FOOTBALL

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

USC is expected to be a contender for Alabama freshman QB Julian Sayin, who has entered the transfer. The five-star prospect is also expected to consider Ohio State.

  • USC defensive end Romello Height has entered the transfer portal. Height spent the past 2 seasons at USC after playing two seasons at Auburn.
  • Former USC linebacker Raymond Scott, who transferred to Fresno State, is now transferring to James Madison.
  • USC offered a scholarship this week to Tory Pittman III, a Class of 2027 athlete from Omaha, Neb.

This reminds of the time another Omaha native, tailback Johnny Rodgers, wrote a letter to USC when he was in high school saying he wanted to play for the Trojans.

A USC assistant coach in charge of out-of-state recruiting read the letter and never got back to Rodgers and didn’t tell John McKay about the talented player. Rodgers went to Nebraska, won the Heisman Trophy in 1972 and became a two-time consensus All-American.

  • And now for some history:
  • This is pretty cool. It’s not a schedule card but an 11 x 15-inch display. The back has a leg that you could pull out to show it on a desk, like a picture.
  • Did you know Wyatt Earp died in a West Adams bungalow just 3.5 miles from USC? Earp died in 1929. Between 1901-29, Earp and his wife, Josephine usually spent the summer months in Los Angeles. Western movie stars William S. Hart and Tom Mix were pallbearers at Earp’s funeral.

Josephine Earp died in 1944 living in a house on 48th street, just 2.5 miles from USC.

  • Two-time Olympic gold medalist/USC great Parry O’Brien is shown here at a meet at the Coliseum in 1953, where he won the shot put with a throw of 58-feet, 1-3/8 inches. At the time, it was the second-best throw in world history. He won the meet by 10 feet. O’Brien won gold medals at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics.
  • In 1953, Rod Dedeaux named his all-time USC baseball team. The center fielder was Bill Sharman, better known for being a Trojan basketball All-American. Sharman was in the Brooklyn Dodgers dugout when Bobby Thomson hit the “Shot Heard ‘Round The World” at the Polo Grounds.
  • Former USC coach Tim Floyd was never known for being a great driver. “You know Tim once drove his car into a lake,” Bob Boyd used to like to tell me.

When Floyd got hired at USC, he was given a rental vehicle. The second-or-third day I walked with him to the parking lot. He had already put a dent in the vehicle.

One time, Floyd, Boyd and some assistants were in the Bay Area when USC played Cal and Stanford. St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett told Floyd to go watch a high school player. When they got to the high school, Floyd parked the car but couldn’t figure out how to turn off the engine, because the car didn’t have a conventional key. So he went into the gym and left the engine running during the game.

“Next time, get me a car with a key,” he demanded afterward.

  • I’ve written before about USC band director Tommy Walker’s exploits (sorry Art Bartner). Like in 1947, when he was USC band director and placekicker. He wore no pads under his football uniform and during halftime he would change into his drum major’s uniform and lead the band. One game, USC coach Jeff Cravath let him direct the band before the game and then change into his uniform. Walker tied a school record my making six extra points in a game.
  • But here’s a new tidbit that I didn’t know until this week. Walker logged 209 days of combat during World War II. He won the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Combat Infantryman’s Badge.

Walker also broke the Pacific Coast Conference record for conversions in a season (19). Walker invented the “Charge” theme . . . “Da da da DUT da DUH!” at USC games that is famous today. Bartner can’t top that either.

  • In the good, old days, a successful high school coach could aspire to get hired at USC.
  • Dave Levy won two CIF titles at Long Beach Poly (1958-59) before coming to USC as an assistant coach. The fact he brought tailback Willie Brown was a big reason John McKay hired him, according to Levy.
  • Pete Yoder won a CIF title at Blair in 1969 in a legendary 28-27 victory over Bishop Amat at the Coliseum. He then became a USC assistant. Yoder coached USC star safety Charles Phillips along with UCLA stars Kermit Johnson and James McAlister. Yoder eventually returned to high school coaching and won a CIF title in 1979 at Esperanza.
  • Dick Coury won three CIF titles at Mater Dei (1957, 1960, 1965) before becoming an assistant at USC in 1966.
  • Jim Stangeland was a USC player in 1942, the head coach at Downey in 1955-56 and eventually became a USC assistant from 1965-68. He was the head coach at Long Beach State from 1969-73.
  • In 1970, USC landed the CIF 4-A players of the year (Pat Haden, J.K. McKay); the 3-A player of the year (Allen Carter) and the 1-A co-player of the year (Marvin Cobb).

