FOOTBALL

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

Any scandals this week? Yes.

The story came out this week about a star USC neuroscientist having three research papers retracted by a journal that published them and a paused drug trial by a company the professor co-founded. You can read about it here.

“USC takes any allegations of research integrity very seriously,” the university said in a statement.

And now for some history:

Song girls getting interviewed on Channel 11 at the USC-UCLA basketball game.
  • The idea of USC having song girls met some serious resistance back in 1967.

Traditionlists believed USC was special by being one of the last schools to only use male yell leaders at games.

“USC has such sophistication that it would be beneath what we are trying to do in any other area to have girl song leaders,” said Karen Mazepink, who was president of the Association for Women Students.

Keep in mind the first song girls were only going to be used for basketball games as a way to increase attendance. USC student president Marty Foley, who favored having song girls at the Sports Arena, said there was no way they would be allowed to destroy USC’s tradition of all-male yell leaders at the football games.

Head yell leader Rusty Jordan said it was childish to have song girls.

“I don’t really like what girl song leaders do,” Jordan said. “They just look good and are nice to have around. But I’m not sure they are really effective at raising spirit.”

Norm Wilky, vice president of student activities at USC, told the student senate that those selected to be song girls would talk to UCLA song girls, whom he called “the best in the country” for advice in getting started.

USC basketball coach Bob Boyd favored the idea. John McKay was initially against it but relented.

The song girls were introduced at basketball games in 1968 and then started attending football games in the fall.

The original song girls during their first football season in 1968.
  • The 1970 song girls featured the first African-American song girl, Linda Murray, and quite possibly its first Asian-American song girl, Nancy Kamei.
  • The idea USC was too sophisticated for song girls obviously ignored that Yell King Chuck Phillips introduced “Chester” the chimp as a mascot in 1959. One of his other ideas, nixed by the administration, was to bring a date to a football game. The date? Candy Barr, a notorious stripper who dated Mickey Cohen and Jack Ruby.
Chuck Phillips and Chester the chimp.
  • USC tailback Steve Grady, shown in 1967, managed to gain 279 yards that season despite playing behind O.J. Simpson.
  • It’s still an amazing stat today that USC safety Charles Phillips had an NCAA-record 302 interception return yards in 1974. Another former USC player, Don Doll, had 301 yards in the NFL for the Detroit Lions in 1949.

Phillips’ record is even more impressive when you consider he played with a tooth pick in his mouth during games and practices.

  • USC safety Artimus Parker intercepted a school-record 20 passes in his Trojan career. And I still see some fans list guys who played in the past 20 years being among the top five safeties in USC history. Unbelievable.
USC tries to block a kick against Cal in 1977.
  • Last week, I told a quick version of how Jack Kent Cooke threw Bob Boyd out of his house when Boyd turned down the Lakers job in 1969.

Now a longer version: Boyd was offered the job by Lakers general manager Fred Schaus and accepted. But he changed his mind. Schaus, fearful of the volatile Cooke, asked Boyd to accompany him to Cooke’s house and break the news. Boyd was never one to fear a confrontation and agreed.

When the duo arrived at Cooke’s house, the Lakers owner still thought Boyd was taking the job. Cooke congratulated Boyd and then Schaus informed him that Boyd was not going to become the Lakers coach.

“What?” Cooke yelled. He then unleashed a series of angry comments before saying, “Now get out of my house!”

Why did Boyd turn down the job? He thought he could turn USC into a power. USC did go 24-2 and was ranked No. 1 in the nation in 1971.

A few years after he turned down the Lakers, the Portland Trail Blazers offered Boyd their coaching job. He turned them down too.

  • I’ve been writing on-and-off about a popular dance held by USC students in the 1940’s and 1950’s called “The Chase.” It got the name because the first dances were at The Chase Hotel in Santa Monica.
The Chase Hotel in 1944. It was also known as The Grand Hotel.
  • The 1951 dance featured Debbie Reynolds as Queen of the Chase and Lena Horne as the featured performer.
Lena Horne

The 1955 dance featured singer Bobby Troup (maybe better known today for his role in the 1970’s show “Emergency”) and, of course, the queen was Anita Ekberg.

The 1950 dance was attended by 4,000. The 1949 dance raised enough money that a college scholarship was provided to Edward Young, who was senior class president at Jefferson High School and an All-City and All-State high jumper.

The 1956 queen, actress Karen Sharpe, is still alive.

