FOOTBALL

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

The post-mortems continue on the USC defense this week from the coaching staff.

“I think we had a ton of missed opportunities when we got to the quarterback. If you watch the film, it’s not the lack of getting there, but it’s finishing,” USC outside linebackers coach Roy Manning said. “One of the big things we saw on film was that we weren’t getting under control once we got back there. 

  • Has anyone checked on the fanboy segment of the UCLA media in Las Vegas on Thursday night? I don’t even have to watch these games to know complaints about the officiating will dominate after a loss. And they did. Of course, they had full approval from Mick Cronin, who also blasted the officiating after the game.

“Lot of open shots didn’t go down. There’s no hindsight. Wide open shots and multiple times we got fouled, no call,” Cronin said. “Dave and Tyger didn’t get a basket in the second half and they had good looks. And Jaime got murdered on four layups, no calls.”

  • Former USC guard Ethan Anderson is transferring to Pepperdine. So he originally committed to UNLV, switched to USC, transferred to Wyoming and will now attend Pepperdine.
  • Steve Bisheff (above in 1964) was a Daily Trojan sports editor, who then wrote for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, the San Diego Tribune and for many years was a columnist for the Orange County Register. He also wrote a book called “Always Compete” on Pete Carroll’s days at USC. Bisheff passed away Wednesday at age 81.

In 2012, he was inducted into the USC Hall of Fame. He and legendary columnist Allan Malamud were on the same sports staff at the Daily Trojan, a sort of golden era for the DT.

  • And now for some history:
  • Things used to be so simple. After beating UCLA or Notre Dame, John McKay then goes and talks to the USC students. Here is McKay in 1962 after beating UCLA, 14-3.

And after beating Notre Dame that same season, McKay and the players celebrated together. That’s fullback Ben Wilson in the middle.

  • John F. Kennedy speaks informally to USC students during a 1960 campaign visit.
  • USC halfback Al Carmichael gets a rose from Marilyn Monroe before the Trojans played in the 1953 Rose Bowl. Carmichael visited the set of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and Monroe gave him roses for himself and his teammates. Maybe now we know why Carmichael scored the game’s only TD in a 7-0 victory over Wisconsin.

You might remember I recently posted photos of Carmichael and Mamie Van Doren from the 1953 film, “All-American.”

Here’s a 1953 photo of Monroe by Milton Greene, who was best known for his photo shoots with Monroe.
  • Marcus Allen vs. Cal. Can never go wrong with these uniforms.
  • If you ever watched USC swim star Buster Crabbe portray Flash Gordon, then you know how rare it is to see him in color.
  • USC failed to send the Trojan mascot to the Michigan State game last week but in 1972, the mascots were on the tickets for a game at the Coliseum.
  • USC football coach Jeff Cravath with USC two-time All-American tackle John Ferraro in 1944. They are standing outside the Bovard Field gate. Ferraro is wearing his Naval ROTC uniform. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1974. He was an L.A. City Councilman from 1966-2001.
  • There was time, like 90 years ago, when postcards showed you when the main buildings were located at USC.
  • The L.A. Chargers played at the Coliseum in 1960 before relocating to San Diego the following year.
  • Here’s the rosters for the Lakers-San Diego Rockets game in 1969 and you’ve got two USC connections. Bill Hewitt was a rookie forward for the Lakers and John Block was a second-year forward.

Hewitt was an All-American at USC, averaged 19.1 points in his college career and he an a first-team NBA all-rookie member in 1969.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

It’s the incomparable Queen performing “Somebody To Love” in 1981 in Montreal.

Advertisement

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

  1. ugh,if the uthur teem dont keap sckoring and jussed let us sckore more and we aint got 40 pir scent of r playurs injird we wud wun,thats not a axscuse,thats a facked,

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Why didn’t sucla think of that, Ed, they should have told Gonzaga,
      “Hey, stop scoring you bad Zags you, we “won” the first half by 13 and now look at you, up by 11 with 3-minutes to go, shame on you.”

