FOOTBALL

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

USC bolstered its offensive line Thursday when it secured a commitment from Cooper Lovelace of Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas.

It’s a necessary addition but what I want to know is whether Lovelace can do more than bolster the line? USC needs some stars on the line. Not just at the skill positions. But five-stars that can come in and start right away.

For too long, it has brought in linemen who seem to do nothing but add depth.

  • USC guard Boogie Ellis worked out for the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday.
  • NBA team basketball executives selected Memphis Grizzlies Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations/GM Zach Kleiman as winner of the 2021-22 NBA Basketball Executive of the Year Award. He is a USC graduate.
  • USC men’s volleyball will add Dillon Klein of Loyola High School next season. He is the grandson of former USC and Rams tight end Bob Klein.
USC tight end Bob Klein
  • NBA great Bob Lanier died this week. He was a big man with a soft outside touch, who could easily play today. I doubt a lot of today’s players would enjoy going against Lanier and his size 22 sneakers. In 1971, he averaged 25.7 points and 14.1 rebounds for the Pistons.

“Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes,” Roger Murdock (Kareem Abdul Jabbar) famously said in the movie, “Airplane.”

Also, let’s remember that Lanier’s daughter, Khalia, was an All-American volleyball player at USC.

Bob Lanier (16) averaged 20.1 points and 10.1 rebounds in 15 NBA seasons
  • This was the scene Thursday night before Tottenham played Arsenal in London. I don’t know why USC can’t get its student section to do something like this at a game, albeit on a smaller scale.
  • USC used to be able to pull off card stunts in 1977.
  • And now for some history:
  • Here is the cover of the USC-Purdue game with a nice illustration of Howard Jones and John McKay.
  • In case you think this is just a illustration, here is the actual photo of Jones that was the cover was based on.
  • This is a picture of Frank Gifford breaking a tackle from Johnny Williams in the USC spring game, circa 1951. Now I’m running this photo more to show the crowd. Looks pretty decent. We don’t know how the entire Coliseum looked. But this is why I didn’t like USC claiming a record crowd a few weeks ago when no one even checks what the crowds were from the past.
  • USC holds its graduation today so here is a picture of student Christa McCluggage and her dog, Joker, who graduated together in 1975 and reportedly attended every class together.
  • When James Hong got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it made me wonder who else from USC has one? I previously mentioned  Jerry Buss, Ward Bond, Tom Selleck, John Wayne and professor Frank Baxter.

This is not a complete list but people I know of who were USC students. Or had a strong connection to USC: Herb Alpert; LeVar Burton; Elmer Bernstein (Academy Award-winning composer and professor in the USC Thornton School of Music); Buster Crabbe; Stan Chambers; Nina Foch (Actress, USC professor); Will Ferrell; Ray Harryhausen; Conrad Hall; Chick Hearn (USC announcer), Alfred Newman (composer of Conquest from Captain from Castile, which he bequeathed to USC), David Nelson, Marlo Thomas, Judge Joseph Wapner, Forest Whitaker and Robert Zemeckis.

  • Did you ever see the episode of The Rockford Files filmed at USC? The campus is featured prominently, especially the Student Union building because Rockford visits the school paper and the Student Union is where the Daily Trojan is housed.
  • Let’s take a look at 1982-83:
  • ET visited Cromwell Field.
  • 1982 was part of the Golden Age of the band, song girls, etc.
  • And the great USC helmet cart
  • Paula McGee helped lead USC to its first NCAA title in women’s basketball.
  • George Carlin performed on campus at Bovard Auditorium.
  • The Browner brothers (Joey, Keith) celebrate a play during the 1982 season.
  • USC players celebrate during 12-0 victory over Oklahoma.
  • Here’s a photo you won’t see every day. It’s Mike Garrett, Marcus Allen and O.J. Simpson.
  • And finally, look at the Christmas shoppers on Broadway St. in Los Angeles in December, 1937.

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

  1. I don’t know how Owns will feel …but if you’re a Trojan you have to love this one. Garrett, Allen, Simpson, McKay, Jones. Song girls. Card stunts.
    Scott topped himself.
    And if you’re G.T. —The “Joker” story is gonna give you enough material for a half dozen posts —hopefully not in a row, though……

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      1. Finally. Thank you MG. I was afraid you didn’t get the connection. A carryover post. Hahaha 😝

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      1. Thank you Sir Charles !!! And I appreciate you. Your links are awesome !! Awesome and very informative. Thanx

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      2. Ha! A new low, G. T. —stealing from Sir Winston….
        [I specifically asked for you to avoid 6 in a row —so what does G.T. promptly do?]….
        #LoveIt

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      3. OH HELL. IM CAUGHT. THIS MUST BE WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE OUTED. OR SOMETHING.

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    6. This blog post is awesome because of the reference to the film “Airplane!”

      Anyone who can craft a quote from “Airplane!” and also include UCLA in a written piece deserves a Pulitzer Prize.

      #Why”Airplane!”NeverWonBestPictureIsOneOfTheGreatTragediesOfCinemaHistory

      #USCvUCLAPoll:WhoIsFunnier-KareemIn”Airplane!”OrOJInNakedGun?

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      3. How does O. J. make out in The Towering Inferno? Better than Robert Wagner? Or about the same?

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    7. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but Lincoln Riley recruits exactly like Clay Helton, he loads up on top skilled players, and signs mediocre offensive linemen. Cooper Lovelace is nothing special, he wasn’t on the radar of any top 10 programs.

