FOOTBALL

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

Here is some good news: USC will not lose a football game on Saturday.

  • Washington coach Jedd the Fisch gave out 10 game balls after the victory over USC. That’s even more than Clay Helton ever gave out.
  • During Thursday’s groundbreaking for the new USC football building, donor Ron Bloom stood next to Lincoln Riley.

“It’s Ron Bloom and Bloomin’ Idiot,” a USC employee told me.

  • USC defeated Idaho State, 75-69, at the Galen Center on Thursday night. The Trojans led, 68-67, when guard Saint Thomas hit a 3-point shot with 18 seconds left. Josh Cohen led USC with 19 points but Idaho State outrebounded USC, 40-25. USC was also 5 for 20 on 3-pointers.
  • Parker Jefferson, a 6-10 center from Inglewood High School and the No. 139 overall recruit in the 2025 class, is down to Minnesota and USC. He will announce Nov. 20.
  • And now for some history:
  • USC coach John McKay and his assistant coach, Craig Fertig, used to get their hair cut at O’Rourke’s Hair Styling for Men on Wilshire Blvd. near Doheny Dr. in Beverly Hills.

Jim O’Rourke had grown up in New York as a Golden Gloves boxer before he moved to California and went to a barber college so he could make extra money while going to school.

O’Rourke developed his own unique style of cutting hair and a friend told him about another barber named Jay who used a similar style and had just opened his own shop.

Jim used to come in and give shampoos at the shop for free. Jay’s shop became a success and the first barber he hired was Jim O’Rourke. Soon, Jim was managing half the barbers at Jay’s shop.

Jim married former USC student Sheila Flynn. Jim was at the beach on August 9, 1969, when news spread that actress Sharon Tate and four others had been murdered.

Sharon Tate

“I was sort of stunned,” O’Rourke told the Daily Trojan in 1970. “I had a flashback to this time when she and Jay Sebring were engaged. I thought about a time when Jay and I were having dinner and he had just come back from London to see Sharon.

“He said they loved each other but it wouldn’t work out. He talked real melancholy. He said their lives were different with her traveling all the time.

“I was thinking how bad Jay must feel, then I get home and my brother calls me and tells me Jay was one of the `others.’ “

The Sebring Corp. continued to run the salon but “people coming in were more interested in gossip concerning the Tate murders than getting haircuts,” O’Rourke said.

Eventually, the corporation brought in new management and O’Rourke was fired. He opened his own shop with barbers who worked with him at Sebring’s Hair Salon.

“It’s funny but Jay always said he would die young,” O’Rourke said. “He just had this fatalistic feeling. He drove cars fast and worked hard.”

CONCERT OF THE WEEK

Frank Zappa performed at USC in 1970.

  • There was a time when USC athletes thought nothing of trying another sport in the offseason.

Here is defensive tackle Dan Ficca, a UPI All-American in 1959, throwing the discus in 1960.

Ficca was one of several players to USC from Pennsylvania by assistant coach Al Davis. Another was tailback Angelo Coia.

Davis wasn’t around for Ficca’s senior season at USC because he and John McKay did not get along. They were both assistants to Don Clark in 1959 and when McKay got the USC job over Davis in 1959, Davis quickly departed to become an assistant for the Los Angeles Chargers.

  • USC used to attract the best. When it held the annual Songfest competition in 1961, one judge was Academy Award winning lyricist Johnny Mercer, best known for songs like “Moon River” and “Hurray for Hollywood.”

The guest conductor was Henry Mancini, who won four Academy Awards and 20 Grammys.

A live album of the 16 student groups who performed at Songfest was sold and the concert drew 10,000 at the Hollywood Bowl. These days, Songest is held at Bovard Auditorium.

  • When USC lost to Minnesota last month, it wasn’t the first time the Trojans lost in Minneapolis. But . . . the weather conditions were much worse in 1955.

USC lost, 25-19, but there was snow, rain and wind during the game while the temperature dropped to 33 degrees.

“It was the worst field I’ve seen in my life,” USC tailback Jon Arnett said. “Go out and look at it.”

USC coach Jess Hill said the weather was not an excuse.

“Sure the snow, wild, cold and wet field hurt us but it was the same for Minnesota,” Hill said. “But it was the same for Minnesota. The weather didn’t stop us. Minnesota did.”

Unlike Lincoln Riley, Hill did not say USC was one play away from winning the game.

USC tailback Jon Arnett is tackled just short of the goal line with USC trailing 25-19 in the fourth quarter.
USC quarterback/punter Jim Contratto has kick blocked by Minnesota in 1955.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

Marilyn Monroe in a publicity photo for the film, “Niagara.” (1953).

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Let’s go back to 1970 for Freda Payne with her hit, “Band of Gold.”

