FOOTBALL

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

Notre Dame and Penn State are in the Final Four of the College Football Playoff.

USC gave both good games before ultimately falling short at the Coliseum.

Should this be a feather in the Trojans’ cap?

I guess it depends on your expectations. Some fans are seizing on this as a sign of hope for the program. I guess they forget the days when USC would beat these teams. Fair enough.

More importantly, if you want a pat on the back for USC “competing” with these possible national champions, here’s a better question: How did USC lose to Maryland? How did it lose to Washington, which went 6-7? How did it lose to Minnesota?

Some people are forgetting these games.

  • And now for some history:
  • No one has really talked about how this is the 50th anniversary of the 1975 Rose Bowl, which is a shame because it was a memorable game.

No. 4-ranked USC defeated No. 2-ranked Ohio State as wide receiver Shelton Diggs, famously caught the winning 2-point conversion from Pat Haden in the Trojans’ 18-17 victory over the Buckeyes.

“We were fortunate to win, and they were unfortunate to lose,” John McKay said after the game.

J.K. McKay caught a 38-yard touchdown pass from Haden to set up Diggs’ fateful catch.

What is totally forgotten now is that Ohio State got the ball with two minutes left and attempted a 62-yard field goal as time expired.

“I was kicking from 60 and 64 before the game, downwind,” kicker Tom Skladany told the Cleveland Plain-Dealer in 2009. “Woody (Hayes) came over to me on the sideline and said, ‘Can you kick it?’ I was a sophomore, so I said, ‘Yeah.’ I remember he hit me on the read end as I was going out on the field, and I’ll never forget, I still had the handprint in the shower. I kicked it, but we had a 7 m.p.h. headwind, and it hit in the end zone. It looked good on TV because of where the camera was, but it still needed another three, four, five yards.

“On the flight home, he was crushed, because the national championship was right there. I’m sitting in the back, and one of the coaches said, ‘Woody wants to see you.’ I went up to first class, and he said, ‘Did you hit it as good as you could hit it?’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ And he said, ‘All right, I just had to know.’ “

It was McKay’s final Rose Bowl and he ended with a 5-3 record.

Shelton Diggs
  • Speaking of 1975, look at the TV options (Eastern time) on Friday, Nov. 28, when USC played UCLA.
  • The stars really came out for 1950 USC Homecoming Parade, which took place on the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles. The Grand Marshal was actor Bruce Bennett, who was in “Mildred Pierce” and won a silver medal in the shot put at the 1928 Olympics under his real name, Herman Brix.

Also riding in the parade were A-list actors Dana Andrews and Claire Trevor. Trevor had won an Academy Award in 1948 for her performance in “Key Largo” opposite Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson.

Andrews had been in the classics “Laura” in 1944 and “The Best Years of Our Lives” in 1946.

Also in the parade was actress Marguerite Chapman, who was in “The Seven Year Itch” in 1955.

  • One of the complaints today is that too many times we award participation trophies.

Well, look what they did in the rough-and-tumble 1950’s. It might surprise you.

Actually, let’s go back to the 1940’s. On Jan. 1, 1947, the Pacific Coast Conference began a five-year contract to play Big Ten teams in the Rose Bowl. The PCC was tired of other bowls snapping up teams before the Rose Bowl extended invitations and entered into an agreement with the Big Ten.

During the five-year contract, the Big Ten had a rule that a team could only play in the Rose Bowl once every three years.

Michigan won the conference or a share of the title the first three years and only went to the Rose Bowl once.

After five years, the contract got renewed for another three years. The faculty representatives of the Pacific Coast Conference decided to follow the Big Ten’s lead and instituted a no-repeat rule, but amended it slightly because a team could not go to the Rose Bowl two straight years.

Here is where it all blew up: In 1954, USC and UCLA played each other in a massive Crosstown Rivalry. USC was ranked No. 7. UCLA was No. 2. The game drew 102,548 at the Coliseum.

The winner would become PCC champions. UCLA defeated USC, 34-0. You know who won the Big Ten? No. 1-ranked Ohio State.

This meant the Nos. 1 and 2 teams would play each other in the Rose Bowl. A true national championship game.

But there was a major problem. UCLA played in the Rose Bowl the previous season. So the Bruins were ineligible for the Rose Bowl.

That meant USC, which lost 34-0 to the Bruins, went to the Rose Bowl instead.

Even USC coach Jess Hill conceded “the best team should be in the Rose Bowl.”

The Trojans ended up losing to Ohio State, 20-7. UCLA (9-0) and Ohio State (10-0) split the national title with the Bruins finishing No. 1 the coaches poll and Buckeyes No. 1 in the AP poll.

“The (UCLA) players got into a frame of mind where they felt they would rather be known as the top team in the nation than go anywhere,” UCLA coach Red Sanders said.

A crowd of 102,548 attended the USC-UCLA game at the Coliseum in 1954.
  • As an aside, USC actually only trailed UCLA, 7-0, in the fourth quarter in 1954. But the Bruins scored 27 points in the final period.
  • Marshall Duffield was a USC All-American quarterback who helped lead the Trojans to a 47-14 victory over undefeated Pitt in the 1930 Rose Bowl. He rushed for 2 TD’s and threw a TD pass.

