FOOTBALL

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

I’m going to start off this week with a something about perhaps the greatest tailback in USC history, Charles White. And from a statistical standpoint, White is the greatest tailback.

Specifically, I want to address the obituary that USC produced when White died. You can read it here.

I’m mentioning it because it’s about what you would expect from any other USC player who passed away. Nothing special. Nothing memorable. Nothing befitting a great player. Nothing that a Heisman Trophy winner merits.

Why is this galling? It’s not what White deserved. But also, the long-time sports information director Tim Tessalone has found plenty of opportunities to stick around like being the spotter for the radio broadcast at the Cotton Bowl. But he didn’t seem to contribute to White’s obituary despite knowing him as a player and coach.

There are less and less people in the athletic dept. who actually know and appreciate the traditions and it shows.

  • Bronny James, the son of LeBron James, has his three college finalists: Ohio State, Oregon and USC. according to the LA Times. From some basketball experts I talk to, it’s debateable whether he will be an impact player.
  • Arizona State has taken 25 transfers since it hired Kenny Dillingham.
  • I can’t describe how short-sighted Carol Folt and her USC student affairs minions are for their decision to kick the Daily Trojan out of its historic city room in the Student Union building.

Folt thinks the cultural centers are all that matters, apparently. I’m not sure why those centers can only gain by ruining the Daily Trojan tradition, or kicking the ticket office out of the second floor or the pharmacy from the ground floor.

This is what the city room looked like in 1960 as students wrote stories for the paper.

And here’s the sports editor of the Daily Trojan circa 1964, Allan Malamud, who later became a widely read columnist for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and L.A. Times. He’s reading the wires in the same newsroom used today by the Daily Trojan.

  • I wonder if former Seattle Mariners owner Jeff Smulyan knows about this? He was a Daily Trojan sports writer and is a current member of the Board of Trustees. People like Smulyan are the type that need to complain to Folt.
  • And now for some history:
  • I’m convinced that in the 1950’s there was a banquet, dinner or lunch held daily at USC.

Here’s a congratulatory lunch held in 1951 to celebrate the appointment of Jess Hill as USC football coach. A large photo of Hill has been unveiled behind a sheet and the band is seated behind Hill.

  • Actor Ke Huy Quan won a Golden Globe last week for best supporting actor in a motion picture for his role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

He is probably best known for his role in “Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom.”

But this is the important part: He graduated from USC in 1999.

  • In January, 1944, the Coliseum was the site of the Army-Navy War Show, where the military and Hollywood studios created a battle on a South Pacific atoll. The show’s purpose was to bolster support for the war after three years amid fears the public was getting weary.

The show was a resounding success as 100,000 attended the first night and 105,000 the second night. Admission was free

  • Time for a little appreciation for former USC basketball player John Block with his bio from the Kansas City-Omaha Kings media guide.

This media guide certainly wouldn’t fly today with the last sentence, which discusses Block’s plans after basketball with the sarcastic comment, “It shouldn’t be in the too distant future.”

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

  • Singer P.P. Arnold is from Los Angeles but enjoyed more success in the United Kingdom. Here she performs “The First Cut Is The Deepest.” She was an Ikette for Ike and Tina Turner but quit after they toured with the Rolling Stones and started a solo career with the encouragement of Mick Jagger.

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

  2. All you folks who didn’t realize we could get printed football season tickets…

    On your online renewal application you will see the note about printed tickets near the top. Last year they charged $16. However, this year they have increased the cost for printed tickets to $100! 🤬

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      2. Wokeness (defined) – 1. A belief that UCLA Powder Blue uniforms make you appear tougher than Cardinal and Gold.
        2. A belief that the school colors need to be changed to Pink and Gold.
        3. A belief that winning football games while giving up more than 40 points is acceptable.
        4. A belief that having almost half of your home schedule over before the first NFL Sunday is a good thing.

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      1. Several people on here stated last year that they were not aware they are available.

        I realize Dims only think about themselves and thinking of others is a foreign concept to them. But I’m going to hold out hope you can change in the time you have left on this beautiful world of ours.

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      2. Speaking of DIM……go educate yourself on the concept of socialism, the broad spectrum…..

        Jokes on you…..Do you put any thought into the crap you post….it’s all easily debunked!

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  5. So Bronny James is choosing between: 1. The school his dad would have gone to. 2. Nike or 3. The school closest to where his dad plays. And this is news how?

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  6. Another virtuoso performance, wolfman!! If Southern Cal had a lick of sense they would bulldoze Heritage Hall and build a new journalism building and name it Scott Wolf Hall.

