USC will play Cal today at 2:30 p.m. in the semifinals of the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament. Stanford and Arizona play in the other semifinal.
- Oregon State has 19 players in the NCAA softball transfer portal. This follows the decimation of its women’s basketball team, which reached the Elite Eight this season. The Pac-12 really did a number on the Beavers.
- And now for some history:
- This week’s column answers an important question: Was Anita Ekberg ever at USC? The answer, of course, is yes! She visited the campus (that is the university fountain in the background) on May 4, 1955 to promote “The Chase” dance. Ekberg, a starlet at the time and former Miss Sweden, was Queen of the Chase.
TIMES CHANGE
USC plays Michigan at Ann Arbor this season. When the Trojans visited the Wolverines in 1958, USC students described the atmosphere as “flat.”
A Michigan student in charge of the university’s spirit commission marveled at stories of how USC had thousands of students doing card stunts; did more than 25 card stunts per game and needed a microphone for its yell leader.
I doubt there is anything Michigan could learn about spirit or atmosphere from USC today.
- Halfback Don Buford (20) and right tackle Monte Clark (71) were both on the 1958 USC football team. Here’s a stat you can use on the fanboys who only know what today’s players have done: Buford led USC in rushing, punt returns, kick returns, interceptions and tackles by a defensive back in 1958. He also completed a 41-yard pass. And he was on the 1958 USC College World Series championship team.
But Buford was better known as a baseball player and was a member of the Baltimore Orioles’ 1970 World Series championship team. In the 1969 World Series, he hit a home run off fellow Trojan Tom Seaver. He also played for the Chicago White Sox. He later returned to USC as an assistant coach to Rod Dedeaux.
Clark played for the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns. He was a star of the 1964 NFL Championship Game, where the Browns defeated the Baltimore Colts, 27-0.
He then became the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers (1976) and Detroit Lions (1978-84).
- Since I mentioned next season’s Minnesota road trip yesterday, here’s the 1980 USC-Minnesota game.
Everyone remembers Marcus Allen gained 216 yards but people forget Ronnie Lott intercepted three passes as the Trojans won, 24-7. The victory pushed USC’s unbeaten streak to 23 games, which at the time was second only to Howard Jones’ streak of 27 games (1931-33).
“I’ve just been in the right place,” Lott said of his big day.
Said USC coach John Robinson: “It was a business-like performance. We played hard but it was with no emotion. We weren’t as up as we were for Tennessee and South Carolina.”
DIFFERENT WORLD
When college football teams play road games today, they get to the airport as soon as possible after the game for a chartered flight back home.
It wasn’t like that in the 1950’s. When North Carolina played USC on a Friday night at the Coliseum in 1958, the Tar Heels went to Disneyland and Hollywood on Saturday.
PICTURE OF THE DAY
Marlin McKeever wasn’t just a fearsome player. He was also a punter for USC.
RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK
Not exactly a restaurant but Trojan Billiards sounds exactly like you might picture it in 1953. It was on the edge of campus, across from the Shrine Auditorium and students could practice for free for 30 minutes between 5-7 p.m. I can pretty much picture what Viola and Wayne looked like too.
- Now I’m not saying I would have attended the “Stars of the Ukraine” mega-color spectacle in 1953 but I think it’s better that the Maynard Theater (below) was at this spot than the tire store that sits on the property today. It’s about 3 miles from USC.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
It’s always the right time to go back to 1977 to hear The Babys with “Isn’t It Time.”
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
Looks as if Micigan’s Big House has always been filled
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I see plenty of empty seats unlike today.
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Football seems to be the driving force for “college spirit” and SC’s present student body has about half the kids with no American-style football experience
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Half ? More like 3/4’s.
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Another ” chick music ” song selection. Most people in high school in 1977 were listening to the Sex Pistols, Ramones, Zeppelin, The Who, Wolf was listening The Baby’s, Air Supply and probably Johnny Mathis.
BTW: Johnny Lydon aka Johnny Rotten is a Trump supporter.
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Prince[ss] Harry’s loves watching this video in his college Nazi uniform….
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…please remove the plural from Harry’s name…
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I heard it was a favorite of Eric Boucher
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Well played, karma.
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P. S.
Scott’s musical tastes make him even more loveable…..
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Most pictures show smiling females and males’ frowning, so it only took an Anita Ekberg to put smiles on those 3 Trojan lads
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That 1958 team had some talent – Buford, Wood, Clark and the McKeever brothers. How did they lose to Michigan or anyone else.
An absolute shame what has happened to Oregon State. Blame it on mismanagement and greed.
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“Everyone remembers Marcus Allen’s 216 yards gained” in the 1980 Minnesota game writes Wolf. Really?- I barely recall ‘1980’
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“It was a business-like performance, we played hard but with no emotion,” says John Robinson, proving what John McKay once said about football and emotion– “My wife Corky is very emotional but she is a lousy football player”
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-Hope that 1958 Michigan picture of nearly half the SC team on the ground watching a Wolverine touchdown is not a front-runner for the 2024 game
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Got to love those Wolf pictures of a Yucla line about ready to put helmets into the stomachs of an SC line
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10 of the Pac-12 schools effectively said to Oregon St and Washington St, “Sorry guys but that is how the cookie crumbles”
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Robin Williams would always say, “I am from San Francisco where ‘God save the queen’ has a different meaning
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Of all the art-forms ‘music’ may be the most subjective one
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Check out Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon.
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the orange cheeto claims 25k people showed up for his Bronx rally….pictures don’t lie, looks more like 2500……it’s one fucking lie after another coming out of this guy. You MAGAts have zero morals if you still support this sack of shit
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Re last 3 words of Gabby’s Post: Biden’s Security Detail actually & for real refer to him as the “sack of shit”….
#3GuessesAsToWhyTheyPickedThatName…..
#”Okay,WhoHasToChangeTheBigGuy’sDiaperToday?”
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USC 5 CA 4 middle of the 8th …. USC win then CCG tomorrow against either stanford or AZ
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USC Wins! Final
SC 7 CA 4….await winner of stanford or AZ
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Alv never gave up on USC baseball….
#HappyForYou,Alv!
#FightOn
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Thanks Mike – I was amazed Scott made no note today in the game and only after the victory over CA did he post it.
USC is on the verge of turning this entire program around after 26 years drought from winning the last NC at Rosenblatt.
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Yep!
#AndYouStayedLoyalAllTheWay,Alv
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the ’58 team was a vast improvement over the 1-9 ’57 team, that was punished with scholarship reductions …’59 team featuring many of the same players had a great season until the flu hit the team the last 2 games….players had to play both ways and substitutions were limited by rules back then.
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