FOOTBALL

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

With Homecoming this Saturday, can anyone tell me what Lincoln Riley did to interact with alumni this week? It used to be a tradition for the football coach to attend the Homecoming rally.

  • USC finished 18th (last place) at the recent Big Ten women’s cross country championships. I’ll bet you didn’t hear about that. After years of finishing last at the Pac-12 championships, the Trojans continued the trend in the Big Ten and they weren’t close to 17th place. It doesn’t help that virtually every coach in the track program is a sprint specialist.

Maybe it doesn’t sound so bad when the football team is currently in 16th place in the Big Ten.

  • I’ve heard USC receivers were disappointed with the demotion of Miller Moss because he generously picked up the tab when the group would go out during the season.
  • And now for some history:
  • Let’s talk some more about John Robinson. I feel like his legacy is even more enhanced given the performance of the USC football team under Lincoln Riley.

Robinson was hired on Nov. 10, 1975, a surprise choice over Dave Levy, who was popular and a beloved figure with USC players.

Levy told me one reason he thought Robinson got hired over him to succeed John McKay was because Robinson played racquetball every week with USC president John Hubbard when he was an assistant from 1972-74.

Levy said another reason was Hubbard wanted someone with fewer ties to John McKay, who Levy worked with from 1960-75 at USC.

Robinson was so popular near the end of his first term at USC that there was talk he might run for Mayor or Governor.

“He was as cheerful as a sunrise,” L.A. Times columnist Jim Murray wrote in 1982. “Football coaches tend to be Machivellian in character, but Robinson was more like a country doctor healing the sick in exchange for fresh eggs.”

But there were other times when Robinson wasn’t in the mood. During a Christmas party for USC athletic dept. employees at his house in the 1990’s, Robinson came downstairs, walked into a room, closed the door and watched TV the rest of the night.

  • Mickey Rooney was a staple at USC Homecomings in the early 1950’s.

In 1950, Rooney was the master of ceremonies at a star-studded Friday night Coliseum rally that also featured singers Vic Damone and Kay Brown, pianist Victor Borge and the comedy-music act The Four Freshmen.

A runner carried a torch that was blazing during the week from the tower of the Bovard Administration building to the Coliseum and handed it to Helen of Troy (the Homecoming Queen) who then lit the bonfire.

Also at the rally: George Tirebiter.

Singer Jo Stafford with George Tirebiter at 1947 USC Homecoming show. Stafford was named top female artist in the country prior to the show and broadcast her own national NBC radio show that night from the Shrine Auditorium.
  • Ninety minutes before the rally, Art Linkletter hosted the annual “men’s football banquet” before 1,000 in the men’s gymnasium. The event featured 18 members of Howard Jones’ first USC team in 1925, including Brice Taylor, USC’s first All-American and African-American player and Morley Drury, “the noblest Trojan of them all.”
  • This was the dress code for USC’s 1950 Homecoming game: “The usual white shirt and rooters’ cap for men and white blouse and pompon for women will be the official dress code for the rooters section.”
  • Vampira, who hosted a TV show in Los Angeles at the time on KABC-TV (Channel 7), is driven in the Alpha Tau Omega car at the USC homecoming parade in 1954. Vampira also appeared in the low-budget classic “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” The dialogue was so bad she refused to speak in the movie. But what a coup to get her at the parade.
  • Dorothy Dandridge performed at the 1951 USC Homecoming variety show. Four years later, she was nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her role in Carmen Jones.

Dandridge attended William McKinley Junior High School (now known as George Washington Carver Junior High School) in Los Angeles. The school is just 2 miles from USC.

  • The Homecoming theme in 1958 was “Spirit of 76” and this float of Independence Hall was among those that paraded down the Miracle Mile portion of Wilshire Blvd.
  • Look at the head-spinning number of events for Homecoming week in 1951. Note the variety shows Wednesday and Thursday at the Shrine Auditorium; the big parade down the Miracle Mile on Friday; the dinner-dance at the Biltmore Hotel on Friday and the Homecoming Dance at the Deauville club in Santa Monica on Saturday.

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Diana Rigg in The Avengers (1965-68).

VIDEO OF THE DAY

In memory of John Robinson, here is the 1981 USC-UCLA game. It’s almost amazing USC won because it had five turnovers in the first half, including two fumbles by Marcus Allen. He fumbled a third time in the fourth quarter.

USC trailed at halftime, 18-12, despite rushing for 143 yards. Wide receiver Timmie White threw a beautiful 48-yard pass to wide receiver Jeff Simmons that is worth watching.

Memo to Lincoln Riley: USC had three defensive starters from Georgia (Chip Banks, August Curley, Joey Browner).

Allen might have had three fumbles but he was still the star with 219 yards rushing and 2 TD’s, including the go-ahead score that gave USC a 22-21 lead with 2:34 left.

