FOOTBALL

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

Five-star cornerback Elbert Hill of Akron, Ohio, committed to USC today. He is ranked the No. 1 cornerback in the nation by Rivals.

  • USC baseball is up to third place in the Big Ten standings after winning seven straight games. The Trojans (30-14. 14-7) have a big three-game series with second-place UCLA (33-11, 16-5) this weekend at Great Park in Irvine.

Maybe more surprising is that Iowa (31-13, 20-4) is atop the Big Ten standings. Iowa!

  • USC men’s volleyball is ranked No. 5 in the nation with a 21-7 record but its season is over because it did not make the NCAA Tournament. Remember, only 27 teams in the nation play Division I men’s volleyball and nine teams make the tournament.
  • Former USC assistant Donte Williams has been promoted to associate head coach at Georgia. He also coaches cornerbacks. Why would he get promoted? It wouldn’t surprise me if he got another job offer and convinced Georgia to give him an extra title.
  • Former USC safety Jarvis Boatwright has committed to Florida State.
  • The just-released USC yearbook, which is called El Rodeo, has this fantastic photo of the George Tirebiter statue on campus in graduation attire.
  • And now for some history:

It’s the 1965 USC-UCLA game at the Coliseum. USC was ranked No. 6 and UCLA was No. 7 and a crowd of 94,085 filled the Coliseum. And it was one of the crazier games in the Crosstown Rivalry.

USC led 16-6 with 4:02 remaining and the UCLA yell king was reminding departing fans to buy tickets for the season-opening basketball game. But precisely at that moment, USC QB Troy Winslow fumbled (the Trojans lost five fumbles that day).

Gary Beban immediately threw a 34-yard TD pass to cut the lead to 16-14. UCLA then recovered an on-sides kick and Beban threw a 52-yard TD pass to give the Bruins a 20-16 advantage.

The ending overshadowed USC tailback Mike Garrett gaining 210 yards in 40 carries. Garrett also fumbled at the 1-yard line.

“I can just say I never went to the Rose Bowl,” Garrett said after the game.

Garrett actually went to the UCLA locker room after the game to congratulate the Bruins.

“When a team comes back the way you did, it deserves to go to the Rose Bowl,” Garrett said.

John McKay was devastated after the game.

“This was my toughest loss by 700 miles,” McKay said. “I’m so proud of them and that’s why I’m taking it so hard. I feel so sad for Garrett. He’s the best back I’ve ever coached.”

  • Need a car in 1951? Go see a Trojan.
  • Actress/comedian Ruth Buzzi has died, it was announced today. She was 88.

It’s a good time to remember she good-naturedly visited USC in 1968 and showed up at Tommy Trojan as her popular Laugh-In character, Gladys Ormphby, after the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity nominated her to be Queen of the Tournament of Roses.

“My campaign is going to be clean,” Ormphby said. “In fact, I would like all of you men to join me for a bath rally at the downtown YWCA this afternoon!”

After being drafted by the fraternity, she extended her sympathies to the campus runner-up, O.J. Simpson.

“I can only say eat your heart out, O.J. Simpson, you’re just not sexy enough!” she said.

As Ormphby stepped away from her podium, the students chanted, “We want Gladys.”

  • Here’s something I didn’t know until today: Fay Kanin graduated from USC in 1937, where she was active with the college radio station.

Kanin and her husband were nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay for the 1958 film, “Teacher’s Pet” starring Clark Gable and Doris Day. She also wrote the play, “Goodbye, My Fancy” that became a movie of the same name in 1951 and starred Joan Crawford and Robert Young.

She was also president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1979-83.

  • Last week I wrote about how I was on the official USC roster for the Oregon State game in 2003 at the Coliseum. Now for the rest of the story:

Some people have asked me this week if I really was a walk-on long snapper at USC. Well, for one thing, I was covering USC football that season, and I’m no Tommy Walker, the USC band director who was also the Trojans’ kicker in 1947. He wore no pads under his football uniform and during halftime he would change into his drum major’s uniform and lead the band.

But I digress . . .

So what happened? Well, unknown to me, the week of the USC-Oregon State game in 2003, a USC official secretly inserted my name on to the official roster. This is the roster that gets distributed to the media and donors/boosters at home games.

I didn’t even notice it until the official approached me in the press box and pointed it out during the game. It was a good-natured practical joke. But a couple eagle-eyed media members/USC officials also noticed and thought I had discovered some way to hack into the roster and insert my name.

Not even I was capable of that. But I wish I was. They also told me if then long-time sports information Tim Tessalone found out about it, he would be fuming. Now that made the practical joke even more worthwhile.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Vikki Dougan

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Here is a December, 1971, episode of the long-running English music show “Top of the Pops” that includes performances by T. Rex (with Elton John on piano); the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart.

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

  1. hi john,ken u ax the couch iff he wunna put r linesman in cayguz sew thay aint leev us lyche i hadda du width the liddl peepulls undir mye howse,thanx alot

    Liked by 3 people

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      1. You sound like Board Pest Board Cancer Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama aka Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka The Guy who posts as Buddhakarma & So Cal & Michael Guarino & Trojan RJJ & LawyerJohn & Pudly & Plow Horse and TrojanFan 1-3 & steveg49 & DOJ & Scott Wolf and Frank Young and KATHY and Foreskin Thoughts and SCOTTLOVESTHEROOOOOTTÞ and Manureman… just saying

        Liked by 2 people

  3. KAM: OUCH! CNN and Cowardly Gabby’s Narrative Implodes LIVE — Three Former Democrat Black Voters Tell Van Jones They’d Vote for Trump Again if Given Do-Over: “1,000% Absolutely Yes!” During a segment on Anderson Cooper 360, avowd communist commentator Van Jones sat down with three black voters from South Carolina who proudly cast their ballots for President Donald Trump — and not one of them showed a shred of regret.

