FOOTBALL

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

Last week, I said the track and field prelims at the 2028 Olympics would be brutal for fans forced to roast in the heat at the Coliseum.

Well, Friday’s New Student Convocation at the Coliseum was termed a disaster by several people in attendance. They said a few people fainted and that about a third of the students departed well before the conclusion of the event. Keep in mind this was a morning event.

Why didn’t Carol Folt hold it at the Galen Center where the heat would not be a factor?

  • Also, the USC administration banned student media reporters and photographers from going to the convocation. That forced them to wait outside the peristyle, where they got to watch a small protest, which is no doubt why Folt and Co. were afraid to let the media inside, in case anything happened there too.
  • Sprinter Fred Kerley, who was a bronze medalist in the 100 meters in Paris and silver medalist in the same event at Tokyo 2020, trains at USC.
  • The Action Network reports that over the last decade, USC is 5-26 SU, and 10-21 ATS as an underdog. That’s the worst ATS win percentage among any school with 30-plus games as a dog in that span (125 schools).

You know who bears a burden with this dreadful stat? The USC fans who foolishly bet on the Trojans, even when they were awful, simply because they bet on the uniform without taking note of the coach/players.

And now for some history:

  • It’s probably hard for a current USC wide receiver to relate to this comment in 1979 from wide receiver Kevin Williams: “I swear, with USC’s run-oriented offense, it would be pretty dull being a wide receiver if you didn’t like to block. I love to block. Of course, I like to catch the ball, too.”
  • When you read about how great USC’s current coaching staff is, here’s a couple guys from the 1972 staff that I just picked randomly.
  • There was Ray George, who was an actual member of the Thundering Herd teams of 1937-39 and one of the greatest linemen in USC history. He played on the 1938 team that upset top-ranked Notre Dame and previously unbeaten and unscored-upon Duke in the 1939 Rose Bowl. He later became the head coach at Texas A&M and beat coaching legends Bud Wilkinson (Oklahoma), Red Sanders (UCLA) and Bear Bryant (Kentucky).
  • Then there was wide receivers coach Wayne Fontes, who was the Detroit Lions head coach from 1988-96. He is the only Lions coach to lead the team to the NFC championship game (1991) and he drafted Hall of Fame tailback Barry Sanders over some objections.
  • Here’s USC Picture Day on August 31, 1958, almost exactly 66 years ago today.
  • Halfback Jerry Traynham (26) and left tackle Dan Ficca (78) hold up Coach Don Clark with help from right guard Mike McKeever (64) and halfback Angelo Coia (23).

Ficca and Coia were from Pennsylvania and brought to USC by assistant coach Al Davis.

Here was USC’s starting lineup in the preseason of 1958.

First team:

LE — 80 Hillard Hill (Sr) (175)
LT — 78 Dan Ficca (So) (230)
LG — 62 Frank Fiorentino (Sr) (203)
C — 57 Ken Antle (Sr) (185)
RG — 64 Mike McKeever (So) (210)
RT — 71 Monte Clark (Sr) (249)
RE — 81 Don Douglas (Sr) (195)
QB — 15 Tom Maudlin (Sr) 175)
LH — 23 Angelo Coia (So) (195)
RH — 26 Jerry Traynham (So) (180)
FB — 43 Clark Holden (Jr) (190).

Second team:

LE — 82 George Van Vliet (So) (193)
LT — 75 Don Mattson (Jr) (222)
LG — 66 Walt Gurasich (Sr) (230)
C — 52 Joe Chuha (Sr) (210)
RG — 60 Mike Lewis (Jr) (193)
RT — 74 Ron Mix (Jr) (203)
RE — 85 Marlin McKeever (So) (210)
QB — 16 Willie Wood (Jr) (173)
LH — 29 Bob Arnett (Jr) (185)
RH — 42 Hal Clayton (So) (185)
FB — 44 Don Kasten (Sr) (195)

  • When Linda Ronstadt performed at USC’s Cromwell Field on May 11, 1974, you would think it would be a huge coup.

But the response was underwhelming. Here is what the Daily Trojan’s editors said:

“The decision to sign Linda Ronstadt was a necessary compromise. Even a small concert is better than none at all.

“Linda Ronstadt may not be as strongly appealing as the Grateful Dead or the Beach Boys but we don’t doubt she can put on a good show — and that is what is needed.”

A USC sophomore wrote: “Students have waited too long for this concert to have Linda Ronstadt thrown in their faces.”

Keep in mind that five years earlier, Ronstadt had played at the famed Troubadour with Jackson Browne.

Less than 2,000 students attended and the USC concert lost $8,000.

  • Our last look back at the Olympics and the once-lofty position of USC swimming. In 1964, American swimmer Don Schollander became the first U.S. athlete since Jessie Owens to win four gold medals.

