FOOTBALL

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

This column is free of any references to George Kliavkoff, Larry Scott, Carol Folt or anyone else considered responsible for the destruction of the Pac-12.

  • The Sparks will play home games at the Galen Center against the Phoenix Mercury on Aug. 23 and Washington Mystics on Sept. 3.
  • Former USC football player Whitney Lewis is an assistant coach at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure in Ventura.
  • Former USC basketball coach Bob Cantu is the new owner of Marv’s Pizza and Sports Bar in his hometown of Paso Robles.
  • Last month, I mentioned my soft spot for Los Angeles High School because it published a school paper Tuesday through Friday mornings during the school year until 1962. It’s amazing to imagine high school students working four nights a week to put out a paper.

So imagine my frustration when I read the Romans didn’t play any home football games last season because the bleachers were unusable and were not going to play any home games this season. But the L.A. Times reported temporary bleachers will be brought in by mid-August so there will be home games.

This is a school that counts Super Bowl MVP Larry Allen, two-time Super Bowl winner Vernon Dean and former USC player Jack Banta among its alumni. Not to mention Dustin Hoffman, George Takei, Mel Torme, Anna May Wong and Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao.

And they almost had two seasons without a home game? Unbelievable.

  • And now for some history:
  • Here is the USC offense at the 1964 media day. From left to right the line: end John Thomas, tackle Chuck Arrobio, guard Bill Fisk, center Hudson Houck, guard Frank Lopez, tackle Bob Svihus and end Dave Moton. Backs: halfback Gary Hill, fullback Ron Heller, quarterback Craig Fertig and halfback Mike Garrett, who was somehow cropped from the photo.
  • Even though he was an All-American in 1980, Roy Foster (64) feels unappreciated. He is one of only three linemen to win the Morris Trophy twice, which is given to the top lineman in the Pac-12 and played in the NFL from 1982-93 with the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers. Of course he is not in the USC Hall of Fame.
  • USC wide receiver Mike Williams goes for the catch over Michigan’s Leon Hall inthe 2004 Rose Bowl. This turned out to be Williams’ last game for USC.
  • I finally found a picture of Jayne Mansfield at the USC Homecoming Parade in 1956. Mansfield posed for pictures and signed autographs before an estimated crowd of 100,000. The parade was held on the Miracle Mile with Danny Thomas as grand marshal.

The Homecoming Parade was a big deal in those days. Even UCLA students would turn up to watch the floats go down Wilshire Blvd.

  • Here’s a better quality photo from one of her best roles, “The Burglar” in 1957 with Dan Duryea.
  • Dick Nagai was a member of USC’s last Final Four team in 1954. He spent three years on the varsity after being an all-league performer for Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles.

I’m curious what it was like playing for Coach Forrest Twogood, who didn’t even have an African-American player until 1959.

  • Who knew Jim Rockford once parked his famous Firebird in front of the USC Student Union building during The Rockford Files? That’s James Garner walking toward the Student Union for the 1978 episode, “The Prisoner of Rosemont Hall.” USC doubled for the fictitious Rosemont College in the episode.

These were the days when you could actually drive a car outside the building and there was a street.

James Garner filming at USC
This scene featured an appearance by Kathy Hilton, the mother of Paris Hilton.
Frank Gifford returned to the Coliseum with the New York Giants on September 28, 1959, and helped the Giants defeat the Rams, 23-21, in the Saturday night game before 71,000.
  • Marcus Allen finds time to chat with the “Bullettes” cheerleaders during a guest appearance on the HBO show “1st & Ten” in 1986. The team was called the California Bulls, hence the Bullettes.

And look who played a coach in the series: O.J. Simpson.

  • Imagine a world where you communicated with USC athletes through the newspaper.

RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK

This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned Campus House, which was right across the street from campus. But this is the first time I’ve seen a photo of it, circa 1956. You better not cross Hazel when you order.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

I’ve wanted to include this video for a long time but this week is most appropriate given the passing of Robbie Robertson. It’s The Band performing “The Weight.” You also have to mention Levon Helm, Rick Danko and The Staples Singers, with Mavis Staples delivering a memorable vocal.