Karen Sharpe
  • USC’s notorious president, Rufus B. von Klein Smid, who seemed to spend much of his time cozying up to celebrities, was asked back in 1924 what the girl of 2024 would be like. Naturally, he had a prediction.

“(The girl of 2024) will be physically strong, vital, and alert, loving the outdoors and rejoicing in its lure. She will be active in sports, engaging in those which carry more risk of danger.”

RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK

This restaurant literally sat on the campus in 1958. Carol Folt probably would have shut it down last week or have it fenced up.

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

  1. And here comes Wolf a little late, but SC was too sophisticated and song girls were beneath good ol’ USC, well that changed because the girls seem to get more excited at games than the guys

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    1. Bobby Troupe was married to the singer Julie London, who had previously been married to Jack Webb. Troupe appeared in several episodes of Dragnet 1967-1970, so obviously there were no ill feelings on either side.

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  3. The Chase Hotel!– Now you have done it, Wolfie, the ‘Chase’ became the ‘Sea Castle’ and that 2-story apartment on top of the building was my wife Carol’s and my home from 1974 to 1994 when the Great L.A. Earthquake wiped us out, and nearly ‘us’

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  4. von Klein Smid, I took classes in “his” tower until SC stripped his name from the building due to him being a so-called bigot and I guess slave owner at one time, ignoring the axiom “Judge people by the times they lived in not today’s times

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  5. Seeing in the above picture how high the SC defenders can get when trying to block a field goal attempt means the kicker has to put an unusually high trajectory on his kicks, an art in itself

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  6. Wolf, I love this part of the blog because it brings back memories as to what USC stood for and used to be; which was class, elegance, strength, toughness, and heart. If you look at the way the USC football team used to wear the uniform it exemplified all of these qualities. Now we have a university that is governed by the WOKE Commandments gender identity, pronoun preference, etc. We have a football team that wears the uniform with disdain to the great tradition of USC, where everyone wore the uniform the same way, from the Heisman Trophy winners to the fifth string walk-ons. It breaks my heart to say this, but USC will never be great again until it has an internal enema and flushes out the toxic leadership that has infected both the academic side of the university and the athletic side of the university. Here’s hoping for better days. FIGHT ON!

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  7. And great to be reminded of the gentle Lena Horne although I think Candy Barr was not notorious, Stormy is ‘notorious’

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      1. sloow pa-trolls secret fantasy was to be a “yell fag” …due to lack of size (135lbs) and zero athleticism he was reduced to a tuba player in the TMB…..Laughing my ass

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      1. You clearly could not make a commercial today that mocks male cheerleaders. Bud Light made the commercial back when they knew their customer base and catered to it. Now you have to put Dylan Mulvaney’s picture on the can to celebrate “women.” What an insult to women and how times have changed.

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      2. Virginia Slims commercial : “It’s been a long way, baby —to get to where you’re at today…”

        #….AndIt’sBeenDownhillAllTheWay ….

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  10. The Big Question is not ‘why did Bob Boyd turn down the Laker job’… it’s ‘why didn’t Bob tell Jack Kent Cooke “It’s My House Now” when Cooke told him to get out?

    #”NowWhatAreYaGonnaDoAboutIt,Jack?”

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    1. Boyd could be an intimidating guy. I attended his basketball camp at Occidental College when I was 14. First time I went to a camp. You got a pair of Converse All Star shoes as part of the deal. During registration, I was pulled out of line with my shoes and told to go to Mr. Boyd’s office. He was with his wife. He told me my parents wrote a bad check and he didn’t know what to do with me. That it wasn’t fair that I should attend camp and not pay. He acted like he wanted the shoes back. He asked me to call my parents but they were not home. I was panicked when his wife asked me where I went to school and then she smiled and said that’s her alma mater and that I know your good for it. I wasn’t even sure what a bad check meant. I called my Dad later that night and he said Boyd is full of it and that he never wrote a bad check in his life. Well, there were about 150 kids at the camp and only two of them were black, one of those was Cartwright who would later play for the Bulls. They assigned me to room with the other black kid, a guy name Brian from Muir High School. When I told Brian that I had trouble registering and my check had bounced he started laughing and said “that’s why you got the room with the colored boy.” Brian was great. Had a wonderful time and my Dad showed me the cancelled check when I came home a week later. It was negotiated months before the camp started.

