If you were USC wide receiver Jordan Addison, the NFL Draft went about as smoothly as possible Thursday night.
Addison was selected with the 23rd pick by the Minnesota Vikings, who need a receiver to pair with Justin Jefferson.
Just like a lot of mock drafts projected. And now USC can put No. 3 back in mothballs (hopefully).
- Lincoln Riley will be the featured speaker at the 2023 Lott Trophy Watch List Luncheon on Thursday, May 4th at 11:30 am at The Pacific Club in Newport Beach. Now they have watch list luncheons?
- Former USC guard Max Agbonkpolo has transferred to Utah State.
- Rick Caruso has been named the speaker for the 2023 USC baccalaureate ceremony. Imagine the students who already heard this guy for 2-3 years at USC plus his mayoral campaign and now they have to hear him one more time.
Mock drafts can be tough. Pete Prisco of CBS Sports on Wednesday had Will Levis as the No. 2 pick in his version.
And now for some history:
- With so much focus on the USC defensive line, here’s a great Trojan, defensive tackle Byron Darby from Inglewood High School. His nickname was . . . wait for it . . . “Bear.”
Darby sacked John Elway three times in the 1980 USC-Stanford game. He was second on the team in tackles for a loss with 14 in 1980.
- I’m always game for photos of past USC teams coming out of the Coliseum tunnel. This is from 1974.
- I’ve also got a soft spot for illustrations of the past, like the cover of the 1973 USC football media guide.
- Every Christmas I run pictures of actress Greta Garbo when she came to the USC campus in 1926 to take some publicity photos in a track uniform. Here’s one I haven’t run where Garbo watches a USC high jumper.
- In 1929, the legendary director John Ford made a movie called “Salute” that climaxed with the Army-Navy football game. So who did Ford have portray Army and Navy? The USC football team, of course.
John Wayne has an uncredited role. He and Ford made 14 films together, including many of Wayne’s best movies.
USC football really has an amazing Hollywood history.
- This almost looks like a scene from a musical. Instead, it’s USC football players (from left) Charley Ane, George Bozanic, Frank Gifford, Coach Jess Hill and Pat Cannamela at the train station in 1951.
Ane is one of the first USC players from Hawaii and a member of the USC Hall of Fame. He was an All-Coast offensive tackle and also played baseball at USC. He was a two-time Pro Bowl selection and won two NFL championships with the Detroit Lions.
Bozanic led USC in passing yards and was a co-captain in 1953. Gifford and Cannamela, who we’ve written about frequently, were All-Americans the season this picture was taken. They are both in the USC Hall of Fame.
- When I said Ane was one of the first players from Hawaii, USC actually had three players from Honululu in 1951: Ane, fullback Harold Han and fullback Sol Naumu.
- Field maintenance at the Rose Bowl included 16 sheep grazing in 1943.
- I really would like to have seen the Sports Arena built like these renderings from the 1950’s from the father-son architects Stiles and Robert Clements. Most of the arena would have been below ground level, which would make it less intrusive.
Stiles Clements designed the El Capitan Theater building in Hollywood; the Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles; the Uniroyal tire factory in Commerce (now The Citadel) and Jefferson High School in Los Angeles. Robert was a USC graduate. Alas, their Sports Arena model never got built as a more futuristic version by noted architect Welton Beckett was chosen instead.
- Harry Belafonte performs at the Cocoanut Grove, which was located inside the Ambassador Hotel on Wilsure Blvd. in Los Angeles. The performance was in February, 1957.
CONCERT OF THE WEEK
Three Dog Night, Hoyt Axton, Bob Lind and surprise guest Poco performed at Bovard Auditorium on Nov. 2, 1968.
- Wasn’t planning on a Marilyn Monroe photo this week, but sometimes they are too good to ignore.
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
If I want to go to sleep I will listen to Rick Caruso campaign tapes
Baggy pants and short haircuts back in the day– no wonder I couldn’t get a date
versus Harry Belafonte looking sharp at the Grove
SC players imitating Army-Navy players– they don’t call it ‘Hollywood’ for no reason
That herd of sheep grazing at the Rose Bowl exceeded some of sucla’s “crowds”
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Tuli Tuipulotu tanked, dropped like a rock in the draft.
The pineapple express needs to be diverted elsewhere, those hula wearing skirt girls have been nothing but busts lately
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hi john, u say u cum over 2 fix mi spellcheck on mi sell fone so eye dnt sound lik a Dumm Azz Fucc-Tard . Y u ly 2 mee ..smdh MissusEdG say she treat u and put her peenus in ur mouth.. ok ?
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What utter FB BS Sparrow; but, it might be true of a bozo men’s BB game @ the leaky, Galen Barn. I’m reliably informed that at most bozo BB games you can hear Andyain’twinning whistle, up in the nosebleed seats, as he talks.
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Some of that “shared cultural space” that is displacing the DT should be used for the “USC Historical Society”, with a desk and chair for Scottie.
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…and, every nite, a Marylyn Monroe lookalike serves Scott rare filet mignon with mashed potatoes…along with two glasses and a bottle of whiskey….
#I’llLeaveTheHashtagToYourImagination
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She looks so “happy” in that picture.
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ugh, so many faykers today, looks lyke the brokenback mountin adult daycar hom is givn extra inturnet tyme fir there inmaytes, smdh.
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I almost forgot the NFL draft, not being much of a fan and all, but I’m pleased to see Jordan Addison went to the frozen tundra. I didn’t realize how good he was until I saw his stats. He made it look so easy, that I barely noticed his efforts. Come to think of it I guess reading a blog which points out drops more often than catches might be part of the problem. Maybe the blog should be called “Antifanboy and other Disparaging Remarks.” (Trolls welcome check your civility upon entering)
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Minnesota plays indoors, not exactly frozen tundra anymore, except when the play at Chicago and Green Bay
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Hands and finger can freeze and a tight rocket spiral easily breaks fingers…OUCH? Jordan Addison: Think M. “I’m hurt” Lee.
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It appears Wolf took John’s suggestion and moderated the faker’s comment about pleasuring himself off the board, along with our replies. Good!
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No one is a bigger hypocrite than me.
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So true! Glad a couple of others have grown a set and called her out for it, though I wish they had done it under their original monikers.
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Don’t worry , My President has everything under control tonight.
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Get worse?
#How?
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Mad Max!
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Only Wolf would think that building a multipurpose arena like an indoor football field would be great. Something more appropriate for a UCLA game with all their shortcomings. I think they still use sheep technique after feeding Coach Kelly the first new grass cut.
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So TW, the come from ahead humiliating losses to Utah in Vegas, and Tulane aren’t bozo FB shortcomings? What a load of arrogant BS.
WTF are they then TW?…Oh I know, they’re the pathetic, choka, choka, choka, choka, choke jobs of a mere, puddle floating, mediocre to sub-mediocre bozo (D+ – C-) hyper-overrated, rah-rah, bozo FB team.
#Stink on.
CW got the H/T; the team got a stick up the kazoo.
LR say: “CW is the boss of me. I love buffing CW’s nails.”
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the 1974 picture reminds me of that great team and the passing of one of SC’s ALL TIME TOUGH GUYS KEVIN BRUCE. He was an all american/ all pac10…the bruiser in the mold of great John Mckay teams…died a couple weeks go at 68 , brain cancer…he was a great one.
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