    I will say I am humbled by finding out the great Mud was a trOXan, I used to walk to the Am/Pm on National and Overland to buy the Evening Edition of the Herald Examiner just to read Notes on a Scorecard among others.

    My all-time great sports reporters of LA: Jim Healy
    Jim Murray
    Alan Malamud
    Scott Wolf
    Mel Durslag

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      3. TJ Simers was / is missed…he had the disease known as ‘Vin-dawg cum peckerwood’ as the two demigods never to be mocked but it was open season on all the rest. That crazy morning radio show he had with Fred Rogan and his daughter was the best at 6 am ever. Most pathetic was watching him go ‘lawsuit’ for ‘stress’ after the Times let him go and he lasted what 3 years with the OC Register.

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    5. A sensible reply with a ‘pinch’ of anti-SC thrown in makes one wonder if this is the ‘Charlie Bucket’ of old or just another pedestrian-imposter

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  7. I read the obit for Charles. How is it galling? What info should have been included that wasn’t? The stats cited make it obvious he was a great football player. And why blame Tessalone? He can’t have input if he wasn’t asked.

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    1. Scott likes to contrive problems. Most are not really problems at all, but this is his schtick. I suppose he views himself as the hard-bitten, courageous reporter daring to go where no one else does–but, of course, if there is no problem, will manufacture one. He has done it so long, he cannot change now. This our Scott. Nonetheless, I do enjoy his Friday historical pieces…for the rest of the week you take everything he says with a grain of salt or laugh it off as Scott being Scott.

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      1. wolf’s ratio of questions asked to questions answered is about 100 to 1. classic example of a couch potato.

        Yes, he does add value on Fridays.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Scooter,

    Is it against the law to protest against midgets that are presidnets of a university? Folt needs to have people march in her office and let her know to stop being a political crap midget.

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      2. Yes, it is. Have you not seen Joe’s latest press conferences?

        You shouldn’t be surprised. You’re the one who voted for it.

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

        I am sure it must suck to have Biden’s recliner parked between your ears…..

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      4. I don’t listen to Biden’s pressers…..since you’re always up his ass, I am sure you were glued to every word he spoke…..you need to get a hobby….BDS(Biden derangement syndrome) is not healthy, especially when you have advanced dementia

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      5. YOU’RE the one who brought him up.

        Can’t take responsibility for your own actions. Another Dim characteristic. LOL

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  10. “I’m mentioning it because it’s about what you would expect from any other USC player who passed away. Nothing special. Nothing memorable”
    Really Scott?
    Does John Robinson say “He was the toughest player I’ve ever coached” about any other USC player?

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  11. Reaching, Scott. Really reaching. You know what I would truly be upset about? Why the Daily Trojan staff hasn’t kept the tradition of the type writer. Do they not have any sense of history?

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  13. Charles White– it was the 1979 team playing Ohio St in the 1980 Rose Bowl for a possible National Championship with the Trojans needing a touchdown to win it with only a few minutes left and SC kept giving the ball to Charles White over and over as he cannon-balled through an inspired Buckeyes defense not of the equal of the Heisman winner

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  14. Slo troll, I heard your significant other wants to move to New Mexico. you might have a personal problem….I read this:

    According to New Mexico state law, “idiots” are not allowed to vote, although the statute doesn’t give a clear definition of who fits that description. According to the constitution of New Mexico, “Every citizen of the United States, who is over the age of twenty-one years, and has resided in New Mexico twelve months, in the county ninety days, and in the precinct in which he offers to vote thirty days, next preceding the election, except idiots, insane persons and persons convicted of a felonious or infamous crime unless restored to political rights, shall be qualified to vote at all elections for public officers.”

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      1. says the idiot who voted for the twice-impeached orange Cheeto, who continues to run from the law….Great choice….Only a senile dunce would buy into inner gabby

        JOKES ON YOU…..DUDE, HIT ME WITH SOME BETTER STUFF….YOU LOOK LAME!

        I was slapping you around all day yesterday….hope you iced the mushroom

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  15. No disrespect to Charles White, lets not forget who opened the lanes for him, Marcus Allen. In 1981, Allen had one of the greatest seasons in NCAA history. He rushed for 2,342 yards, the first back in college history to rush for over 200 yards in a season.

    IMO, Allen was the better back….

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    1. Marcus definitely had the better NFL career.

      HOF AND SUPER BOWL MVP

      Gabby, I absolutely agree with you.
      Also, would Marcus have started if CW wasn’t there? Ponder that Wolf, DT drama king/queen.

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      1. People could make the argument CW had a better college career, but taking in their entire body of work, college/pro, Allen is the clear winner.