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      1. I wonder what the fuck that was all about, Plow….

        Boyd sounds a bit screwy in that story…..

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      2. MG: I really don’t know but my Dad was really pissed off when I told him what had happened. “He actually said I wrote him a bad check?”

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      3. Was Boyd trying to roll a 14 year old kid?
        #”Well,HowMuchDoYouHaveInYourWallet?”

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      4. btw,

        I didn’t have the $5 necessary to sit for my high school entrance exam [cuz I had been kicked outta grammar school the week before for calling our nun a bitch & didn’t hear about the mandatory fee]. The Dad of kid named Jim Ripley saw I was getting kicked out and paid the fee for me. I never got a chance to really thank him [let alone pay him back] so I’m writing this to say a belated thanks to him….. wherever he is now.

        #Thanks,MisterRipley!

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      5. If you can’t pay it back, pay it forward. I’m sure you’ve done more than your fair share of that. I know I try to, especially when the opportunity presents itself.

        As in “Land” when Edee asked Miguel why he helped her. His reply: “You were in my path.”

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    1. Hi Gabby.

      Trump IS “For Prison”! It’s where Garland should go & Trump’s gonna put him there.

      #GarlandWillBeCalling”IWantMyMommy!”AtNight….

      #…LikeThatGuyIn”ShawshankRedemption”….

      #[…WhoIThinkGetsOffedByHisFellowInmates]…

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  12. So funny seeing this on Seinfeld just now:

    ELAINE: [mind] Is he going to try to kiss me?
    ELAINE: I love Cajun cooking.
    KEITH: Really, you know my mom’s one quarter Cajun.
    ELAINE: Uh, my father’s half drunk. ha ha ha ha
    KEITH: Maybe they should get together. [mind] Go ahead. Kiss her.
    I’m a baseball player dammit.
    ELAINE: [mind] What’s he waiting for? I thought he was a cool guy.
    KEITH: [mind] Come on I won the MVP in 79. I can do whatever I want to.
    ELAINE: [mind] This is getting awkward.
    KEITH: Well, goodnight
    ELAINE: Good night
    [they kiss – REALLY KISS]

    Big laughs when Keith Hernandez says he can do whatever he wants. But Trump says it and the Liberals are still crying about it nearly 20 years later.

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    1. Raw male humor makes libby guys uncomfortable cuz they never heard any in high school or college ….and they take it ultra seriously …. and it makes them afraid to go outside during the daytime….

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      1. Right Michael. Always thought it was interesting how the white libs will go nuts if someone refers to Whoopi Goldberg or Joy Behar as a “dumb bitch” and yet applaud the creativity of black rap music where every sentence refers to “Hoes” and “Bitches” and the songs generally promote violence and casual sex. There is no such thing as a love song in this genre. (Compare it to the beauty of Motown.) It destroys the heart and soul of young people and is financed and marketed by the same libs that are offended that someone should call a dumb bitch a dumb bitch.

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      2. I was at Whale Park the other day ….somebody’s truck radio was blaring “kill da bitch, kill da bitch, kill da bitch” while kids were playing basketball…..

        #Isn’tTheLeft’sVersionOfAmericaTheGreatest?

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      3. given your logic, Jan 6th was just a misunderstanding between a few tourists….right?

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  13. “The 1951 dance featured Debbie Reynolds as Queen of the Chase and Lena Horne as the featured performer.”

    Wow. Sometimes I think it would have been nice to grow up in the “Tirebiter” era. Lena Horne is so beautiful in the picture. Now if Scott would just provide us with an Anita Ekberg picture.

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    1. Oregon is getting the lineman. It is primarily because of money. Maybe we should have invested more in the NIL collective than in building a new football facility for 100 million. That 100 million would go a long way in securing some football players and we would not have had to ruin the baseball program.

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    1. Yes. I remember the one in the 1974 ND game. Phillips played at Blair High School in Pasadena with James McCallister and Kermit Johnson. All of them played in the NFL. That’s the team that beat Bishop Amat with Pat Haden and JK McKay in the CIF title game.

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      1. ……and what year were you born in? If you are only a few years older than Gabby then your nose must be growing

        why lie about your age? You’re a lot older than Gabby and that explains why you avoid a meet-up in Bastow for a good ass whipping.

        just like you told the blog about a game in 1962 you remember being at against ND. ….

        we can’t forget about the big lie you told about your uncle’s sports bet……pathetic!

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