This is from the film, “The Last Waltz,” directed by Martin Scorsese.

CELEBRITY OF THE WEEK

It’s time to play What’s My Line with mystery guest Raquel Welch in 1967.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

This photo — taken by the renowned Ansel Adams — shows the Court Flight funicular in Los Angeles in 1940. Not the well-known Angels Flight, but the Court Flight.

The base was located on Broadway Street and ran 180 feet up towards Hill Street, right between Temple and 1st Streets. Bunker Hill residents used it to go to the Civic Center. It opened in 1905 and closed in 1943.

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

  1. I’m posting at 2:55 am cuz my sleep pattern [which was always fucked up anyway] has been really thrown off by the evacuation. Hard to forget sleeping in a parking lot with raging fires in back and front of you.
    Scott’s Friday deals keep getting better. Fun to see O. J. “coaching” a player [Marcus Allen?] wearing #32. George will enjoy the Raquel Welch clip. And everyone in our tightknit family will enjoy the Jayne Mansfield Homecoming photo –there’s just something about it that gets your attention. Way better choice than a photo of Grand Marshall Danny Thomas waving from a limo.
    Good work, Scott.

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    3. “This is a school (Los Angeles High School) that counts Super Bowl MVP Larry Allen, two-time Super Bowl winner Vernon Dean and former USC player Jack Banta among its alumni. Not to mention Dustin Hoffman, George Takei, Mel Torme, Anna May Wong and Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao”

      Bunch of fucking cheapskate’s, they could write off a donation…

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      2. It had to be approved by the Board of Education, which is more interested in test scores or renovating Carvalho’s Malibu home.

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Thanks so much, T. Bruins —-
        Yeah, it’s an experience we could all really do without, no?

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      1. Thanks, Charles — [I’m a Maui boy]!
        I feel so awful for the families who lost their lives when 80 mile an hour winds blew fire thru their homes —I can’t even imagine the horror —-
        #MyFavoriteChurchWasLeftStandingInTheRubble,Though….

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  2. My father graduated from LA High in 1934 – well done Scott. It was a beautiful building until the earthquake of 1971 and the back door demolition of the classically designed facade gave way to ‘Pelican Bay South’ that sits there today. One can still see what it once looked lie by looking across Olympic Blvd. to the ‘Memorial Branch’ named such for the casualties of the First World War.

    Again well done Scott

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    1. My only “connection” with the Los Angeles Romans, Ruskie, was when Birmingham played them for the football City Championship and barely escaped with the victory

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  3. — Have to say that because of our old pal Michael Guarino the entire Maui horror show was personalized with maybe 100 people burned to death sticking in my craw

    Raquel Welch should not have appeared on “What’s my line,” more like “Watch my curves,” with Jayne Mansfield not far behind

    SC football sure was mighty white back in 1964

    The SC defense should study the text-book picture of that Ram preparing to tackle Frank Gifford

    The tale of OJ from the toast of the town to becoming toast

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    1. LJ, with all due respect, it’s near impossible not to deem Clown U as a synonym for “Caucasian U.”

      Student racial diversity isn’t, nor has it ever been, Clown U’s standard MO.

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  4. Sorry for the obsession with Maui, but some say “It is God’s will,”
    instead of saying ‘When certain unavoidable earth elements come together disaster may arise. It is an imperfect world’

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    1. Elements, yes. God, yes also. As Roberto Rossellini said “I am an Italian man —I believe in both.”
      btw, when Roberto made Germany Year Zero he needed a 9 year old boy to play the part of a child who loses hope and jumps from a building to his death. His producer said “your son is the right age, why not use him?” Roberto said “there is no way I’d let my son get anywhere near that part.” When Francis Ford Coppola was about to make Godfather 3, he needed a 20 year old to play the daughter who gets shot & killed. His wife suggested their own daughter, Sofia, after Wynona Ryder dropped out. Francis said “great idea!”
      #IPreferSuperstitiousItalians

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      3. MG, Rossellini was a family orientated, humanistic, full race Italian.

        Coppola is a capitalist American of Italian descent.

        Hence the difference in attitude and let’s no forget MG, Sofia was an adult, more than willing to die on screen for a film credit and fat daddykin’s check.