Fifteen years later, Duffield commanded a mine sweeper in the waters around Okinawa during World War II. Two out of the four mine sweepers in his task force were sunk and Duffield’s ship sometimes faced as many as 40 suicide attacks in a single day from Japanese fighter pilots between March 23-June 15, 1945.

Despite the constant attacks, Duffield’s ship never lost a man.

  • Here’s some trivia. In 1933, Duffield married actress Dorothy Lee, who was in the midst of making 12 movies with the popular comedy team Wheeler and Woolsey.

The marriage ended in 1935 and Lee was married six times. The first three all ended after three years. Lee’s refusal to give up her acting career was reportedly a reason many of her marriages failed.

Dorothy Lee

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Claudia Cardinale in 1960

VIDEO OF THE DAY

It’s the 1975 Rose Bowl between USC and Ohio State.

The play before USC scored the game-winning TD, tailback Allen Carter converted a fourth-and-1 with a 4-yard gain to keep the drive going.

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

  1. As far as USC playing Penn State and N.D. tough but still losing, that means you’re playing just good enough to get beat. In the words of Bill Parcells, “You are what you are.” And for the 2024 season USC was 7-6, which is unacceptable.

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  3. Well, since SC played every game close last season, perhaps they’re only a quarterback and lineman away– and so the Trojans’ football demise is gravely exaggerated

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  4. Well, Scott, this is one guy who remembers that 1974 team winning the National Championship in the famous Rose Bowl, with first, Haden to McKay for a td, and then second, going for the win-or-loss 2-pointer, and it was Haden to Diggs digging out the low throw

    This game was over-shadowed by the preceding 55-24 beatdown of Notre Dame that they still laugh over a half-century later

    But whereas that ’55-24′ game lost its drama by the 4th quarter and kind of became a laugher (for Trojans),, the 18-17 Rose Bowl ended with high drama

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  6. 1954 was ucla’s only championship (1/2) although Ohio St probably deserved the unanimous vote because of playing an extra game in the Rose Bowl

    Card stunts too with a silly looking bear and a ferocious Trojan

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  7. Penn St and ND are too close to figure out a winner, but Penn St is still trying to shake off that ‘Can’t win the Big Ones’ syndrome

    In Texas, Ohio St won’t find another Oregon, but Buckeyes probably over the Longhorns

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  8. I think Ohio State and Texas have more talented rosters than Penn State and Notre Dame. But the most talented team does not always win. Arizona State was the least talented and almost beat Texas. My pick is Ohio State to win it all.

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    1. The Phuckeyes will probably win it all, but we’re pulling for the Catholics!

      Really wish the Sun Devils had pulled it off.

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      1. Never root for ‘the princess’ the fact they don’t have to play a CCG gives them a pass no one else gets i.e. lose a CCG lose your ranking….not play in a CCG get knocked even further down – but not for them uh uh nah’ just playing 5 patsies in the ACC and then the cherry picking – this year 2 MAC teams plus 2 service academies.

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  10. Wolfman, tu es magnifique! You truly belong on the Pantheon of great LA sports writers along with Mud, Murray, Krikorian and Healy.

    the best, most erudite, and with the most dulcet prose in the business!

    But do the dummies in this blog appreciate you?? These are the same people that think Southern Cal shouldda been in the football playoffs!

    #DivorcedFromReality

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    1. Says someone who denied Joe’s dementia in 2020 and how that senility & incompetence has led to the deaths of more than 1M. Talk about being divorced from reality! LOL

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      1. Very queeer how the simple minded immediately revert to Faux News talking points no matter the context. What, you tired of bringing up Hillary’s e-mails?

        however since you chose to supply the rope, refer to Yale study that showed significantly higher mortality rates of Republicans from Covid following introduction of Covid vaccines. While MAGA geniuses injected bleach and croaked, Dems listened to scientists and went home. So when massive amounts of MAGAs croaked from their own stupidity, I call that a WIN!

        #WhatElseYouGotWonderboy?

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      2. How queer that you actually voted for Senile Joe and Willie Brown’s Bimbo the brainless airhead, Cowardly Gabby aka Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan who just botched the Pledge of Allegiance. I’m sure Media Matters will send you Talking Points to excuse it:https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1875243379908632780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1875243379908632780%7Ctwgr%5E42ee551e42364c4fd051fb86b55fb951d902b012%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F01%2Fwatch-kamala-harris-completely-botches-pledge-allegiance-senate%2F

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      4. Don’t confuse Cowardly Gabby aka Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan with facts. She only knows Media Matters Talking Points. She told us Hunter’s Laptop was Russian Collusion.

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      7. Of course she did. They’ll vote for anything with a “D” next to its name, as any cult member would.

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  12. That 4th down run by Allen Carter was huge. He played behind Anthony Davis, but may have averaged over 7 yards per carry in college. Carter was bigger than Davis, and McKay Jr. once said that Carter may have been faster after the first 10 yards.

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  13. Scooter,

    I was at all three games of the 1973, 1974, and 1975 Rose Bowl games with SC and Ohio St. That was the epitome of the bowl games of all time. Awesome games. I saw Woddy get pissed off when Cunningman Kept on diving over the line, Saw Griffin run, I saw Haden throw in the 4th quarter like he was Lomanica. Just outstanding football and now I see Sc playing worse than Boise St. SC has sunken to the lowest of the low. Just great football back then.

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