FOOTBALL

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

USC may have a bye but the notes column never rests.

  • USC baseball has upgraded its schedule by hosting Auburn for three games this season. Auburn made the College World Series last year. This is already a better home series than anything Jason Gill scheduled last season.
  • Rick Caruso has put more than $80 million of his own money into the campaign to be the next Mayor of Los Angeles.
  • USC is off this weekend but the Coliseum will be busy. A crowd of 30,000 is expected tonight for the East L.A. Classic between Garfield and Roosevelt. The Black-Eyed Peas are scheduled to perform a halftime show. The group’s founder, will.i.am, grew up in Boyle Heights and his uncle, Lynn Cain, played running back at Roosevelt, East L.A. College and USC.

Speaking of Roosevelt graduates, here’s Mike Garrett in 1965.

  • When Arizona coach Jedd the Fisch hired former USC assistant coach Johnny Nansen as defensive coordinator, I was shocked. Nansen had never been a defensive coordinator before.

Well, the results have been shocking so far. Data scientist Rob Bowron says Arizona statistically has the worst defense among Power Five conference teams, which makes Nansen is statistically the worst defensive coordinator.

Arizona’s defense currently ranks No. 123 in Beta_Rank, which is the worst in the Power 5 and would give up 3.78 more points per game against the same opponent and field position as the next worst Power Five defense.

Did I mention USC plays Arizona next week?

  • UCLA All-American men’s volleyball player Kevin Kobrine has transferred to USC. The opposite hitter is not the first member of his family to do this: His brother, Sam, transferred from UCLA in 2021 to play for USC in the 2022 season.
John Shea
  • John Shea, a billionaire who might be best known for owning Shea Homes, the largest privately held homebuilder in the country, died this week at age 96.

Shea was also a Trojan and member of the 1946 NCAA championship men’s tennis team. He played tennis at USC in 1944, 1946, 1948 and 1950. His brother, Gil, played in 1948, 1950 and 1953.

  • Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson will represent USC at Pac-12 basketball media day on Oct. 26 in San Francisco

RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK

Teddy Havas Cafe

Jefferson Blvd. used to be teeming with places to eat. Here’s a 1950 ad for the Teddy Havas Cafe, where you could get a hamburger, fries, soup, dessert and coffee for 50 cents.

  • And now for some history:
Here is Jim Plunkett in 1970, the year he won the Heisman Trophy. As you can see with the player in the corner, Stanford is playing USC.
  • I’ve written before about USC’s 1964 highlight album featuring commentary from Tom Kelly and the university’s most famous professor, Frank Baxter. But this is the first time I’ve seen an ad for the album.

The ad features this comment from Sid Ziff of the Los Angeles Times: “Dr. Baxter’s commentary carries the right amount of warmth. Kelly is only moderately hysterical, and as Dr. Baxter dryly observed at one point during the ND game, completely without predjudice. Never was anything spoken more in jest.”

So people made fun of Kelly in 1964? Imagine USC running an ad today that made fun of its radio broadcast? Like last week during the Utah game when the broadcaster said the Yankees won that day. They lost!

  • The Wilshire Hyatt House was the place for USC fans/staff to be during the late 1960’s/1970’s. As the ad says, “Headquarters for USC Trojans” and “Cardinal and Gold Parties.”

USC coach John McKay had a suite at the hotel where he could stay during the season when he didn’t want to drive home. And when McKay wasn’t there, Marv Goux would borrow it and throw parties.

“The suite had quite a bar and we used it liberally,” a USC athletic dept. employee said.

  • Here’s an Art Brewster illustration of Mike Garrett.
  • Remember when TV Guide used to print rosters for the big games? Here’s the 1964 USC-UCLA game with Chick Hearn and Frankie Albert.
  • It didn’t get bigger than Homecoming at USC in the 1940’s and 50’s. Today? Not so much.

