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

Chip Kelly a candidate to be offensive coordinator of the Washington Commanders? UCLA fans probably can’t believe their luck.

He was a candidate for the Raiders’ OC job and interviewed but Kliff Kingsbury delivered a strong interview that impressed Coach Antonio Pierce, according to sources.

UCLA fans will be less enamored if the Raiders go after running backs coach DeShaun Foster, which is a current rumor.

  • USC has lost six straight in men’s basketball after a 78-69 loss to Oregon on Thursday night and remains in sole possession of last place in the Pac-12. It’s kind of funny how many fans now suddenly have the same opinion of Andy Enfield that I’ve had for years.
  • When USC star JuJu Watkins went 8 for 27 from the field last weekend against Washington, Coach Lindsay Gottlieb said, “There’s not one ounce of me that wants to change or stifle anything she’s capable of doing.”

That’s why she went to USC in a nutshell. Do you think UConn or South Carolina would allow a player to do that and not at least have some adjustment to improve their shooting or shot selection?

  • And now for some history:
  • Andy Reid, a graduate of Marshall High School in Los Angeles, is going for his third Super Bowl title. This raises a good question: Who are the best pro/college coaches ever produced by Los Angeles City section high schools?

You could have a strong argument with Reid, Sparky Anderson (Dorsey High School, Los Angeles) and Denny Crum (San Fernando). Anderson won three World Series titles (two with the Reds, one with the Tigers) while Crum won two NCAA titles and made the Final Four six times at Louisville.

Who else is from the City Section? Baseball manager Gene Mauch (Fremont High School in Los Angeles), Warriors coach Steve Kerr (Palisades) and pro basketball coach Alex Hannum (Hamilton High School in Los Angeles).

Hannum, who was captain of the basketball team at USC in 1948, won NBA titles with the St. Louis Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers along with an ABA title with the Oakland Oaks.

Anderson, who was the bat boy for USC’s 1948 national championship baseball team, grew up in a neighborhood that eventually became part of the USC campus. His house was located near the right-field foul pole of Dedeaux Field.

  • Inside linebackers Dennis Johnson (56) and Garry Cobb (53) look to defensive coordinator Don Lindsey for signals in 1977. When this picture was taken, USC’s defense had allowed 27 points in its first four games. It held No. 7-ranked Alabama to 7 points through the first three quarters in Game 5.
  • Two days before the USC-Alabama game, John Robinson and the team showed up at a rally at the University Village. Lincoln Riley can’t even show up for the UCLA game rally.

The USC-Alabama game in 1977 was a thrilling affair. Lynn Cain scored a touchdown with 38 seconds left to cut Alabama’s lead to 21-20. Robinson decided to go for 2 points but quarterback Rob Hertel had little time to pass and his desperation throw was intercepted, and the Crimson Tide escaped with a victory.

USC limited Alabama to 249 yards in offense and the Trojans totaled 359 yards but were unable to turn the advantage into a victory.

Fullback Mosi Tatupu and quarterback Rob Hertel on the cover of the USC-Alabama game program.
  • There was a TV dilemma on Oct. 8, 1977. The Dodgers played the Phillies in the NLCS at 12 p.m. PT on Channel 4 while USC played Alabama at 12:50 p.m. Not to mention American Bandstand at 11:30 a.m. on Channel 7; Soul Train at 1:30 p.m. on Channel 11 and The Outer Limits at 2:30 p.m. on Channel 11.
  • When USC was founded in 1880, it established rules for its first class of students.
  1. Students were not to leave town without the knowledge and consent of the president.
  2. Students were not allowed to use “obscene or profane language.”
  3. Wearing firearms or other weapons was prohibited.
  4. No card playing or gambling was allowed.
  5. Visiting drinking, gambling or billiard saloons was prohibited.

RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK

  • I don’t remember the Grinder ever having breakfast for $2.25 but this was the deal in 1989.
  • It seems amazing but USC did not allow female reporters into the pressbox until 1974. In the early 1960’s, the highly respected sportswriter Jeane Hoffman wanted to attend a USC game to write a story on a Trojan player. She was given two tickets to sit outside the press box.

This is even crazier when you consider that at age 17 in 1936, Hoffman was covering the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field for the Hollywood Citizen-News. She went to Los Angeles High School, which you might recall published a daily newspaper four days a week in those days.

Jeane Hoffman with the New York Yankees, including Joe DiMaggio (far right)

In 1940, Hoffman was hired by the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin as a writer-cartoonist and was a regular in the Shibe Park press box. This is 34 years before USC allowed women in the pressbox!

Hoffman’s next stop was a sportswriter with the New York Journal-American.