      By the way, the suclas were frantically trying to get to the basket during the frantic final 3-minutes and could have been called for charging, but thanks sucla coach for crying in your beer over the officiating, it just keeps that sucla tradition going of
      “It was the ref’s fault we lost.”

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. I wish you could get more into ‘excuses’, John…..
        #It’sBecomeMy’GoTo’AfterAnyUSCLoss….
        #[..ButYouAlreadyKnewThat]….

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Mr. Wolf must have really tied one on last night, probably still passed out in his car outside the Rocket on Hawthorne Blvd.

      If anyone happens to be in that neighborhood maybe go up and tap on his window and wake him up. He drives a blue 1978 Plymouth Duster that only has 3 hubcaps, you can’t miss it.

      Like

      Reply

  2. Bruin excuses, excuses, excuses… Cronin is a choke master and a cry baby. Bruins basketball chokes again…choka, choka, choka….

    Like

    Reply

    2. Yes SallySUCC, UCLA lost in the Sweet 16 (Not ONE&DONE), and definitely, not by 19 points. Just saying Sally. I hope you don’t mind?

      #CW destroys Utah in the P-12 Championship game…Doo Dah, Doo, Dah.

      Like

      Reply

      1. UCLA….chokes yet again! Next year, Cronin will have the players practicing their Heimlich maneuvers. Magicians will be studying UCLA game film for years, learning how to do disappearing acts. And all of the veteran players on the UCLA…all for nothing. The glorious Bruin basketball program is all a fake, a legend in the minds of benighted bruin fans. I mean this is it for Bruin fans–basketball or bust–the disappointment in yet another miserable failure must be very deep.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. God bless Steve Bisheff. A life well lived.
    Congrats to Scott for finding the most beautiful portrait of Marilyn Monroe ever [and I’m not even a fan].
    I just wish Scott didn’t publish that photo of Buster Crabbe in a powder blue bruin uniform. I’ll never think of Flash Gordon the same way…..
    btw, didn’t one of the Michigan State players from that 1972 game go on to star in a kids’ TV show about time travel and accidentally shoot himself in the head with what he thought was a prop gun on set?
    P. S.
    Queen was “incomparable.” 100%!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. I would have been on campus during at least some of Bisheff’s tenancy, so I must have read him in the Daily Trojan because the only SC football news one got back then was through the DT, LA Times or Herald Examiner.
      Quite frankly, ‘less was more’

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. I will take Grace Slick’s “Don’t you want somebody to love,” now that is a rocker

    Not a Marilyn Monroe fan either but MM is looking fine in those 2 photos

    I would never argue with John Ferraro over any matter no matter what

    McKay smiling is a rare picture; not so with JFK

    The SC campus was more quaint looking back in the day

    That picture above is I believe taken from the 1977 SC-ND game where ‘Joe’ brought the Irish back from a nearly 3-td deficit but the great Trojan quarterback Paul McDonald rallied the troops for a last minute winning field goal

    Final word for sucla– You give up a 13-point halftime lead and the Zags go up by 11 with less than 3-minutes to go, a 24-point swing, so don’t bother me with your lame alibis, just “Get outta here!” it is time for the big-boys to play

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    2. Damn LJ, with 12.1 seconds to go the Bruins had a 1 point lead.

      As I recall LJ, the last time bozo BB played Gonzaga, the bozos lost the by 19 points. The game was over after the first 3 mins of the first half.

      bozo BB is so pathetic, Reese Dixon-Waters, the bozo, P-12, Sixth- Man of the Year has decamped for the portal…Say What!

      UCLA BB is manicured dichondra to bozo BB’s neglected rampant crabgrass.

      Like

      Reply

      2. Hey BruinRob, you’re correct in your comparison of ucla basketball being like dichondra. Neither can stand pressure and both wilt under pressure.

        Like

    1. Not so 9er. I’m here daily; win or lose, no excuses.

      If I have too, I’ll gladly take UCLA’s Sweet 16, 3 point, Gonzaga loss over bozo BB’s habitual, ONE&Done f**k ups…and that’s a fact.

      Like

      Reply

      1. The bar has been lowered significantly if you’re now content with advancing further than USC.
        Feel good about that!