Here’s Bob Hope in 1945 hosting his annual USC Homecoming show at Bovard with band leader Skinnay Ennis in the background.

  • Singer Frances Langford also performed at the 1945 USC Homecoming show. She frequently toured with Hope, especially during his World War II shows entertaining troops.
  • A marine squadron buzzes the Coliseum in 1945.

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

    1. Yes and no. He wasn’t much of an assistant at USC [but he has the built-in “I worked under the Helton system” excuse]. He was a very effective running backs coach at Washington.

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    2. “Rick Caruso has put more than $80 million of his own money into the campaign to be the next Mayor of Los Angeles.”

      Spending $80 million of your own money for a chance at a job that pays $283,000 a year.

      That right there should clue you in on his corrupt intentions.

      If elected, that pervert Caruso who likes to hang with young YouTuber girls who look like they’re 12 years old on his yacht, will undoubtedly quadruple his investment through money laundering, embezzlement, tax evasion, etc.

      Caruso plans on dealing with the homeless problem by building sheds and passing them off as houses. He wants to purchase city owned land for next to nothing in order to place the homeless.

      Once out of office he will kick the homeless back to a curb, remove their temporary homes and start building or sell the land that he got at a premium rate to the highest bidder.

      You know, your typucal GOP standard operating procedure.

      LOL!

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      1. Funny you know so much about Caruso, TB, because my wife was the psychologist at a school Caruso put his kids through, and she talked about how he helped out and paid for much of the school’s improvements, so there is that.

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  2. Today’s radio announcer is not good.

    He’d love to be thought of as better than Tom Kelly but he isn’t in the same league. His inability to describe a play in detail makes him sound like an amateur TV announcer who landed a gig on the radio — a fish out of water! (eg: “he runs to the right, is at the 45…now at the 30 and it’s gonna be a USC touchdown. How do you do?!” )

    On TV, viewers can see what’s happening and some details can be left to the viewers’ interpretive eyes. On radio, the presumption is the listener cannot see the game thus needing a detailed narration.

    (Imagine if a baseball announcer didn’t indicate if a pitch was a fastball, curve, slider, change up…or was inside, outside, high or low. Instead you’d get: “Koufax winds and here’s the pitch. Ball two.”

    Btw: after the pre-game show, does anyone listen to USC’s radio broadcasts these days?

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    3. I listen to the game every time on the radio. One earbud is on the right, and the other ear is focused on the network broadcast. I enjoy Sua and the little lady’s comments.

      The lady has a more advanced football IQ than slo cal…

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    4. yes i love Pete Arbogast and his crew. His excitement is my joy.
      He is Trojan football to me (with no 100/mo tv service) in the grand tradition of Trojan radio announcers which began for me with Tom Kelley.

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  3. Have a little mercy on us, Wolfie, first it is the Utes and now you have to display another Indian Jim Punkett dismantling SC in 1970…

    Love that picture with a sucla and an SC boy examining each other with clenched fists…

    And don’t pick on velvet-voiced Tom Kelly for getting overly excited at that 1964
    #1 ND game, he couldn’t have been more excited than I was dancing in the aisles for an hour after the game ended.

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    1. WHEN FERTIG HIT SHERMAN FOR THE WINNING TD ON A FAIRLY LONG FOURTH AND GOAL FROM AROUND THE FOURTEEN WITH ABOUT A MINUTE TO PLAY THE DOG BARKED AS LOUD AS HE COULD
      NEVER BARKED LOUDER IN MY LIFE
      AFTER THE TD HUARTE DROVE THE IRISH TO MIDFIELD BUT THEN THREW A LONG PASS THATWAS INTERCEPTED BY NATE SHAW AS THE DOG EXHALED
      THE WINNING TD WAS SET UP WHEN GARRETT RETURNED A PUNT ABOUT THIRTY YARDS TO THE IRISH FORTY
      AND FINALLY
      WE ALL LOVED TOM KELLY
      ALL OF US DID
      GOD BLESS HIM
      YES HE WAS A HOMER
      AND WE LOVED IT !!!!!