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    1. Charles. I’d like to see the Trojans go independent. We don’t need this crap. Some kind of big announcement is coming next summer. I sure hope it’s our getting out. We’ll find teams to play us in all the sports

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      1. Tireater, promises, promises, promises, SUCC will never pull the trigger; Zero balls.

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      2. You’re are welcome to leave at any time. And then when SC hits another ten year cold spell you’ll be happy to get Davis and Western Kentucky on your schedule.

        Go.
        Now.
        Please.
        Hurry, take the trash out too and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. NIL good for USC and other blue bloods, bad for CFB competition. ASU QB gets $75K vs USC probably high 6-figures. The ASU’s can’t compete.

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      5. Mrs Helton
        6 is my lucky #, how’d you know?

        Listen up, THE MIRROR SAYS:
        nobody likes SC. Sore excuse ridden loser and gloating distasteful winner. It isn’t just pretty boy me that thinks that. SC has a class in lower division that teaches poor technique. You loose a game, the EXCUSE DEPT games over. You win a game, you hear TUSK for the next two weeks.

        I have no dog in the fight. Ucla, furd and Cal will survive.

        Go.
        Now.
        Please.

        Arkansas, Iowa st, LSU bama, Georgia thee osu are calling. Answer your phone.

        4-8 every year

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  6. HEY OWNS. IVE GOT A JOKE THATS GONNA MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE AN ASSHOLE——— OOOH. YOUVE ALREADY HEARD IT !!!!!!!!!

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  7. Everyone should watch The Gong Show Movie. Look for the Trojan marching band to do a rousing rendition of Fight On near the end of the movie. Also I was never zapped on the Gong Show. I always won he said in all humility.

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    1. GT,

      U will love this story and it is true, I went to see the Gong show on a Saturday night ans spent the night at his house. The next day, we go to Mass with his mom. So the sermon starts, and the priest is going at if ro 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, then 20 minutes. At the 22 minute mark with the priest saying the sermon, I told my friend, that the priest needed to be gonged. The only problem was, he heard me. He stops the sermon and says to the parishoners, “I would expect that from young boys, but not grown young men. I was going to talk another 20 minutes on how well the Carmelite nuns are doing here, but since the young men have someplace to go, I will continue with the Mass”. His mom was so pissed off at us that she would not speak to us for a week.

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  9. You know how they catch Polar Bears in Alaska ??? They cut a big round hole in the ice and sprinkle three cans of peas around the edges. When the bear comes up to take a pee they kick him in the ice hole!!!! PS. Once again. I was never zapped on the Gong Show !!!

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  11. In the picture Marcus and Mike are looking at the crowd, OJ is looking across the field to see where his Bronco was parked (according to my friend)

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    1. Guess they all look alike to you. 😛

      Mike & OJ are looking at the crowd. Marcus, in the middle, isn’t.

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      1. It’s an OJ joke not a good one but it’s s joke. Can you say you’ve shaken hands with all three of these gentlemen? Mike when he was AD used to come to the torch end (can’t spell peristyle) of the coliseum and greet people. Marcus when he was a player and OJ on A field trip to the men’s central jail in LA.
        After he was acquitted OJ asked if he’d date again, he said, “I’ll take a stab at it.”
        Moving on…

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  12. Thank goodness for George Carlin. Here are 2 jokes our George (Tirebiter) might embrace because he loves a play on words:
    Atheism is a non-prophet organization
    Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.

    And he indirectly had one for the U.S. Congress:
    “I am” is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language.
    Could it be that “I do” is the longest sentence?

    And here is one for the couple of Fundamentalists in our group:
    I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me– they’re cramming for their final exam

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      1. Hard to get banned by Wolfie, GT. Maybe if we become serial killers or something, but even then, I don’t think so.

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      1. Yes we do. he played for the Eagles. Then you have Steve Grady, CIF player of the year, won the CIF twice and plays at USC between Garret and Simpson. he beat texas 10-6, in 1966. However OJ shows up and he is demoted. He played for the Broncos.

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  15. And that 1937 picture shows how LAers wore hats back in that day. Hats make women look more feminine and help men hide their hair thinness.
    Instead of hats, these days we don masks.

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  16. HEY. THE PAC TWELVE MINUS USC EQUALS ELEVEN TURDS !!!!!!!!!! AND IM TRYING TO BE NICE. LOL. SORRY YOOKLA AND WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME THE GOLDEN BEARS WON A ROSE BOWL ??????????

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  18. Congratulations to the Class of 2022!
    Welcome to the USC family.
    Since you made it through Covid lockdowns/Trojan check etc., I expect you will successfully meet all the challenges you encounter during the rest of your life.
    Great job!

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  19. All I’ve been reading in this space is “where are the linemen?” Now two have committed and it’s “but they ain’t 5-stars!” Gimme a break. Never satisfied. The Bengals make it to the Super Bowl with the worst line in NFL Championships and you think Southern Cal is in trouble before a game starts? Pass that doobie to me, please.

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    1. You’re not wrong.

      Most of us Trojans have a “wait & see” attitude. But our fans have very high expectations.

      I don’t often indulge, but when I do I prefer edibles.

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  20. USC would be stupid and selfish to leave the conf which means they probably will. But the time for this administration will soon pass and hopefully we’ll attract a young Sample to help rebuild the University’s integrity and fighting spirit.

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