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

I’ve had Downey High School references the past two weeks, so let’s spotlight 2 of the school’s most-famous graduates, Richard and Karen Carpenter.

PICTURES OF THE WEEK

The Southern Pacific Arcade Depot was constructed in 1888 at 5th Street and Central Ave. on land used for cultivating the first commercial orange grove in Southern California. It was used until 1914, when it was replaced by Southern Pacific Central Station, which was built on adjacent land.

Sadly, the Arcade Depot was demolished shortly after it closed.

When Penn Station in New York City was controversially demolished in 1963, the New York Times wrote, “We will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.”

If you are familiar with USC today, this is quite a scene. This was the campus in 1949 when cars were allowed to go everywhere including right by Tommy Trojan and Bovard Hall.

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

      2. LOL! And again proving what I stated. You are always the one obsessing over me.

        You’re not fooling anyone. You’re always the one who feels the need to start shit. Seek the professional help everyone on this board knows you need. Just because they take pity on you and don’t mention it when you’re pretending to be sane, don’t lie to yourself. They all know it.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Today’s sponsor: “Congratulations Mr. So Cal, you just won another pissing contest. Feel special!”

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      4. I work every day, So Cal, so in that way every day is special and no different than the previous day except for,
        “On a Sunday or a Monday you can’t do it right, ain’t you glad we got Saturday night!”

        Liked by 1 person

    4. “In 1970, USC landed the CIF 4-A players of the year (Pat Haden, J.K. McKay)

      J.K. McKay was also Pat Haden’s Homecoming and Prom date during their junior and senior years in high school. They took turns wearing a dress, Haden wore one on their dates junior year and McKay wore one during their senior year.

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  2. Johnny Rodgers was arrested for robbing a gas station while a student at Nebraska. He is the only Heisman winner who had a then-present felony conviction before receiving the award. He was pardoned by the Nebraska Board of Pardons, and his conviction was vacated, on November 14, 2013.

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    1. Dear Scott:
      The version of “We’ve Only Just Begun” that must go up is the one from the “Starsky & Hutch” movie—where it’s played in the background while Ben Stiller & Owen Wilson dream of the happy days before they broke up….

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  3. Scottie is hitting on all 8 cylinders today, great to see the Tirebiter back, spring practice less than 3 months away. Looks like hoops is a washout this year.

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    1. ……..While the women are overachieving and recently gave UCLA their first loss of the season. While JuJu Watkins is playing like a first-team All-American

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      2. He called PC “Ceasar”……..PC knew Scott was a drama queen hack and avoided him.

        Fair and balanced has never been part of Scott’s t00lbox

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      1. We can’t relate to buildings that old, John. When we were in Rome, it felt as if we were at Universal Studios walking around a movie set.

        Makes my blood boil when we hear stories about people writing or carving their names into those old structures.

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      2. They have 80 year old buildings in LA ? Why haven’t they been torn down already in the name of progress ??? Do you know the environmental hazard those building pose ?

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      3. Mr. Lawyer: I can get you a substantial settlement due to asbestos exposure. It’s too bad your husband is no longer alive to enjoy the money.

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      4. Tare down an 80 year old building because it is not safe…….that’s progress. Burning down a newer and perfectly safe building for no reason……that’s regress.

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      6. So Cal — Maybe you were walking around Cinecitta Studios [which feels like it’s half the size of Rome]…..
        #btw,Rossellini,Bertulucci&TarantinoWorkedOuttaThoseStudios

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    2. Agreed. Today the american society is morally corrupt and it will fall from within. In California you can walk into a store with the stores shopping cart and fill it up and walk out without paying. The store doesn’t bother to call the cops because they won’t come unless you have more than $950 in goods. In San Francisco they were stealing goods from stores and then moving 30 yards down the block and selling the stuff right on the side walk at a discount.
      In the summer of 2020 they burnt down half the country. For the most part the mayors of those cities told their policemen to “stand down”. “Let them get it out of their system….we can always rebuild”. Very few of the BLM and Antifa were prosecuted in a heavy way.
      But if you’re a christian baker and you don’t want to put a message on the wedding cake that you disagree with (even if you agree to bake the cake), it’s a $150,000 fine. You’re really now in financial prison for the rest of your life. In New York you can be fined $250,000 if you refuse to use the personal pronouns that a transgender wants you to use.
      In 1941 we were attacked by Japan. We declared war and americans were lying about their age to get into the military and fight for this land of ours. Today, if we were invaded, the young americans would be running for the border to get out of this country. The libs call themselves “progressives”. From 1960 to 2023 I see very little progress. They should call themselves “regressives”.