UCLA drove to the USC 29-yard line before George Achica famously blocked Norm Johnson’s 47-yard FG to preserve the victory.

Be sure to watch the post-game where ABC showed Robinson grab the mic and introduce the USC seniors to the student section. It’s USC and Robinson at their best.

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

    1. Here’s the schedule

      Arrive before 9am or you will not be admitted on campus

      All person’s will be subject to a full body search

      Please pre pay your entrance fee of $50 to expedite your admittance

      No one is allowed to bring their own food or alcohol or drinks onto the campus, food will be provided for you at an additional cost.

      Festivities on campus will include:

      A rousing performance by some cross dressing nuns

      A drag queen show

      A ” mock ” demonstration by pro Hamas students

      A short but informative speech about DEI & CRT

      We hope you have a wonderful homecoming !

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. Triggered AGAIN!….pathetic… To avoid more mental issues, stay away from Homecoming and all events related to it…..dip-s h i t

        go service your goats and quit being a pest

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      2. Funny post, Buddha! And again, the one who actually got triggered accuses you of the same. Her usual M.O.

        We will be on campus by 7:30 or so, but not going to the game. Just checking things out on campus.

        FIGHT ON!! BEAT THE CORNHUSKERS!!

        The usual crying in 3, 2, 1…

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  3. The great Jim Murray

    “Football coaches tend to be Machivellian in character, but Robinson was more like a country doctor healing the sick in exchange for fresh eggs.”

    Liked by 1 person

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      2. Agree 67. I gave up my subscription years ago. The editorial staff is now gone. Perhaps the new owner will try to salvage it by bringing in some actual reporters in lieu of the Leftist propaganda machine they have had for the last 20 years.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. It was indeed a good decision to fire the editorial board. The issue is whether they can generate enough revenue to hire quality staff as they did back in the day. Up to this point, they have been a third rate NY Times, which is about the bottom of the barrel.

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  4. A runner in his G-string, aka Scott Wolf, carried a torch that had been blazing during the week from the tower of the Bovard Administration building to the Coliseum and handed it to Helen of Troy (the Homecoming Queen) who then lit the bonfire.

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  5. Scott seems to be a big fan of Diana Rigg and the Avengers. Understandable. I am generally not attracted to English women but there are exceptions and she is one.

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    1. My wife & I say the same thing whenever we watch a big event in England covered on TV or video: “Those Brits are not a very handsome crowd.”

      Yes, there are always exceptions. But for the most part…

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      1. For those old enough to have seen the movie “Patton,” I seem to recall that both the Russian and the English women were portrayed as, to put it kindly, homely. Makes you wonder how our species manages to reproduce itself, but my brother pointed out that that’s what alcohol is for.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. AFTER GABBY’S FIST GETS DONE WITH YOUR FACE, I AM SURE IT WILL LOOK LIKE A HOTTIE………SWEEEET!

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      4. No one wants your fists, especially with the likelihood that you’ve had them up your gay lovers’ backsides. Your often used posting name makes it clear you’re into kids, but we all know you’re also into dudes.

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      6. Why does Cowardly Gabby continue to pretend she is going to fight posters when she is a proven Coward of the County?

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    2. Seinfeld line about you being into dudes.

      But you having to remind yourself with your posting name about the penalty you face for being into kids? There IS something wrong that THAT!

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    1. Can we ask the NCAA to increase the sanctions to include a head coaching suspension for the remaining games. That type of sanction should be sufficient to invoke the escape clause in the employment contract and ultimately save USC 80 million dollars. Where is the NCAA when you really need them.

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  7. In the background of that picture of the homecoming parade you can see Ohrbach’s department store, which is a reminder of how many retailers that once dotted the landscape are no longer around: Bullock’s Wilshire, Robinson’s, Buffum’s, The Akron, White Front, Zody’s et al. And the men’s clothiers that are no longer around: Silverwood’s, Harris & Frank, C & R Clothiers, Zachary All and so on.

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  8. Two thoughts – 1st your citing Jim Murray ‘ L.A. Times columnist Jim Murray wrote in 1982. “Football coaches tend to be Machivellian in character, but Robinson was more like a country doctor healing the sick in exchange for fresh eggs.” ‘

    I recall, as Larry Smith’s tenure was fast slipping away he confronting Mike McGee about his situation and McGee replying ‘You’re gone and I’ll be gone tomorrow.” I’d heard Robinson was behind the scene maneuvering himself for a return.

    and 2nd per ‘George Achica famously blocked Norm Johnson’s 47-yard FG to preserve the victory’. Because ucla had already lost 2 Pac-8 games and even though they’d defeated WA if they (ucla) dropped a 3rd once they were out of the Rose Bowl. I recall George Achica saying post-game saying “If we can’t go then they’re not going either.!’

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