Hoffman eventually got hired by the Los Angeles Times and in 1965 was hired by Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley with the title “Assistant to the President.” Her job involved booking Dodger Stadium for events in the offseason or when the Dodgers were out of town. In 1966, the Beatles held a concert at Dodger Stadium.

  • When I was growing up, not all my favorite players were from USC. Here’s one example: Michigan State linebacker Brad Van Pelt on the cover of the 1972 Street and Smith’s yearbook.
  • California governor Goodwin Knight was grand marshal of the 1953 USC Homecoming Parade. That sounds like quite a coup but his daughter, Carolyn, was a student at USC.

Carolyn Knight married another USC student, Charles Weedman, in the Governor’s Mansion in 1955. The story doesn’t end there, however. She committed suicide in 1970 and her body was discovered by Goodwin Knight. This is believed to have contributed to a stroke that ultimately ended his life three months later.

Weedman became an attorney and gained international fame in 1977 when he represented singer/actress Claudine Longet in the shooting death of her boyfriend, ski champion Spider Sabich, in Aspen, Colo.

Weedman argued the shooting was an accident and called Longet and her ex-husband, singer Andy Williams, to testify.

The jury convicted Longet of a lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, and she served 30 days. Longet later married the local co-counsel on the case, Ron Austin. They remain married today.

Claudine Longet and Charles Weedman during her trial in 1976

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

  1. Yes, it is “funny” how fans now have the same opinion of Enfield as Wolf has had for years, but his disdain for Enfield extended beyond the court

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      1. But, John …gotta admit…. this was a pretty fucking great column by Scott…
        #IThrewInTheComplimentToScottInHonorOfGabby….
        #…[AndIThrewInThe”Fuck”InHonorOfYouPointingOutIt’sOverused]

        Liked by 3 people

  2. Pete Beathard was the first Trojan I liked and then it was Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman (1964).
    But like Wolf I liked non-SC guys too like Alan Ameche and Wally Moon

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      1. MG, believe it or not ‘once upon a time’ I rooted for sucla except when playing SC, and I loved that 1965 team (1966 Rose Bowl game) where Beban and company beat No. 1 Michigan St 14-12

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      2. I believe it. I rooted for UCLA in that Rose Bowl game too. [And I loved it when they kicked that onside kick and went ahead 14-0].
        #GoodOldTommyProthro!

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      4. I went to the game and sat in the end zone with other USC fans and rooted for UCLA in 2002 when a UCLA win over Washington State would have sent USC to the Rose Bowl…

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      7. Michael,

        This is how much i like ugly, one year I was in charge of getting the Rose Bowl field painted for Jan. 1. It was ugly vs illnois. After the field was painted and with no one around, I went to uglie’s endzone and took a piss on them. One of the best pee’s I have ever had. True story. hate them is not strong enough word for them.

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  3. I wonder what the stated reason was for prohibiting women and children from the press box. It was likely to protect them from the crass behavior of the reporters. These men had a reputation for excessive drinking and smoking and vulgar language. But they seemed to produce some very good articles back then on typewriters with no edit functions. Interesting how just a few years after opening the press box women reporters were allowed to go into the locker rooms. I recall that some men complained that they had to disrobe and/or shower in front of the women while others looked forward to it. SNL did a skit about OJ Simpson getting an erection while being interviewed by a female reporter. “I’m excited to be here and by the looks of things so is OJ.”

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      1. ibraney: In Connecticut high schools are now required to install tampon dispensing machines in boys bathrooms. About 30 minutes after the first one was installed in one school, a group of boys ripped it off the wall. The principal was very upset because he has bought into the absurd notion that men can menstruate. Guess what party he belongs to.

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      2. Did the tampon dispenser have a disclaimer on it stating its displacement was politically movitaved?

        Barstow?

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      3. No political disclaimer. But the Connecticut boys did have a nickname for the tampon dispenser. They called it Chickenshit Gabby because the tampons were extra large and appeared to be made for a really big pussy.

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    2. Those pro teams are crazy to pass him by as an OC. Kelly is a great OC. Doesn’t usually care too much about defense and hates recruiting but he can coach offense.

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  6. So Longet beats the murder rap with a finding of criminally negligent homicide, which I am surprised Grossman’s (traveling 71 mph when killing 2 kids in a crosswalk) attorney is not going for and instead is vying for a home run with full exoneration (She didn’t hit the kids, another car did).

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    1. I respect Andy Williams SO SO SO much for going to bat for Longet —I love it when an ex-husband testifies that the woman he was married to when she started the affair with the person she killed in cold blood was too, too much in love with that person to have murdered him……
      #[…And,IEspeciallyLikedItWhenAndySaid”IStillLoveHer”OnTheStand]..
      #AndyWilliams:”IWas’TheNewMale’WayBeforeAlanAlda”

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    2. Grossman is toast.