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      2. When Pelosi cheerily proclaimed “we are now in the post law era” I had a feeling we were in Big Trouble…..
        [btw, a law school graduation valedictorian in New York challenged her fellow graduates to “bring down America’s Legal System” —- a direct violation of the oath she and every other lawyer takes]…..

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      3. You could find examples like that everywhere. I’m just surprised the american people don’t seem to see what is going on or maybe they just don’t care.

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      5. His days probably are numbered. That’s what happens when you stand for freedom in a budding totalitarian government. You know what Martin Niemöller said about the early days of the Nazi regime. He said “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me”.

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      6. Interesting!…… Trump has voiced praise for Hilter and Kim Jong Un.

        Regarding trash that occupies this Country, Trump has been reduced to using a real estate lawyer to present him in a deformation trial. His main lawyer Tacopina just gave him the middle long with the law firm he presents……people are running from this guy……cancer!

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      8. relax! ………we can’t have you triggered. Google it and draw your own conclusion. It’s not a debate

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      11. Times could be worse 007, just watched “Boys in the Boat” of 1936 America when young men could not find jobs and depended on food hand-outs
        There was a laughable scene when the Washington Huskie rowing team beat out Cal with the Huskie crew yelling out, ‘Go to Hell, Cal”

        (Oh, oh, here comes our friend Cal’75)

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      14. So he claims to have cancer, perhaps he does. I know the guy loves to embellish. There is no shame in a diaper rash….shit happens.

        You and I have been cordial with each other, let’s keep it that way. Plow and so cal feel the name-calling is still appropriate.

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      16. But notice that in the great depression there was very little violence even though there were tent cities out there and soup kitchens everywhere. Many americans lost everything. Yet, americans were what they used to call ‘rugged individuals”. They felt that they were responsible for themselves and their families. They didn’t have this entitlement mentality that said that the government owes them a living.
        And they loved america. And they loved right and wrong. You didn’t have young people out in the streets protesting in favor of thugs like Hamas. And we were all “americans”. We weren’t afro americans and hispanic americans and asian americans and white americans.
        You take the farthest leaning leftist in 1945 and put him into a time machine and bring him to todays america and he would say “you guys have gone crazy”…..”Homosexual marraige, a man can have a baby, you can be a man today and a woman tomorrow, you can be fined for using the english language the way it was supposed to be used”? If I were of voting age in 1945, I would have been a bigtime Harry Truman fan. The dems left me…….I didn’t leave them.

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      17. Not just in America, but a million young men in Russia avoided conscription by rushing out of their country to avoid being one of the 100s of thousands killed/maimed in their “Viet Nam” in Ukraine

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      19. I have to agree about the kids today. Bunch of idiots. Young girls in particular are so intoxicated with social media stupidity that they have no logical processing ability.

        Try to talk to a young person about the national debt and how they are going to inherit it and they just shrug, as if it will go away.

        Stupid is as stupid does.

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    1. Even before he came to Nebraska, Omaha native Johnny Rodgers would’ve been considered a question mark. The Nebraska native couldn’t go to USC, his favorite team as a child, because his grades weren’t good enough.

      So he headed to Lincoln where, adding to an already poor reputation, Rodgers and several others decided to rob a gas station during Rodgers freshman season, using guns all for a measly $90. Rodgers was the get-away driver and eventually apprehended and pleaded guilty to holding up the station. The felony was put on his record, but he wasn’t sentenced to jail time. Instead he got two years of probation.

      In 2007 Rodgers said: “It was a stupid thing that three young guys did 37 years ago. It wasn’t even about the money. It was a dare. . . . I’ve got to be one of the most rehabilitated persons you can find.”

      1985 Rodgers was stopped at the US Mexico border and found to be in possession of a small amount of meth

      1987, Johnny Rodgers is sentenced to six months in prison for assaulting a cable tv tech in 1985 and possessing a gun while being an ex felon. The tech was disconnecting the cable from Rodgers place for non payment .

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  9. That picture above of OJ is not of “The Run” and shows how both SC and sucla have darkend the dominant colors in their uniforms over the years

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  11. In 1967, 8:00 PM kickoff times during the hot part of the season, very smart. And yet everyone today seems to complain about 7:30 being too late.

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    2. In 1967, the chances of getting mugged walking to & from the stadium or having your car broken into at 10-11 pm were much smaller, too. Hell, I’ll bet at least 25% of the people at the game in 1967 left their cars unlocked.

