FOOTBALL

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

The way USC players are raving about the defense’s new aggressive philosophy, I expect to see them disrupt Miller Moss and Co. on Saturday at the Coliseum. That’s the expectation, anyways.

  • Will linebacker Eric Gentry line up at defensive end in the scrimmage? It’s an interesting move. He wasn’t strong enough last year to make such a move but USC is touting how much weight many players gained so let’s see how he looks on the line.
  • Arizona State QB Jaden Rashada, who has entered the transfer portal, wants to go to Georgia.
  • Former USC assistant coach Jason Hart, who recruited most of the players during the Andy Enfield Era, has been hired at Kentucky. It will be interesting to see what he does with the resources/tradition of Kentucky.

It would have been a smart move for Eric Musselman to hire Hart but I’m not sure Hart wanted to work for him.

And now for some history:

  • Now this is a defensive line: Art Riley (left), Otha Bradley (92) and Gary Jeter (right) in 1974. They held Tony Dorsett to 59 yards in 15 carries in a 16-7 victory over No. 18-ranked Pitt.
  • A vast majority of USC fans have never heard of Bob Kloppenburg, who died Tuesday at age 96.

But he was widely respected in the coaching community.

Bob Kloppenburg drives against Stanford in 1946

First, though, he was a Trojan. Kloppenburg led USC in scoring for the 1945-46 basketball season. Some reports say Kloppenburg played only one season for USC, which is incorrect. He was a teammate of Bill Sharman and Alex Hannum (who are both in the Basketball Hall of Fame) in the 1947-48 season. This was during the time the program was run by the legendary coach, Sam Barry.

Kloppenburg, who attended Marshall High School in Los Angeles, then embarked on a nearly 50-year coaching career that included stops at Victor Valley and Paramount High Schools and a long stint as the head coach at U.S. International University in San Diego.

He was also an assistant with the Seattle SuperSonics, Cleveland Cavaliers, UNLV, Denver Nuggets and Toronto Raptors.

But Kloppenburg’s biggest impact was when he invented the SOS Pressure Defense, which became widely distributed through books and videos. There are still coaches today who use the system and know Kloppenburg’s name, even if they are not familiar with his USC career.

The 1947-48 USC basketball team featured Bob Kloppenburg, Bill Sharman and Alex Hannum. Sharman and Hannum were the only coaches who won NBA and ABA titles.
  • A side note: USC coach Eric Musselman attended Kloppenburg’s basketball camp as a kid and Kloppenburg was an assistant coach for his father, Bill Musselman, with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
  • This is probably the best USC football team photo ever. It was taken with a locomotive that has a Southern California Trojans seal in the center. This is the 1947 team, which went 7-2-1 and 6-0 in the Pacific Coast Conference.

The team featured All-American John Ferraro, future USC head coach Don Clark, star running back/leading rusher Don Doll, and halfback Gordon Gray.

USC coach Jeff Cravath once talked about his team and said, “and please, Lord, don’t let anything happen to Gordon Gray.”

  • USC coach Jeff Cravath and his players sported visors when they visited the Horseshoe for a game against Ohio State in 1947.
  • Nate Shaw makes a tackle vs. Texas in 1966. Shaw was an All-American defensive halfback who played from 1964-66. He was drafted by the L.A. Rams in the fifth round and played for two seasons. Shaw was also an assistant coach at USC from 1980-86. His nephew is former Stanford coach David Shaw.

Shaw came to USC from San Diego Junior College and Lincoln High School.

  • Who needs to leave campus when you could go see movies at Bovard Auditorium in the 1970’s?

The movies were presented by Delta Kappa Alpha, USC’s honorary cinema fraternity. Among other selections were Soylent Green, Westworld, The Day of the Jackal, The Godfather, Last Tango in Paris and A Clockwork Orange.

  • Imagine being a student working at the USC student radio station in 1946 and waltzing around the office with a pipe. I say old man, can I trouble you for a light?
  • Have you ever seen the legendary KTLA (Channel 5) reporter Stan Chambers this young? He’s on the far right delivering commentary on the “Check the Scoreboard” sports radio show for USC campus station KTRO. Chambers and Co. are all sporting suits and ties, of course.
  • Diane Baker was the USC freshman baseball queen in 1956. Three years later, she got her first film job, a plum role in “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which won three Oscars.
  • USC vs. Tennessee in women’s basketball at the Sports Arena and Sarah Purcell sitting in the student section because “Real People” was filming. What more could you ask for?

PICTURE OF THE DAY

It’s been awhile since we ran a France Nuyen photo.

VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

Here’s a great Bruce Springsteen story about a fan.

  • Let’s cap off the column with Linda Ronstadt’s version of “Desperado.”

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

  1. The locomotive was Southern Pacific No. 4440, a GS-4 Class that pulled the Coast Daylight between L.A. and San Francisco until the mid-1950s.