        Like

    1. I would not characterize MM’s life as “…a sad life. Very much a lost and discarded soul,” as would not Marilyn herself I am sure, I mean the woman rose from obscurity to stardom few if any have ever obtained, she was a pretty good little comedian on the screen, I know the Russians loved her despite the Cold War, and yes Marilyn had some flings that dead-ended but haven’t we all, and yes she irrationally allowed the negative in her life to overwhelm her to the point of medicating

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. If you watch the documentary, she stated she was literally dumped by her father who had an affair. She constantly describes herself as a “waif.” She even stated that she wanted to disguise herself and have her biological father pick her up at a bar and sleep with him. Her words to show her father what “love” is about. I would not consider this normal thoughts. It also shows in her multitude of relationships.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. If you watch the “Person To Person” Interview Edward R. Murrow did with Marilyn you come away with the impression she was terribly uncomfortable in her own skin —she’s almost doing a caricature of her movie image.
        The only other person I’ve ever seen that uncomfortable is Kamala. She really & truly hates herself.

        Like

      3. “She really & truly hates herself.”

        And for good reason. Guess she’s not as clueless as we all thought.

        Like

      4. Wow, LJ mediocre attorney and autodidactic psychiatrist.

        Somehow, w/o ever having consulted with MM on his ripple and puke colored, leather, patient couch, LJ manages to diagnose the psyche of MM…Damn! I’m soooooo impressed.

        So SiggyF, just asking for a friend; what was Gilles de Rais’ significant problem?

        #Cue: “I Just Can’t Wait”

        Like

      5. Don’t underestimate the fact the Joe DiMaggio may have had a hand in both Kennedys getting their walking papers by the way they treated M.M.

        Liked by 1 person

      7. Well, at least we know what tebow looks like now…..
        #He’sDefinitelyTheGuyDoingThatInterview

        Like

    1. It is now closing in on 30 years since UCLA won its last NCAA championship in basketball, and have only one championship over nearly 50 years. And this is in a sport they are supposed to be all about–UCLA basketball! They are a spent force…a mere shadow…they are living up to their faded blue school color. It is not necessarily due to a lack of talent over the last many years, they still recruit very well. Rather, it is the UCLA choke culture.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. I would not characterize MM’s life as “…a sad life. Very much a lost and discarded soul,” as would not Marilyn herself I am sure, I mean the woman rose from obscurity to stardom few if any have ever obtained, she was a pretty good little comedian on the screen, I know the Russians loved her despite the Cold War, and yes Marilyn had some flings that dead-ended but haven’t we all, and yes she irrationally allowed the negative in her life to overwhelm her to the point of medicating

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Oops, it is that echo effect again that seems like a double-posting, isn’t there anything you can do about this Scott?

        I was thinking the same thing, that any L.A. sports fan under about
        55 years-old will not have seen a sucla basketball championship except its lucky 1995 one with the Tyus miracle.
        50-years, suclas, you are close to a nobody Back East where they believe Arizona and Gonzaga rule the West Roost

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Sally Baby, it has been 69 years since a men’s bozo BB team has landed in the Final Four.

        And I might add Sally, bozo BB is still OOOOOOOOOOOO ferever in BB natty’s…OH WELL! Clown U BB, all hat, loud mouth, no cattle and a dry oil well.

        Like

      4. Ha…Owns is crying because his Bruins did another monumental choka, choka, choka (UCLA has a copyright on the Choka song)

        Like

  9. I always enjoyed reading Bisheff’s stuff in the OCR. He retired at just the right time too; the OCR was (along with most other newspapers) struggling to adapt to the new media landscape, and they were letting almost all of their interesting local writers go – even the ones like Yvette Cabrera who I agreed with exactly 0% of the time.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. Leave them Bruins alone. It’s hard enough to win when you know your getting out coached. Some of the trolls are still on janitorial duty at Santa Monica College. I forgot, UCLA is in Westwood. Berkeley JC and apologies for misremembering.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Both USC and UCLA had key players out in their NCAA losses —but the thing that sticks is that both teams played very well through the first half and got worn down & out-physicaled [and looked tired] in the second half.
      #HopeTheMoveTo”Big”10Doesn’tTurnOutToBe”Big”Mistake

      Like

      Reply

  11. You might say that there was only one McKay and only one Wooden, but there have been glimpses of greatness after those two coaches. I kinda think the way recruiting has changed and for that matter the games (rules) have changed tips the scales a bit. For instance I saw traveling uncalled more than it was called. I saw Ucla players smacked in the face without having a call, but assumed (not being a basketball person) that the refs were not calling a lot of fouls.
    A new start in a new arena for both USC and Ucla might show some better days ahead.