        As a Raider fan, I was able to continue to enjoy Allen moving the chins. He had a very productive career with the raiders until basically, Al Davis benched him.

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    1. PT….is your texting machine acting up on you?….Slo troll hates when that happens, even though it’s really a cognitive lapse on his part

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      3. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has blocked a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools, saying it violates state law and is historically inaccurate. And brings no educational value, according to DeSantis

        Do you endorse this type of action?

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  17. USC President ‘Without-a-Folt’ can move the departments all about on the SC campus as she likes, it is her choice and within her job description, but it is quite another matter having her signing off on the decision to tear down the “Cromwell Field” sign where the 11-time Trojan National Champion football team trains, both as legendary as the other.

    Worse, the President gave the reason for banishing the name “Cromwell” from USC lore was due to her believing he was
    anti-Semitic, that he demonstrated dislike or disdain for Jewish people.

    So Ms. Folt has effectively labeled Cromwell a “Jewish-Hater,” a very serious charge that Cromwell supporters could not address and explain, such as during Cromwell’s years Jewish prejudice was more open and widespread than today in the 2020s, that does not make it right, but it is mitigating evidence.

    I would not be surprised if the Cromwell family brought an action against her and SC, still another USC lawsuit

    I have for years parodied the Miss ‘Without-a-Folt’ in fun,
    but this is serious as she continues to abridge SC history and heritage while impressing her controversial personal style all over the USC campus.

    Time to take cover madam, your days of unrestricted SC
    decision-making need to end this day, otherwise count on Court intervention eventually

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    1. So your okay with his hatred of black athletes and trying to ban them from running in the Berlin Olympics relay team to make Hitler happy? He a fraud.

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      1. So Cromwell not only hated the Jewish but ‘This World’ claims that he also had a special “hatred of black athletes,” interesting that Cromwell chose to be involved in sports when he knew he would have to be coaching many black athletes.

        And appeasing Hitler was something a lot of people did, kow-towing to the Great Deceiver saved many a head

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  18. SC basically has zero respect for those that built its many sports dynasties over the last 100 years. They had many of the greatest all time coaches, and athletes came to play for them and get a good education.Like all woke schools it hates its heritage.
    John Block was on SC teams that he made good,he was a dominant player,followed the Rudometkin years.

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    1. Possibly in the 1960s with the rise in interest in college football was the beginning of a widening chasm between a university’s ‘Literate-only faculty versus the campus’ football culture.

      A college is filled with academic-types who often have little or no interest in the school’s football program which many feel attracts too much attention, emphasis and money. Universities 100-years ago played football for fun with little equipment and “crowds” standing on the sidelines. Now the school’s president and others are held responsible for any perceived lapses in the football program they are supposed to be shepherding

      The evolving ‘institutionalizing’ of college football as revenues grew every year turned created an unbalanced interest in footballcareful ‘ackaging’ of football was a gold mine the realization the college football factories sometime in the 1960s that began to create a chasm between a university’s literate side and the football side. Schools 100-years ago

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  19. The LA Times had a nice piece about Charles White. I cannot post it because I don’t have a subscription. One of the things the piece said was that White was suffering from dementia, which was probably caused by CTE. But his ex wife believed that the CTE caused his drug problems.
    I don’t think that’s the case because he got that habit in college and it was probably more a culture thing. However, White’s well chronicled battles with cocaine raised awareness of the problem in the NFL.
    The story said his ex wife played Conquest, placing a phone next to him on his pillow and that was playing when he drew his last breath.
    I choose to remember him running over, under and through defenses as if tomorrow wasn’t scheduled. His brain was given for the study of CTE, but I’d rather find out what made him run so well.

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  20. I posted this earlier. It made me tear-up.

    Plaschke: ‘He was a Trojan until his dying breath.’ How Charles White reconnected with USC
https://news.yahoo.com/plaschke-trojan-until-dying-breath-120049149.html

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  21. So the old school ain’t what it used to be. Evolution is a trip. Charles and if he is the best? Opinion. I know he wasn’t the only person back then who probably used drugs to self medicate and received no help from doctors worried about malpractice than helping their patients. Incredibly, people find a way in spite of the algorithm to be more than the prescribed destiny.

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  22. It’s also comedy that some people hate equity in terms providing opportunities for everyone to learn about the cultures that your beloved heroes come from and can’t offer an alternative that doesn’t violate your fear from a collective guilt that simply doesn’t exist. Yall love Charles but why teach my grandkids about what made him so tough? Pathetic clowns have no idea how much he couldn’t stand you wannabes. Worse than the elitist liberals on the View.

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