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    1. Only experience I had with trains was as a 15 year old I was caught in the middle of a high bridge when a train blew its whistle that it was barreling down on me

      and at 17 with no warning lights working I passed over railroad tracks with an oncoming train 5-seconds away

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  2. Since sports topics are a ‘throw-in’ at Wolf’s allow the following-

    POLITICS BEWARE-

    -It is usually a ‘mere matter of degree’ difference, but we Maggots and Libtards act as if suddenly being ‘A-Bombed to death’ when someone disagrees with us- the kinda stuff like saying “The Gov-ment shouldn’t force me to payroll all the bombs they send overseas’

    Or as American folksy writer Mark Twain explained, “The radical invents the views. when he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them”

    The imaginary Secret Stump-Bitin Tapes (continued)

    Stump: Hey Biden is this power-tripping or what- us having 10s of millions of followers

    Bitin: I don’t know I don’t thinnk about it, these days I don’t think much about much

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  3. There is that 1974 Trojan team again, this time focusing on a defense that got second fiddle’ to SC’s offense, but it was they that held Ohio St to 17-points in the National Championship Rose Bowl game

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  4. 3-cheers for ‘The Klop’ 96 years strong just like George Tirebiter will soon be, as we forget how much Trojan lore there was before our SC-days emerged

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  5. That picture of the 1947 Post-War Trojan team is remindful of some comic saying, “They is all white, so white!”

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    1. Millie Perkins played Anne Frank.

      Most people don’t know of Charlotte Salomon —but this young woman’s illustrated diary of her life in Nazi Germany is as poignant as anything I’ve ever seen. Google her “Charlotte: A Diary In Pictures.”

      Again, thank you, Scott. Nobody does ‘Memory Lane’ better than you do.

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  7. If your ever in Amsterdam, the Anne Frank Museum is worth a visit. The living spaces are so small it is difficult to image a family concealing themselves in it for so long. And there are personal touches that bring the story home, like little pencil marks on the wall that measure the kids growth during that time. I wonder if Asna Tabassum would consider a visit to this museum. Maybe she could read the book or watch the movie. 

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    1. ….or just look at the photo of Anne on the cover of the Bantam Books edition of her Diary….. that should be sufficient….

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      1. Yes Gabby that is the place. Went there with two Jewish friends when I was only 20 years old. You could buy hash and even a prostitute and it was all in the open. Kind of like many U.S. cities today.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Scott: “Shaw was an All-American “defensive halfback” who played from 1964-66″.

    (Canadian football) A “defensive halfback” whose primary job is to cover the slotback on passing plays and prevent running plays from going to the outside.

    (looks like American football to me)

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  9. I like Eric Gentry. He makes plays. But I can’t see him on the defensive line. If I am the opposition, I run it straight at him. He is just too light to fend off blocks from 300 lbs. players. I think you need to land two big nose tackles in the portal and put Gentry behind them. Get the guy from UCLA and TCU. 

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    1. Playing Eric against USC’s O-Line is one thing —- against LSU’s or Michigan’s is another. [Actually, come to think of it, Eric may end up in LSU’s backfield once or twice….but it won’t be as defensive end ….it’ll be as a blitzing linebacker]…..

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  10. Sad but the increasing indifference to the new revised hatred of the Jews, masquerading as ‘anti-Israel’ will eventually lead to a mass exodus of them from the nations outside of Israel, they currently reside in – USA, UK, France, Argentina, South Africa, Australia etc..

    Why a fire hose and rubber truncheons aren’t being used at Columbia is due directly to a city controlled by demoncrats…..notice that ‘porcine’ US Rep (CA-47th) walking silently when asked about the ‘hamas insects’ blocking roads and shrieking hate?

    American Jews ‘WAKE UP!’ the demoncrat party is now controlled by Islamic socialist bolsheviks….you fools are as Lenin stated ‘….useful idiots’.

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    1. Face it with THIS leading us, we’re all doomed.

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      1. Try to pull your head out of the political weeds. Give us some of your movie quotes, where you seem to be more knowledgeable

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      1. …and, yes, a fricking great job by Scott today…,.

        #….AndWe’reNotAnEasyAudience……

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  12. HEY MG

    AND FOR CHICKEN SQUAWKING CHECK OUT THE REMAKE OF THE BLUE ANGEL STARRING MAE BRITT

    SHE WAS MARRIED TO SAMMY DAVISJR

    THE SICK JOKE WAS. WHAT IS BLACK AND WHITE AND HAS THREE EYES ??

    THATS SICK BUT ONE OR TWO PERSONS ON THE BOARD WILL LOVE IT. LOL

    BUT DONT WANT TO OFFEND ANYBODY. ITS NOT MYJOKE. JUSTASIGNOF THE TIMES BACK THEN ANDA HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE

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    1. Sammy Davis Jr. was the man of the hour for one of the Dean Martin roasts back in the 70s. It was hilarious. People teased him about his height, his religion, his interracial dating, his fake eye and of course his race. Frank Gorshin, while impersonating Richard Burton, called him a “brillo pad with legs.” At the end, Sammy stated that people were not really your friends unless they felt free enough with you to tease you. I think there is a lot of truth in that statement. There is no such thing as a friend who feels the need to place politically correct speech restrictions on himself when he is in your company.

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      1. I am offended by this post. ”Interracial”, ”race”, “religion” —these are words that have no place in polite conversation….

        #….Let’sAllTryToRiseAboveThis

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  13. GEORGE —I’M AFRAID TO SEE ANY MORE CHICKEN SQUAWKING —THE ORGINAL VERSION OF BLUE ANGEL MADE ME SICK ENOUGH —-POOR TYRONE POWER GOT STUCK DOING SOMETHING ALONG THOSE LINES AT THE END OF MIDNIGHT ALLEY [& I’M NOT TOO CRAZY ABOUT THE STAR OF “ZORRO” ACTING LIKE THAT, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN]……

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