    In fact, all three doubled down, with one woman declaring she’d vote for Trump again, “1,000% absolutely yes!”

    DON: Poor Gabby! It’s laughable how the corrupt fake news media keeps pushing the pathetic lie that Trump voters have “buyer’s remorse.” They’re desperate, delusional, and dead wrong—again.

    Even CNN’s own polling reveals that voters believe Trump would outperform Kamala Harris as president.

    Liked by 1 person

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  4. KAM: OMG, Michelle Obama is crying about how expensive it was to live in the White House when their net worth is now $250 million! I honestly feel sorry for Barack Obama. Can you imagine having to go home to this every night for 30 freaking years!

    DON: She’s one of the most privileged people in America, and also one of the most miserable, entitled, racist, out-of-touch with working class people in America.

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  5. So we land Elbert Hill out of Ohio, a 5 star. He will join Sermons, Lockard, and Madden, all 4/5 stars at cornerback. I am beginning to think our secondary recruits may be as good as our OL recruits.

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  6. Beautiful picture of Vikki Dougan. She is unique, doesn’t remind me of any of the popular models or actresses today. Not a bad depiction of George Tirebiter either. He looks very please with himself.

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    1. Agree as to Vikki. Don’t you think George Tirebiter looks a bit like Son of Kong, though?

      Thank you, Scott, for brightening Fridays for all these years!

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  7. USC has 3 five stars and 11 four stars, is that any good Wolfie ?

    Men’s volleyball got screwed and this might be a great time for SC to play some solid baseball this weekend

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. KAM: Newest Democrat and Cowardly Gabby Illegal Alien hero Felix Rojas, a 44-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, has been charged with the depraved act of r$#ing a corpse on a Manhattan subway train.

    DON: New hero for the Fake News Media, Cowardly Gabby and Democrats to worship and fawn over. They’ll be protesting his arrest or deportation soon

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      2. Remember when  evil Board Pest Board Cancer Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama aka Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka The Guy who posts as Buddhakarma & So Cal & Michael Guarino & Trojan RJJ & LawyerJohn & Pudly & Plow Horse and TrojanFan 1-3 & steveg49 & DOJ & Scott Wolf and Frank Young and KATHY and Foreskin Thoughts and SCOTTLOVESTHEROOOOOTTÞ and Manureman posted this?

        Gabby

        June 22, 2024 AT 2:24AM

        3 plus years later, he still cries voter fraud…… a loss seals his death in prison…..fingers crossed

        Like

      4. So Cal — “We” wish him Happy Holidays…. and, then, he responds with “Die!”……

        Like

      5. Remember when she tried to actually act like a human being for about a week back in 2023? I knew it wouldn’t last.

        Liked by 1 person

      6. Maybe we’ll get a repeat performance sometime in late 2025….

        #FingersCrossed

        Like

  11. KAM: Harvard Law Review Asked Prospective Editors To Disclose Their Race, Days After It Was Hit With Civil Rights Probes

    DON: Democrats and the Elite Academia are big on the “rule of law.” They just don’t expect it to apply to them.

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  12. KAM: Government spending drops 5.1% in first quarter. Amazing. Every American should celebrate the shrinking of Washington, DC spending. Instead the Mainstream Moderate Democrats are firebombing Tesla dealerships.

    DON: THEY SAID IT COULDN’T BE DONE!

    Liked by 1 person

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  13. KAM: ICE officials in Boston have arrested an illegal migrant from Guatemala who was charged with child s—x crimes. Rene Barcenes-Velasquez, 56, was arrested in Worcester, Mass. on March 31.

    DON: Democrat Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and state officials have strongly resisted the Trump administration’s efforts to arrest illegal foreign nationals hiding in Massachusetts.

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    1. Are there any good “Michelle’s” in American political life?

      #AskingForGabriella’s”Friend”

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      2. I’ll always remember that song….cuz…. we went thru a phase senior year in high school where we’d kidnap our friends, tie them up, transport them via van to one of their ex-girlfriends’ homes….and dump them off on the front lawn…… ‘Michelle’ was the song playing inside Linda Viele’s house the night my buds turned on me & dumped me off………

        #..ItWasRaining,btw

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  14. KAM: The venerated University of California has a well-documented failure to protect its labs from security breaches by China’s government.

    “It has been reported that between 1987 and 2021, at least 162 scientists who had worked at Los Alamos [National Laboratory] returned to China to support a variety of domestic research and development programs, including at least 59 who were involved with China’s talent programs,” Senator Chuck Grassley wrote [in a letter to the NIH].

    DON: It appears that the University of California’s inability to keep China out of U.S. R&D is an issue that spans nearly four decades!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Know why? It’s not the University of California —it’s the University of the Chinese Communist Party…… [which, let’s face it, runs it better than California would]……

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  15. That 2003 USC – Oregon State game is also notable for being the game where Mike Williams made his famous one handed TD catch.

    #BMW

    #2003-ANationalChampionshipSeason

    Liked by 2 people

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  16. It seems the only things Scott actually likes are George Tirebiter and photos of attractive models from decades ago.

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