Schollander, 18, surprised some because he was a student at Yale.

“If I just wanted to swim,” he said. “I would have gone to USC.”

If only that were still true.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK, I

Actor Alain Delon was about as cool as it gets. He died earlier this week at age 88. Here he is in the 1967 French classic, “Le Samourai.”

VIDEO OF THE WEEK, II

Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas were married for 44 years. He went to Notre Dame. She went to USC.

And they had instant chemistry, as evident from this 1977 episode of Donahue.

Since I mentioned Thomas, it’s always worth noting that she picked football games for the Daily Trojan when she was a student in the late 1950’s.

Among the other names picking games were USC assistant coaches Bill Fisk and Mel Hein (an NFL Hall of Famer). Can you imagine that happening today? I’m sure D’Anton Lynn would love to pick games in the DT.

It’s an example of the higher level of school spirit and respect that existed in those days. 

Bob Speck became sports director at KTLA and a sports TV producer; Don Richman was the USC sports information director; Jim Morad spent 33 years as a Foreign Service Officer while Joe Jares made the USC Hall of Fame after a successful career at Sports Illustrated and the Los Angeles Daily News.

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

  2. Great Friday column. Check out the size of the offensive linemen on that ’58 team…what a different game it was back in the day.

    And it was a totally different university back in the day. The simple and innocent joy of college from those days – Friday night pep rallies, sports, parties on the row – is gone. I feel for the kids going to college now, that they will not experience the fun that we had.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    2. One of my takeaways of life at SC, ’67,’ was that I was not ever worried about anybody’s safety, it felt like we were tucked away in a cozy spot, and of course those marvelous football teams didn’t hurt campus spirit much

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  3. scott, can you please educate yourself on what a “point spread” represents….you sound like an idiot when talking about sports betting.

    Like

    Reply

      2. Cowardly Gabby needs to be institutionalized at Atascadero State Mental Hospital.

        Gabby (original)

        June 23, 2023 at 3:23 AM

        horse plow said he can use his wife’s black dildo for the peenus sword fight

        Like

      3. Yeah, she’s too stupid to realize “free rent” would mean that you’re thinking about her all of the time. When you reply to one of her MANY stupid posts, that is not you thinking about her for no reason.

        She’s got to be the stupidest person on the internet, not just this blog.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. SC football coach Don Clark being held up in the air by his players for a picture?– All in fun of course but somehow I could not picture McKay ever doing that

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. Probably the biggest change in football aside from the NFL’s new kickoff rule, was the evolution of primarily running the ball to throwing it

    Another football evolution is evidenced by the great SC lineman Ray George of the 1930s SC Thundering Herd. That was when linemen were 200 pounds maybe, today Ray couldn’t make the team

    And it wasn’t so long ago linemen were 250, now you got to be 300 to play offensive line

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Marv Goux said he’s give up 10-years of his life to play in a particular big SC game?– Fortunately he didn’t suit up because he only got another 25-years of life as it was

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. A typo, ‘he’s is he’d’ but I never notice other posters’ typos unless they bring it up; it’s like the mind fills in the proper word without really noticing it

    Like

    Reply

  9. Prince: Nice speech last night but I’m still not voting for you

    Charming: I wouldn’t think less of you if you did

    Like

    Reply

  11. Prince: If you throw out the millions of votes you Demos won by in California and New York, I won the most popular votes

    Charning: I wish I could move some of those “Coast” votes to Michigan and Pennsylvania

    Like

    Reply

  12. MICHAEL GUARINO LIKED A COMMENT

    TIME TO POST NOW MY OLD FRIEND ! JOHN AND THE DOG ARE WAITING WITH BAITED BREATH CUZ WE MISSED YOU. 67 DID TOO !! YOUR HUMOR IS A JOY TO BEHOLD AND A TREAT FOR MANKIND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. “That sounds like a great idea, Kato.”

        –Brad Pitt to “Bruce Lee” in “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”

        #WaitingToBeReportedTo….Myself

        Liked by 1 person

      4. …. too lame to comprehend the meaning and intent of even the simplest of criminal code sections….

        #SuchAHalfWit….

        Like

      6. I hate to do this to you….but…. why don’t you name each of “the authorities” who stated services were down in Wailea or South or Central Kihei……

        #”TheAuthorities” —WhoTalksThatWay?

        Like

      1. Thanks, my friend! [SO glad Scott is removing Screwy Gabby’s attacks on the nice people who like to come here]!

        Like

      2. Scott is using fake gabby to welcome back his other sock////puppert MG……when you’re desperate for clicks you do desperate things……

        Like

    1. I was thinking recently about the words I wanted for my tombstone— “a giant rogue wave that appeared on a placid sea” is more than I deserve….but I’ll take it!

      #ManyThanks,John

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a reply to GEORGE TIREBITER Cancel reply