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    1. One of my friends told me yesterday “I haven’t been able to get through to my uncle yet —he must have lost his cell phone.” I didn’t have the heart to say anything, John.

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  6. Thanks for the Last Waltz video Scott. Remember watching this at the Cinerama Dome on Sunset in 1978. Always liked the Band and the Staple singers were special too. Love the improvisation of Mavis on this song. She is incredibly talented with a beautiful voice. And I like how the sisters glance at their father when he performs his piece and grin at the end. It’s like their saying “Pops can still bring it.”

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  7. LJ, if Maui’s destruction WAS “God’s will,” then it follows that all stinking Ratpublicans would be incinerated next.

    I’d pay top Taylor Swift ticket prices to attend that Ratpublican Auto de Fe. Image LJ, the thrill of watching a phosphorous grenade explode up the worthless, US Rep., little, Yimmy Jordan’s kazoo.

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    1. Well, yes, JO…Republicans would be raptured, while Dims were left here to endure 7 years of trials & tribulations. That’s what prophecy says and I’m glad you’re coming around.

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      3. Cowardly Gabby’s Dictator get led around like a little 2 year old. Senile Joe can’t figure it all out… “Why don’t they want me to talk to the press?”

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      4. I keep talking shit about Biden’s cognitive abilities. I am such a hypocrite. Look at the guy I am voting for…he looks worse than Biden

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      1. Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama, even your fellow NBC lib Chuck Todd says you are lame with your attacks on Texas Governor Abbott!

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      2. Spot on! Really easy for them to tell border states to just deal with Joe’s open border policies. But once they have to, they cry foul.

        Accuse Abbott & DeSantis of political stunts, when their policy of opening our borders is exactly that!! Their dumb base doesn’t get it. Legal immigration is fine. There’s a difference!

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      3. Under the Title 42 policy, the Biden administration has carried out 990,000 expulsions, more than double the Trump administration’s 460,000….BAAAAMMM CROTCH KICK!

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      4. The number of encounters is more than double the amount that came in under Trump! (Doesn’t even include gotaways.)

        And funny how Joe banned the media from the border, so they can’t show the cages he & Barack built. Unless, of course, it’s announced days ahead of time, so they can clear them out before the media arrives.

        What a moron.

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      5. Trump was bitching about Biden caging kids and he showed pictures of kids in cages…the fucking idiot posted pictures from 2018 when he was the president….you moron…..BAAAAAM CROTCH KICK

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      6. Under Senile Joe’s Insane Open Borders Policy 10 million ilegal have invaded America and you Democrat hypocrites are now squealing like pigs now that your cities are being ruined.

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    2. All of the crap with which she’s polluted this blog, including her avatar, and she cries “LAME!”

      As always, they don’t come any dumber or more hypocritical.

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      4. Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama thinks she is smart when we all know she is a fraud.

        Plow Horse
        JUNE 23, 2023 AT 2:50 AM
        Hey chickensh*t Gabby: You called me out when you brought my wife and mother into it. You would never do that face to face and you know it. You are the one who knows nothing about street etiquette. So stop acting like I need to canvass the homeless encampments trying to find you. Be a man. Pasadena boxing gym – give me a date pussy boy. Have the balls to tell me about my wife and mother to my face.

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      5. This is so cal …but I feel better about my mental illness when I am stalking gabby with a sock puppet. I am an even bigger loser for promoting violence between two blog members. I am really a coward

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      6. Fake Gabby is a Coward.

        Plow Horse
        JUNE 23, 2023 AT 2:50 AM
        Hey chickensh*t Gabby: You called me out when you brought my wife and mother into it. You would never do that face to face and you know it. You are the one who knows nothing about street etiquette. So stop acting like I need to canvass the homeless encampments trying to find you. Be a man. Pasadena boxing gym – give me a date pussy boy. Have the balls to tell me about my wife and mother to my face.

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      7. I keep advocating for violence…yet I am the coward who keeps voiding gabby’s call to meet up….I am the one who deserves an ass whipping

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      8. Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama challenged two posters to fight and chickened out!