      Liked by 2 people

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      4. ….and don’t forget, Dog, that Nate Shaw was one of the best DB coaches USC ever had. Lott, Smith, J Browner, Fisher, McDonald, etc.
        Not recognized enough. Nate is/was also a fine gentleman and mentor.
        Not sure I ever heard a foul word out of him. A truly great Trojan.

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    2. Tom Kelly was SO happy that USC came back from 24 -0 against Notre Dame in 1974 that, after USC went ahead, every subsequent USC TD was met with the words, “USC is tearing Notre Dame apart” or “USC is exploding in Ara & Notre Dame’s face”……..
      #And,EachTimeHeSaidThoseWords,HeWasLaughing….

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  5. HI PASADENA
    IN ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION YESTERDAY SC WAS FOUNDED IN THE EIGHTEEN EIGHTIES BY A CATHOLIC GUY A JEWISH GUY ANDA METHODIST GUY
    BEFORE 1912 OUR TEAM WAS KNOWN AS THE METHODISTS
    BUT WE COULD HAVE BEEN CALLED THE CATHOLICS
    OR
    THE JEWS
    OH WELL
    SHIT HAPPENS
    HAH
    IF ANY METHODISTS OUT THERE IM JUST KIDDING
    FORGIVE ME KYLE ROTE. DOAK WALKER. FREDDY BENNERS ETC
    THAT WAS A GREAT TEAM YOU WERE ALL ON !!

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  6. HERES AN IDEA
    FROM NOW ON LETS LET KOREY FOREMAN COVER THE OTHER TEAMS TIGHT END
    FIRST
    HE COULDNT DO ANY WORSE
    SECOND
    HE COULD GROW HIS NAILS LONG AND STICK HIS FINGERS IN THE GUYS EYE AT THE LOS AND THEN GIVE A GOOD TWIST
    HELL THATS WHAT WE DID IN MY DAY !!

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      1. IS THAT A TRUE STORY MG ??

        I KINDA DOUBT IT CUZ YOUR CHAUFFEUR WOULD BE THE ONE TO TAKE THE CAR IN BRO !!!

        AND WHEN
        HE OR SHE GOES IN
        YOU WOULD STILL HAVE THR ROLLS
        THE LEXUS
        THE JAGUAR
        AND THE REST OF THE FLEET

        RIGHT BRO ??

        Liked by 1 person

      3. George —not only true…but I got punished for being a smartass by being made to wait for four hours before they added maybe 6 tablespoons of coolant to my radiator…..

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    2. Hi George,
      You just need to repeatedly fall real hard on the guy you tackled ….with your elbow directed at the right spot….
      #TakesMuchOfTheFunOuttaGameForOpposingOffense

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      2. …I was thinking of the ribcage, George….
        [btw, speaking of minor misunderstandings —I went to the shop with a car that was showing an overheated radiator yesterday and told the guy “I don’t think it’s a leak –I think it just needs some coolant.” The guy practically yelled at me, “Well, did you check?!” I said “I only like to put my hands on the steering wheel and occasionally the glove compartment.” He goes, “..and I hope the brake!” I got to say, “well, I tend to use my foot for that.”

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  7. In 1964 the radio was about the only way to “see” the game. My dad would yelp when SC scored. You could hear his “Ah-hoo” whoop all over the house (which begs the question: why weren’t West Covina homes insulated?) Anyway my parents fueled my love for SC football by attending, listening and watching the games whenever possible. My brother and I played youth football and my sisters were cheerleaders. We all say some of dad’s favorite lines such as, “I’d laugh if he’d pick it off and run it all the way back.”
    Mom claims to have part of the movement to allow ladies into the student rooting section (which taboo in the late 40s)
    I still listen to games on the radio when I am not at the game or near a TV. My number one beef is the low watt AM station that carries the game. I have serius xm but can never seem to find the station. This year I have the game day app which plays the game radio. An added bonus I can Bluetooth my phone to my hearing aid and nobody knows I’m listening until the first Ah-hoo whoop of the game.

