FOOTBALL

The USC Friday Column Supplement

A reader emailed me today: “USC students used to swipe the UCLA banner from the Coliseum. Now two Daily Trojan guys swipe NFL jerseys and get arrested to make a headline.”

And the key difference: The UCLA banner got returned.

  • History repeats itself: The Pacific Coast dissolved after the 1958-59 school year. After USC played Washington State in Spokane in 1958, the Trojans boarded their plane back to Los Angeles.

As the engines started, a voice from the airport tower told the passengers, “It has been nice having you with us. And we’ll be looking forward to having you next year.”

A USC football player then yelled out, “Sorry, buddy. You won’t be seeing us again.” The passengers broke out in laughter and applause.

  • History doesn’t repeat itself: When USC lost to Michigan, 20-19, in 1958 about 500 Trojan students welcomed the team when it arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. Imagine that happening today?
  • Actress Mari Blanchard did not graduate from USC, but in 1950 a dance was held at Riviera Country Club to raise funds to send underprivileged students through college.

The USC campus organization that bought the most bids to the dance got to select a student to escort Blanchard to the dance. Blanchard also performed at the dance along with Les Brown and his orchestra.

31 thoughts on “The USC Friday Column Supplement”

  1. Theft is theft one was a prank the other a felony unless it’s California, which considers both to be below the threshold of prosecution. I remember reading about the men of Troy thinking to possess a wooden horse left outside of the city gates. Nowadays they probably would have burned it. Oh well history will repeat itself with Wazzu (unless the PAC 12 implodes or Wazzu gets so good they play USC in the Rose Bowl.

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      2. There is far more evidence of greater crimes against Senile Joe Biden than there was against Nixon. Nixon resigned, but Senile Joe Knows the unethical Democrats will march in lockstep to protect him.

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      3. Biden again threatened to use F-16’s against the people of this country if he felt threatened by their handguns. Just in case it isn’t clear to some, Biden is gonna take this thing as far as the weak federal “courts” and our elected “representatives” let him.
        #…AndI’mAfraidThat’sGonnaBePrettyFrickingFar..

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      4. Garland: “Some have chose to attack the integrity of the Justice Department by claiming that we do not treat cases alike. This constitutes an attack on an institution that is essential to American democracy…”

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      6. …according to Wiki he’s a little over five feet tall and weighs 129 pounds…,.
        #ThePerfectType”B”MaleForBiden’sCabinet

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  2. When did SC start traveling to away games by airplane? 1958 was only a couple of years after the famous Grand Canyon air disaster, where two commercial airlines collided mid-air in clear weather, and airline accidents were a monthly if not more frequent occurrence back in those days. IIRC, both John Madden and John Robinson were on the Cal Poly SLO plane that crashed in 1960. A lot of people back then were (understandably?) reluctant to fly, and football teams traveled by train well into the 1950s AFAIK.

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    1. Hey you forgot about another USC head football coach that was on that same flight that crashed, the one who replaced ‘Jolly John’….Ted Tollner. From his row back – all survived. Forward all perished but in his own row he (and I assume the others) legs were broken

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      1. Alv — You reminded me of the passage in Ian Flemings “Dr. No” in which Bond suffers a broken nose, ankle and 3 ribs while trying to escape and tells himself, “I’m fine —if they found me in this condition after a plane crash they’d be saying I’m a Miracle Case.”

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  3. My Senior Prom was at the Riviera Country Club — while Frankie Avalon sang “Venus” we sinful Saint Monica’s kids were sneaking away to make out on the golf course….
    #ThinkingOfYou,Linda

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    1. St Monica’s with Father Lloyd Torgeson is a Santa Monica treasure, Michael, and my wife’s and my go-to church (Carol is Catholic; I am of no religion, simply a lover of the man Jesus and all religions who seek out the One God)

      Meanwhile, Scott keeps writing about a 1958 Tirebiter and I am worried about the present Tirebiter. “Car-54, Where are you?”

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      1. George is good –he’s getting over a serious flu. He was on a few days ago…sounding very chipper.
        You might want to check out Saint Monica’s 1966 online Annual & check out who was Student Body President….

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  4. Scott improves my mind yet again: Abbott & Costello Go To Mars… based on a Robert Heinlein story, featuring Mari Blanchard as an alien Queen who drops birthday cakes from space on Lou Costello’s head, a cameo by Anita Ekberg as a Venusian Guard —- and special effects superior to anything George Lucas ever dreamed of….
    #….ThankYou,Scott

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    1. One dying so young always is a reminder of how lucky we are to have gotten into our 70s, however the guy lived a full life and pursued his dream of coaching, so maybe he was finished with his work on earth

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    2. Gabby aka The Guy who posts as So Cal's Wife & steveg49 & DOJ & Scott Wolf and Frank Young's avatar Gabby aka The Guy who posts as So Cal's Wife & steveg49 & DOJ & Scott Wolf and Frank Young says:

      Why did he have to go instead of you, Fake Gabby?

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  6. So, who’s going to St. Peter’s Italian Catholic Church for the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary this Sunday? We may go with my Cathedral High School friend.

    Mass starts at 11 am, then a procession, then lunch.

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      3. Based on the maturity you demonstrate on a daily basis here, I doubt it.
        [But an extra prayer never hurt anybody, right]?

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