        Plow Horse
        JUNE 23, 2023 AT 2:50 AM
        Hey chickensh*t Gabby: You called me out when you brought my wife and mother into it. You would never do that face to face and you know it. You are the one who knows nothing about street etiquette. So stop acting like I need to canvass the homeless encampments trying to find you. Be a man. Pasadena boxing gym – give me a date pussy boy. Have the balls to tell me about my wife and mother to my face.

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      1. My hero is the real pervert…listen to my hero speak, he’s a total douchebag, my type of man…..I would love to have him split my cheeks

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  10. Amazing that Scott left out any mention of the PAC ? (Fill in a number) today. I’ve seen mockups of a merger between the PAC and Mountain West preserving the power conference status while elevating the California State universities to a Power5 conference. Interesting concept actually since the whole implosion could have been avoided by adding SDSU and Fresno in the first place.
    And a question we are sure to see in the next few days comes from an article in the paper (SCNG) about Klif Kingsburry as a “consultant” at USC. It looks like his roll is actually assistant coach. I’ll bet Scott can’t resist that tidbit.

    @MG honestly I can’t imagine the horror you are living. I’ve been evacuated from scout camps for typhoons and wildfires, but hurricane winds fanning a wildfire on a small island, is nothing I’d like to experience. Hang in there, and as always fight on.

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    1. Thanks so much, San Marcos! I grabbed files, artwork and photo albums when we left Oakland to wait out the fire at Harris Ranch. This time I took a toothbrush.
      [I just realized the entire business district in Maui is gone — the people who are left are, effectively, out of work pretty much forever]….

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    1. “Working for”?
      #IsThisATrickQuestion,Gabby?
      #[ActuallyYouCanGoogleTheAnswer…
      #…JustCheckOut”MichaelGuarino,LosAngelesCityAttorney”]

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      3. I am the nosy cat…. I have been fascinated with your time as a prosecutor. We talked about Jello and Marsha Clark regarding the OJ trial. Good or bad, you gained media exposure over the Jello trial.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Political fences are not your garden variety misunderstandings. So Cal and I butt-heads with no one giving an inch….

        Liked by 1 person

      6. You make enemies wherever you go, Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama.

        You reek of cowardice, Fake Gabby!

        Plow Horse
        JUNE 22, 2023 AT 8:33 PM
        Gabby: I didn’t use the term “white guy.” The CEO of Ocean Gate used the term white guy. I suppose that reading comprehension isn’t one of your strengths. But since you brought my wife into it, something that you would never do if we met face to face, let’s meet up Mr. keyboard tough guy or are you going to chickensh*t out like you normally do. I work out at a boxing gym in Pasadena, CA. Name a date and time and I will make a reservation.

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      1. We are known for inappropriate comments and jokes around here
        So here is my contribution–
        MG, after Oakland and now Maui remind me never to live next door 2 u

        Liked by 1 person

      3. L. J. & Gabby —There are something like 400 reasons for not living next door to me …. but conflagration is surely #1!

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      4. I was trying to get rid of my next-door neighbor(ultra MAGat). So I started my house on fire hoping the flames would jump to his house. Long story short, I took out the entire block

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      5. Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama is a Mainstream Moderate Democrat like this :

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      6. This is the blog dunce so cal…..when does stalking become a criminal act…I am sure I have passed that threshold…I am just a mental mess!

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      7. You are the blog pervert and coward, Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama

        Gabby (original)
        JUNE 23, 2023 AT 3:21 AM
        plow is the janitor at the boxing gym…he thinks scrubbing shitters is a workout….pathetic!

        And your Dictator Senile Joe isn’t fooling anyone with his latest obstruction of justice to protect the Biden Crime Family:

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      8. HUNTER JOE HUNTER JOE HUNTER JOE HUNTER JOE…..I am so confused and spun out…..my life is the Biden’s and the single wide rots away

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      9. Crabs, I have a friend who lost 3 homes in the Paradise fire. As of today he is truly pissed that he still can’t rebuild, and he has to pay full property taxes on useless land.

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      10. More than 1,600 homes have been rebuilt and now nearly 10,000 people call Paradise home again. What’s the issue, no coin?