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    1. Going to be more turnover after Spring camp. There will be a few players that dont make the cut and will leave and a few that they will pick up. Romello seems like a bit of a loss. These guys that have ambitions for the NFL should realize that if they cant compete at USC, they wont be drafted.

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  14. Gabby(or whoever made this statement….we have so many imposters):
    So now Trump is a Nazi and a North Korean Communist? Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure there have been some former allies who have abandoned him. That’s because the government is going after anyone who has ever supported Trump. That’s what totalitarian governments do!!! The dems are totalitarians. If you don’t like your opponent in the next election, find a way to put him in jail. If he can’t run, then, then he can’t win. If he has no chance to win, he can’t make a change because he has no power.

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    1. The shit they did with searching bank activity (with no warrants) for anyone who even ATTENDED Jan 6 is beyond unreal!! Amazing that anyone could be stupid enough to support people who are pulling that kind of stuff. All while claiming they’re about democracy or worried about what Trump would do, if he won. Idiots.

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      2. Most of the guilty pleas were plea bargins…..admit to something and we’ll give you a lighter sentence. That’s the way the government gets you to admit to something…..threaten you with a long jail sentence and then offer you a plea bargin. One guy that didn’t plead guilty(he didn’t have to….they never arrested him) was Ray Epps.

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      3. so you’re still pleading guilty to a crime with a deal , right? On a smarter note, had these MAGATs not been present they would not be pleading guilty to anything. These fools showed up with malicious intent and got caught, bottom line

        If it smells like shit, it’s shit…..why use perfume to disguise it!

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      4. Site logo image InsideUSC with Scott Wolf
        New comment!

        Gabby just commented on If It’s Friday, It’s Time For A USC Notes Column.

        In response to parcelman007:

        Most of the guilty pleas were plea bargins…..admit to something and we’ll give you a lighter sentence. That’s the way the government gets you to admit to something…..threaten you with a long jail sentence and then offer you a plea bargin. One guy that didn’t plead guilty(he didn’t have to….they never arrested him) was Ray… Continue reading Untitled

        You said “so you’re still pleading guilty to a crime with a deal , right?” Yeah…..that’s what a plea bargain is. Budding totalitarian governments like our present american government use plea bargains all the time. That way they can go after the people that oppose them or also anyone who supports those people….get them to plead guilty to something(anything) and then say “how can you blame the government when the people we are prosecuting are admitting guilt”. Kind of like what you said. Just arrest them on trumped (no pun intended) up charges….offer them leniency if they will plead guilty to lesser charges and if they decide to fight then bankrupt them with legal fees.
        You said “On a smarter note, had these MAGATs not been present they would not be pleading guilty to anything”. Well, on a smarter note if BLM and Antifa hadn’t been present in 2020 we wouldn’t have had half the country burned down. What ever happened to the right of peaceful protest?
        There may have been some protesters who showed up with “malicious intent” and they are being prosecuted and rightly so. I have no problem with that. That’s what governments are supposed to do. But that isn’t what they did in 2020. The cities that were burnt down in 2020 had mayors that told their police to “stand down”. So if it is a liberal protest then “stand down”. If it’s a conservative protest, then arrest everyone in sight…lock them up and throw away the key.
        But most of those people were just peaceful protestors. One guy that definitely showed up with “malicious intent” was Ray Epps and he’s still walking the streets free.
        Talk about peaceful protests….again I have to go back to all of the crowds in 2020 who got out in the streets and chanted “no justice,no peace” and then went out and burned down half the country. Not a lot of those people get real serious sentences. Yeah….definitely a peaceful protest. Reminds me of that reporter who stood there on TV and said “yeah, mostly just a peaceful protest” while the building right behind him is going up in flames.

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      5. Gabby –You often ask the right questions. I’d like to answer this one for you. When you find yourself charged with serious felonies…pursued by powerful government agencies ….who are prepared to withhold discovery….thereby forcing you to waive your speedy trial rights as you vainly go about trying to get hold of exculpatory evidence… the lesser evil is to plead to a misdemeanor and get it over with.

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      6. Exactly, MG. Would never expect the Village Idiot to get it.

        Trump has the money to find each & every [bogus] charge. Many don’t.

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      9. parcelman —It’s [the Epps situation] goofier than you think —in order to shield Epps from further scrutiny, the feds filed an information charging Epps with disturbing the peace and gave him 12 months of summary probation….
        #BidenAdministration:”EppsProblemSolved”

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