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    1. I too grew up with a radio listening to Vinnie and Tom Kelly paint word-pictures I would visualize. I often say how the game Vin called was better than the game I saw in person (but that’s baseball), and as good as Kelly was I would rather be at the game like that ’64 ND game

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      1. …true…but most of the time Tom’s version of the Trojans played better than the Trojans on the field…. and UCLA always played REAL dirty in Tom’s world…
        #TomUnderstoodThatEveryStoryNeedsAVillain

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Trying to post a story about the updated roughing the passer rules. It had the word b a r s t o o l in it. Someone pointed out the word t o o l can get you moderated. The URL triggered moderation. I have since given up on that post. You can look up the latest rules which make a quarterback a protected untouchable. If you scroll down you can find the above furniture reference followed by sports.

        Liked by 1 person

  9. May I be the first to say “great Friday piece, Scott”?
    [I hope people notice the cartoon of Mike Garrett was based on the photo Scott also ran of #20].
    #NiceTouch
    P. S.
    What kind of planes are flying over the coli in that 1945 photo? They don’t look like fighter planes —they look more like cargo planes.

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    1. PAPER AIRPLANES PHOTO CROPPED IN ??
      P-35 MUSTANGS ??
      GLIDERS ??
      PLAIN PLANES ??

      I DUNNO
      AND CANT THINK OF ANY FUNNY RESPONSE
      ITS PAST MY BEDTIME TOO.

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  10. FRANK BULL WAS THE ANNOUNCER ON THE TROJAN GAMES FOR MUCH OF THE FORTIES

    HERES HOW THE BROADCAST BEGAN

    ON THE HIGHWAY
    IN THE AIR
    FLYING A IS EVERYWHERE

    FROM THE PRESSBOX HIGH ATOP THE SOUTH END OF THE LOS ANGELES MEMORIAL COLISEUM THE TIDEWATER ASSOCIATED OIL COMPANY IS PROUD TO BRING YOU TODAYS GAME BETWEEN THE TROJANS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND THE …..

    FRANK BULL AND TOM KELLY WERE THE BEST ANNOUNCERS WE EVER HAD.

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  11. Talk about a bunch of “old farts” hanging out around the water cooler (lol!)

    Joking aside, I fully appreciate the history you guys bring to the blog….GOOD STUFF!

    #MORE!

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      1. George, other than the letdown last Saturday, everything is good….. just chilling like a villain.

        I’m glad you take some amusement in the bantering between slo cal and me. I know it’s rather annoying to a few.

        But slo cal sure enjoys the attention. Countering my comments gives him a purpose in life.

        I really enjoy your take on the history of USC. It’s stuff you readily can’t find in written content, only from the mouth of someone who lived it.

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      2. Attention? Says the person who replies to me even when I haven’t mentioned her or the dementia ridden fool for whom she was stupid enough to vote. Always a hypocrite, but at least she’s consistent.

        That’s my stalker!

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      3. EAT SLEEP SHIT BIDEN……rinse and repeat 24/7

        can someone help this guy……she suffers from acute “Biden derangement syndrome”(BDS)

        Plus, he has a sick fantasy of a teenager breastfeeding off of a 74-year-old woman(read about it in one of his comments)……does it get creepier than at…..

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    2. Gabby — compared to my neighbors in Maui I’m just a kid….I feel real fricking young every time I see them walking along the side of the shallow end of the pool for exercise…….
      #”Hey,LookEverybody!I’mPracticingWalkingInTheDaytime”

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      1. George,
        So Cal and Gabby may be evenly matched and their back & forth may be fun to read ….but, then, there’s November 8th…..
        #”OnlyOneManGetsTheLastLaughInABarFight”
        —–Joe Frazier

        Liked by 1 person

      2. MG…..you’re right!…. age is only a number, and you’re also as old as you feel. With that said, my mom recently had two total knee replacements. She claims to feel 10 years younger. We can now take her places where a lot of walking is involved.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Good news, Gabby! Treasure time with your parents.
        #WishICouldThrowTheFootballAroundW/DadOneMoreTime….
        #…OrGoForOneMoreLongWalkW/Mom…..