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

  1. tIt is truly remarkable the research you prepare weekly for this Friday column.

    An aside Univ of ID professor Rick Spence has some remarkable alternative to the reason for the horrific Tate-La Bianca murders on a YouTube interview hosted by Lex Fridman. The professor is very ‘down to earth’ but his insights and encyclopedic memory of places and people is incredible. The interview can be seen as one long 3.5 hr video or sliced into segments. He says it all began with a drug deal gone bad a (Boggy Beasoliel) murder and then a decision to cover that up with the Cielo Drive insanity

    Trump wins!

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  5. So Washington gives out 10 footballs after its victory over SC. That is part of the problem– every school treats the SC game as their biggest game of the year

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    1. It officially marked the end of the 1960s that began with such hope with JFK and The New Frontier and ended with the implosion of the Summer of Love Hippie movement.

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      2. SAYS THE FREAK WHO WHINES AND CRIES 24/7 AND CAN’T STOP TOUCHING THE HOT STOVE……P U S S S Y BOY

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      3. And BTW, cowardly Gabby will never take that woman’s advice and admit that SHE is the problem. Even with the many times as she’s been told this! LOL

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  9. KAM: We spent well north of a billion dollars and 3-months on this campaign, and I bet the result would not have been much different if the election had taken place right after I was appointed the Democratic nominee

    DON: Could be

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  12. DON: By the way, did you mean all that mean stuff you said about me?

    KAM: Not all of it-some was merely for public show

    DON: I hear you

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  13. Cannot get used to the time change, I keep getting up at the old time. I wonder what time Wolf’s Censor arrives?

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  16. Hard to imagine John McKay and Craig Fertig going to Beverly Hills for a fancy and expensive hair cut. I see them going to a place like Floyd’s barber shop that was featured on the Andy Griffith show.

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    1. BARSTOW?…….QUIT RUNNING, HUNCHBACK………MAN-UP

      (watch, I’ll get fake Gabby all triggered, wait for it…..the freak takes the bait every time…..pathetic)

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      1. Cowardly Gabby, you forgot you admitted you are a craven coward:

        Gabby (original)
        JULY 8, 2023 AT 3:06 AM
        no one is going to fight someone over comments made in a blog…..plow is an old man just popping off…and you fuc*&ing know it…

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      1. Cowardly Gabby is upset about the shellacking!https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1854632198747701608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1854632198747701608%7Ctwgr%5E57e6f5d222ee5fab89a66c5eacd20095f0aa8098%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Dpj-instapunditt_i%3D1-683219t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Finstapundit.com2F6832192Ft_e%3DMATT20TAIBBI3A2020Begin20the20Deprogramming3A20There20Was20No2026quot3BPandemic20of20the20Unvaccinated3A26quot3B2020A20note20on20Jimmyt_d%3DInstapundit20C2BB20Blog20Archive20C2BB20MATT20TAIBBI3A20Begin20the20Deprogramming3A20There20Was20No20E2809CPandemic20of20the20Unvaccinated3AE2809D20A20note20on20Jimmyt_t%3DMATT20TAIBBI3A2020Begin20the20Deprogramming3A20There20Was20No2026quot3BPandemic20of20the20Unvaccinated3A26quot3B2020A20note20on20Jimmyt_cs_o%3Ddefaultversion%3D62f03df4bfd132f86d4a790df69d283e

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  19. — Great shot of SC great Jon Arnett almost winning the game except for Minnesota’s full body tackle short of the end zone

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  20. Every man has his own opinion of what a ‘pretty’ girl looks like, but I would think Sharon Tate might be in the running

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  23. Oops! The censor blocked it initially. So I changed it ever so slightly and when the second one posted, the censor had rethought the Demoncrat type of censorship and allowed the first to post.

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  24. Ooops! Censor block it initially, but by time I posted the second one, the censor reconsidered it and allowed the first to post.

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  25. Censor initially blocked the first post. Changed it slightly, so it would post. By the time it did, the censor reconsidered.

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  26. Beautiful photo of Marilyn Monroe with Niagara Falls in the background. She exudes feminine purity although like most of us she was not all that pure. Today, many models and actresses get tatoos. I hate tatoos on women. Really detracts from that feminine aura.

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    1. Agreed. As mentioned before, we enjoy UFC and women fights are often very good, because they feel the pressure to prove they can fight with as much heart as the men. But many of them are all tatted up and look nasty.

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  28. In fact, I once heard a coach say about all the criticism he was receiving, “That’s like 2 flies on a Rhino’s back”

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  31. Hey Wolfman, Who wouldda thunk UCLA would enjoy a better record in Big Ten than perennial disappointment Yesterday U?? That is called dominating a game with the run, something SC hasn’t done since all time NFL loser McKay was coach. Thanks for the GUMBALL, dummies!!

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