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      11. Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama brags aboout Senile Joe but then disavows any knowledge when he screws up.

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      1. I thought of you, Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama:

        Gabby (original)
        JUNE 23, 2023 AT 3:23 AM
        horse plow said he can use his wife’s black dildo for the peenus sword fight

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      3. No one is more degenerate than you are:

        Gabby (original)
        JUNE 23, 2023 AT 4:17 AM
        With drool rolling off his chin, plow told his wife, after I clean shitter #2 and #4 at the boxing gym, “I am going to give Gabby a good ass whipping”….Mrs plow replied “STFU!”

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      4. I really feel bad that a once law school student has been reduced to cleaning shitters….the shitter I clean is my outhouse….winner winner

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      5. Your hero Senile Joe really did have to cheat top get through law school!

        AG Merrick Garland violates Dept. of Justice regulations by appointing David Weiss as Special Counsel. Weiss works for Biden’s DOJ and isn’t eligible

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  14. More like “gallows humor,” Gabby, where men knowing they are to die
    can either cry or laugh, for afterall, Gibran says, “Laughter and tears
    come from the same well”

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    2. Re Gibran —lots of good stuff in The Prophet — [I read a Gibran biography that contained a story of a woman taking off her blouse and asking him if he thought she was too skinny —Gibran simply looked the other way — now, that is self control]!

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      1. An interesting fact about “The Prophet” it sold more copies in the 60s than in the previous 40 years it was in circulation……what triggered the resurgence?

        Liked by 1 person

      4. How hilarious that you hypocrite Democrats are now the pro-war anti-free speech party. And now Senile Joe’s war in Ukraine is lost after the Spring Offensive failed!

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      5. when is Ed going to have his next peenus sword fight….the shar pei is going to lend me her fake black cock….I am so wet!

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  16. I always wished USC had been the ‘Romans’ instead of the Trojans. Imagine the half-time a guy marching in front of the band with a rectangular placard that had instead of ‘SPQR’ read ‘PCLA’ (For the people and council of los angeles) then two columns of 5 ‘lictors’ carrying ‘fasces’ on their shoulders. Next a chariot with the current chancellor standing and a page standing behind whispering Patton’s closing into his/her ear. Then after the entire cortege has entered onto the Coliseum floor, Franz Listz ‘Les Preludes’ (opening and closing) is played.

    Now the players emerge

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    1. [We should point out that Roman ‘fasces’ have nothing to do with the nutty Fascist Party in power in Italy from 1925 to 1943 —- but with that understanding — fuck, yeah, I love the imagery —and I’d add Traveler stomping on & ultimately erasing the other team’s logo in the endzone]…

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    2. Gotta agree CL. I mean why Dumpster U went with the loser Trojans Univ. nickname is beyond my kin. I mean it’s like the bozos absurdly decided to call themselves the Garibaldi’s (CA’s Official Goldfish) instead of something HD, like say, the Piranha.

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    3. And then CL, the “Roman’s” proceed to, as usual, choke the game away in the 4th qtr. to Hannibal’s Team or the Parthian’s Team.

      Somethings don’t change.

      #Cue: “How much is that Doggie in the Window”

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  18. As long as the band leader sticks the sword into the center of the playing field before the kick-off, I am fine. One of the great traditions in college football. “Fight on” , Conquest, and Traveler are impressive as well. Beats that stupid Oregon Duck mascot or the powder blue bruins. I can’t imagine an invading army wearing yellow or powder blue. Why would any team be inspired by a duck or baby bruin. Right up there with the UCI anteaters.

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    1. How about during the Revolutionary War the British “Redcoats”
      making it easy on the colonizers to conduct ‘target practice’

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      1. Cowardly Gabby still defends The Jab after what happened to poor Bronny!

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  21. Memo to: Crabs (da’ Original) BS artist

    Re: Your BS “More than 1,600 homes have been rebuilt and now nearly 10,000 people call Paradise home again. What’s the issue, no coin? ”

    How about some factual reference information Crabs. Just ’cause you say so doesn’t mean you aren’t lying like a pile of Sh*t.

    #”Facts Matter” ~Dear Pisley

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