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Dude…..That might be your all-time most laughable comment……not good at all…..beyond pathetic.

        #CHILDISH!

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      6. slo cal: But she can’t walk far, since Gabriela’s still being breast fed.

        (“she”- he was referring to my mom)

        Now the guy finds it appropriate to insult my family members. What a fucking worthless sack of shit…..he needs a good ass-whipping…..

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      9. I, Gabby, am a stalker, which is hardly a shocker, as I am a well known gawker near a man’s locker. So though I might peep that is no reason to call me a creep.

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  12. Reaching back to your mechanic “conversation,” MG, it seems that the Pandemic’s mask-wearing, distance mandating requirements created a more defined feeling of “separation” from especially strangers which is not conducive to civil interactions

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    1. I think you’re right, John. [My laziness was gonna put $100 in this guy’s pocket —and he was brimming with attitude…]
      #wtf?

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    1. McCaffrey —smart, physically gifted athlete —all Trojans hate him — [and Coach Shaw is still living off his accomplishments]….

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      1. Have never hated him, MG. Has always given me the impression he’s a very nice, hard working kid who isn’t full of himself. Does his talking on the field (with results, not his mouth or antics). Hard to hate that.

        Liked by 2 people

  14. LOL, SUCC FB(AKA: Carol’s Clowns) are 5pt ‘dogs vs their scheduled bye this week.

    #Cue “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”

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      1. Never get in a land war in Asia…
        Never get in a street fight with Gabby…..
        #HePullsOutAllTheStops…
        #[IGuessThatHashtagIsSubjectToGags]…
        #[…IGuessThatLastOneWasToo]….

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Hey Crabs Baby, is it true if the Boner puts a nickel in your ear your jaws retract?

        #Cue: “Bitch Has Got To Have It.” Or: “Give It To Me”

        SUCC bends over early for the 2021Bruins – tickle, tickle .

        #Spin on Crabs

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      3. Wait!…… for your pleasure!

        Cue: Tonsil Hockey……(you need to address the bulge on the back of your neck)

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      2. Like I said…. Gabby is the pugnacious, fight- to -the- last- drop- of -blood Norman Mailer-style battler of Inside USC…
        #…[But]FindANewCandidateToChampionIn2024,Gabby….
        #BidenIsOfficiallyDeadInTheWater

        Liked by 1 person

      3. MG…..I appreciate your advice related to 2024. I’m a supporter of the Democratic party, first and foremost. If and when the time comes, the DNC decides to go in a different direction other than Biden, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.

        On the other side, anyone but trump would safeguard democracy!

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  15. Hey Crabs, unlike you, I wasn’t circumcised by hitting my sister in the mouth.

    Cue: I Want to Play with Carol’s Poodle

    UCLA 62 – Clown U 33
    Ding, Ding.

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      1. Absolutely Crabs, you love SUCC campus stray dogs, pigs & goats to mount you and make you squeal like a hyena. I guess animals don’t care how foul you stink.

        BTW Crabs, according to your mother Crabs, sheep aren’t safe around you.

        #Cue: It Hurts So Good or “I Just Can’t Get Enough”

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      2. wait wait!!!!!! Dude, you told me the goats with a ribbon around their tail are the kickers.

        I’m sure this info is based on previous experience. slo cal said crotch kicks are extremely painful

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      1. CAL75….. looks like you need to peddle more firearms. ….OR…..get a real job.

        I need someone to pick up the dog crap around the Ranch…… I pay by the pound, plus dental benefits

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