebraska repeated the next year in 1971 after winning one of the “Games of the Century” against a great wishbone Oklahoma squad.

    That is the beauty of college football– how one can vividly recall certain games a half century later!

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      1. One aspect of football that is not discussed much is how it takes a lot of courage to get on that field.

        If I saw a Boselli-type charging towards me with malice in his heart my first reaction would be to flee, or at best, wave a magical cape at him much as a matador does with a stampeding bull.

        Of course if I did that I would have a very short football career.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. You’re right, John. The Pac 12 would be all over a player that snuck a red cape into his uniform…
        #OnTheBrightSide…
        #…You’dHaveCarolStaringAtYou…

        Liked by 2 people

  9. And(USC) is paying Lindsay Gottlieb $1 million. Take it from me she hasn’t even played minute of basketball this season. In fact she is paid less than her male counterpart about a third if my sources (google inc.) are correct. Andy plays cupcakes I play the drums and mama sings tenor. Who cares?

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    2. The problem is that the results of women’s sports are found in the sports section of newspapers on Page 11, if they are mentioned at all.

      What does that tell you?

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  10. Lindsay Gottlieb is using USC as a quick stepping stone to the WNBA. To me we need a coach who will be in it for the long run at a MUCH LOWER SALARY. We need a coach with fire not one that makes cupcakes for the team after a loss, and there have been many.

    Obviously, great job by Lindsay selling USC on her experience and talent, but a terrible job by Mike Bohn paying that type of money for a women’s basketball coach when there are other proven coaches who would have taken the job especially at her current salary.

    Looks to be like this is going to be a long rebuilding process, and so far hardly any progress has been made.

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    1. This is a sports blog, so I am not ready for an insult-riddled political debate. Besides, they all blend together, don’t they:

      “Yeah that democrat stinks,” says candidate X

      “Whoa there, mister, republicans stink,” says candidate Y

      Meanwhile, both constituencies are going, ‘zzzzzzzzzzzz!”

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    2. The field is so bad that Caruso looks good.
      #PoorLosAngeles–
      #—AllThosePeopleAndNoOneToRunThings…
      [But look at the bright side …..Caruso only walks into a room to say the “right” things & count votes …..Folt actually believes the horseshit she spouts]….

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  14. Just to update the absence of Marcus Allen not being at USC since 2016, I stumbled upon a football reception in Heritage Hall in July 2018. Marcus was taking some of the patrons on tours of the new McKay Center. However, your general point that many of the football alumni have not been involved with program is glaring, but maybe not considering the old HC.

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