      Testimony last week to hospital attendant was “damn, if that Mercedes hadn’t shutdown, I’d be home now”.

      Prediction, jury will find her guilty.

      Hopefully, she spends life in jail eith pictures of 2 boys covering her cell.

      No USC connection but husband went to Bama.

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      1. Yeah, 68,000 was too much. He did lead SC to the winning drive against ucla, I’ll give him that, but SC got the shit kicked out of them at ND and UDUB that year.

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      3. Ha! Better yet, Robert Wagner playing Prince Valiant in the 1951 “epic”…
        #…WhileWe’reOnTheSubjectOfKillingSpouses

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      4. Yeah, but Wagner, Blake & Spector were never hated anywhere near as much as OJ.

        People won’t admit to themselves why that is, when it’s pretty obvious. All they’re missing are the little pointy hats.

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  9. Those 1880 SC rules were a tad stringent as in “no obscene or profane language”– Now kids use the “F’word” as a noun, pronoun and verb

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  10. Yeah, Scott real funny we now want Enfield fired regardless of your remarkable Nostradamus ability calling him out a decade ago. You judge a coach on how much he loathes you personally, while most of us will root on our Alma mater wanting the best. I’m still waiting for the Raiders to intro Harbaugh as their head coach per your amazing sources…

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      1. Oh, the damage that man has done to all the programs is irrefutable. Enfield had a window there where he could have kept improving, but clearly he’s spending far more time chasing new blue chips rather than building up the ones on the current squad to win. For Ole Nostradamus Wolfie to go off on his “told ya so” snark at this point is laughable.

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    1. Funny thing, grabbbyy, I never notice typos (possibly because I make quite a few myself) and instead automatically insert the correct wording

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  12. So it looks as if Kingsbury gets the job over Chip Kelly because he interviews better.
    Can You imagine a droll Chip Kelly interview– “Yes, I like football and in my spare time I like to eat donuts”

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      1. That is why I was literally fired from every job I had (13- even my father fired me twice) until I finally found a boss who would put up with my attitude (me)

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      3. Ha! Love it, John. [After getting fired, I would always go to the water fountain, put several tears on my cheeks, go back to the office and beg for my job back —- it just made the whole process more fun]….

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      1. Which episode of Outer Limits? The one where the astronaut turns into a lizard?
        #HisWifeRecognizesHimCuzOfTheSmileOnHisLittleLizardFace

        Liked by 1 person

  16. October 8, 1977. I remember it well. Attended my first NBA game, a preseason matchup of the Chicago Bulls versus the Kansas City Kings in, of all places, Bismarck ND. Artis Gilmore was one strong dude.

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  17. Coaches are complaining about the Transfer Portal, but don’t they realize it provides some job security? AD’s know if they fire the coach the entire roster could leave in the next 30 days. They need to do the firing at the same time everyone else does, right at the end of a season. If Kelly leaves, UCLA will not be able to re-stock via the portal right away.

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  18. Chip Kelly does a lot for UCLA with limited talent and a disinterested fan base. If he leaves, the Bruins will look like the Southern version of Cal.

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    2. Really? You think he makes any real effort to improve that mess? I’d wager seeing him as your coach has to be one turnoff for any ambitious recruit considering he loathes recruting. Coaches and kids sense that so do parents and it’s too well known by scribes and other coaches. What skill he had, and he certainly did, seems to have evaporated dince he left OR in 2012.

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  19. With a name like Deny Krum I always thought he was born and raised in Kentucky. Thanks for clarifying he’s from San-burdu wolfman. He knew! But you!

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  21. You have shown disdain for every USC coach including Pete Carroll. Scotty you are a fraud. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

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    4. Why not? Pete got jealous of Norm Chow and tried to replace him with his worthless basketball buddies and it cost SC a NC. And you brainless rah rahs praised the hires of Lame Kiffin, Pat Haden , Football Head Enfield, Drunk Sark, Lynn Swann, Bohn Head, Hugs, and Bonh’s Folly. You’ve been wrong for 2 decades, Kenny Boy.

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  22. I will say one tbing for Wolf, he is the most consistent person I have experienced– most men are usually positive and sometimes negative, whereas Wolf is always negative

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      2. I seem to recall Scott saying some pretty complimentary things about all 3 of these women. Football & basketball coaches, not so much….

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  23. Chip Kelly’s not an actual candidate for any NFL asst job. Pure disinformation being put out by his agent. I’m surprised Scott Wolf doesn’t see through this.

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    1. Scott is so desperate for content that he’ll throw anything at the wall ……..the pathetic part, very little sticks

      wait for it 3-2-1!

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