    Like

    Reply

  13. YOUR PHOTO IS A PICTURE OF MY DEFENSIVE TEAMMATES. #83 JIMMY GUNN DE AND #74 TONY TERRY DL OF THE GREAT “WILD BUNCH” OF 1969 PLAYING NOTRE DAME WHICH WE UNFORTUNATELY TIED 14-14. WE ENDED UP 10-0-1 FINISHING A DISPUTED #3 NATIONALLY. WE BEAT MICHIGANI IN THE 1970 ROSE BOWL 10-3. THEY HAD JUST BEATEN THE CURRENT NATIONAL CHAMPION OHIO STATE TO EARN THE RIGHT TO GO TO THE ROSE BOWL. TRICKY DICK NIXON PUT HIS FOOT IN HIS CORRUPT MOUTH AND PROCLAIMED THAT WHOEVER WON THE PENN STATE /TEXAS GAME WOULD BE THE NATIONAL CHAMPION. BEFORE THE BOWL GAMES!! TOTAL BS…
    BOB JENSEN LB #51 CO CAPTAIN 1969 USC TEAM

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. HI BOB
      I SHOULD HAVE SAID THIS EARLIER
      YOU WERE DEAD RIGHT ABOUT THE TULANE GAME
      VIRTUALLY IRRELEVANT COMPARED TO THE LAST UTAH GAME
      I FELT THE SAME AS YOU CAPTAIN BOB AND JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT BRO.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  15. $1 a month for twelve months. I subscribed.

    Like

    Reply

  16. MICHAEL OL PAL———— I COULD HAVE TOLD YOU CARDINAL AND GOLD JUST DOESNT MIX WITH POWDER BLUE
    WHAT HAPPENED BRO ??
    GORY DETAILS PLEASE !!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  17. Memo to: trojnfu4

    Not sure DiMaggio was that well connected to have JKK and RFK clipped. However, it’s no secret DiMaggio hated Mr. Sinatra with a passion. Joe believed Sinatra’s influence on MM poisoned her life leading to her suicide/homicide(?).

    It was Sinatra that pimped MM to JFK and RFK.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  18. Final Observations–
    So San Diego St takes down supposed No. 1 in the nation Alabama
    Sorry ‘Tide,’ but stick to football
    This is why it is called “March Madness” because if a great team is shooting poorly
    and a mediocre team is ‘lights-out’ then you will get these “upsets,” which really are not,
    if you have played much basketball you know that some nights your shot just is not falling, and so you lose

    Oh, and maybe SC losing to Michigan St was not such a “step-backwards” for the Trojan program as the Spartans proved to be pretty darn good

    Don’t you just love the few suclas that come on this blog, while one wonders what could possibly motivate a sucla to come onto an SC blog and spew insults and other garbage. I would say any person who “gets off” with such rubbish has problems I don’t even want to think about, but since they rejoice like pigs in mud we can respond in kind if their fragile egos can withstand it, but you know they have to get in the last word in order to establish their inferiority

    Like

    Reply

  19. Guilty. I do enjoy the unabashed, unfiltered hate that this cesspool blog is. Owns is an adult. He can handle this locker room. He just needs to bend the knee and acknowledge which athletes are superior. What school is more worthy and that karma sings conquest before bedtime.

    Again, who came up with the 8 clap salute? A proctologist?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    2. (1) Owns is an adult — he’s the loyal opposition. A born gadfly.
      (2) I like to think of Scott’s Blog as more a case of “filtered” hate.

      Like

      Reply

  20. Devan Thompkins

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.