FOOTBALL

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

The Alamo Bowl is shaping up to be a real dud. Can we say we don’t want to watch or is that too negative?

  • Have you noticed that Husan Longstreet has not re-signed yet?
  • If D’Anton Lynn goes to Penn State, the easiest move would be for Lincoln Riley to promote Rob Ryan to defensive coordinator. I mention it because Riley has no contacts, although maybe Chad “Charmin” Bowden will try to make the hire.

Ryan doesn’t deserve it based on his job coaching the linebackers this season but being defensive coordinator is different than being a position coach.

  • I hear new UCLA coach Bob Chesney is retaining safeties coach Gabe Lynn.
  • Makai Lemon is a unanimous All-American. He and Marqise Lee, the previous Biletnikoff winner, both averaged 14.6 yards per reception. The difference? Lemon had 1,156 yards receiving while Lee had 1,721.
  • And now for some history:

Let’s go back to 1931 and see some of the unusual things that happened when USC played Notre Dame.

The train left Santa Fe Station, which was near Little Tokyo and the Arts District in Los Angeles and the main passenger terminal before being demolished in 1939, four days before the game.

Santa Fe or “La Grande” train station

It stopped in Pasadena and San Bernardino before heading to Tucson, Ariz.

By Thursday, USC reached Hutchinson, Kan. Business men and high school students welcomed the Trojans at the train station and escorted them to the football field for practice at Hutchinson High School.

At 3:45 p.m., the train left Hutchinson, bound for Kansas City and then Chicago.

  • The Trojans’ 34-member football team finally arrived in Chicago on Friday after their 64-hour trip. They practiced at the University of Chicago, whose team was the original “Monsters of the Midway” before the Chicago Bears adopted the nickname in the 1930’s.

Like most USC fans today, the Trojans spent Friday night in Chicago.

USC did not even arrive in South Bend until 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, two hours before kickoff. Imagine trying to beat the best team in the nation while spending the week taking the train and holding makeshift practices in Tucson and Hutchinson?

  • USC entered the contest with shutouts in five of its previous six games but was a clear underdog.

“If Southern California wins, it will be the greatest athletic achievement in the school’s history,” USC coach Howard Jones said.

Jones was elated that the Trojans were underdogs for the first time in the brief history of the series. USC had not beaten the Irish since 1928, which was the last time Notre Dame had lost a game. They were unbeaten in 26-straight games and needed two more victories to claim their third straight national championship.

It was the first game without Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne, who died in a plane crash eight months earlier.

  • How big was the game?

The Philharmonic Auditorium on 5th and Olive streets constructed a “big board” to provide live updates. About 2,500 fans showed up downtown at 11:30 a.m. PT for kickoff.

The USC yell leaders were also in attendance.

  • Here is George Leslie Smith showing the big board, which had a lit-up football and words at the bottom that lit-up depending on the play. A special wire and radio loud-speaker system was installed for live updates.

How big was the game? UCLA played Oregon at 2 p.m. at the Coliseum but at 12 p.m., the Bruins’ freshmen team took the field impersonating USC and Notre Dame. The freshmen players then re-enacted the game for fans who arrived early.

  • As for the game itself, USC fell behind, 14-0.

The Trojans staged a mighty comeback and quarterback Gus Shaver scored two touchdowns but a missed extra point meant USC still trailed,14-13.

“To score two touchdowns against Notre Dame is a feat I will never forget,” Shaver said.

With 90 seconds left, Ray Sparling caught a 40-yard pass to put USC in field-goal range. Jones sent Homer Griffiths into the game to be the holder for a field goal. But USC team captain Stan Williamson — who was the long snapper — refused to let Griffiths into the game, because he wanted Orv Mohler to hold as Johnny Baker attempted a 33-yard field goal.

Baker missed the extra point because of a high snap from Williamson.

“I was confident that with Mohler holding it and Baker kicking it, we had our best chance to win,” Williamson said. “If we had lost it would have been our fault because Coach Howard Jones had mapped out a defense to stop Notre Dame.”

The kick sailed through the uprights and USC upset the Irish.

Here is part of a huge crowd that greeted USC at the Santa Fe train station.

USC won the game but the train did not get back to Los Angeles until Wednesday.
Around 10,000 students, alumni and fans met the Trojans at the train station and a parade started as waiting cars took the team a little more than a mile to the steps of City Hall.

“I am glad to welcome home this fighting team,” Los Angeles mayor John C. Porter said. “You have done a magnificent task.”

The parade then went past Spring, Broadway and Hill streets with an estimated crowd of 300,000 before the team arrived at USC for another celebration. Then it was off to a luncheon at the Biltmore Hotel where Baker’s field-goal winning shoe was auctioned off.

Each player was given a desk lamp with a base shaped like a football and a shade like a helmet.

The Biltmore lunch had 1,500 seated at tables and another 1,000 in the mezzanine leaning against the rails. From one end of the huge hall, the USC band played “Fight On” and napkins were hurled into the air while huge bunches of daisies were stripped from tables and waved aloft.

Here’s another illustration of why this is not a normal rivalry.

PICTURES OF THE WEEK

Olinka Berova

Reiko Sato

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

  1. Great column, describing the 1931 game and the enormous impact it had on LA – and throughout the country. Even more, it was in the middle of the Great Depression and gave people a respite from the difficult economic times the country was experiencing.

    Hard to be believe some at USC are less than enthusiastic about continuing the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Upon reading the column, Riley commented “I can’t understand why fans are so adamant about continuing the ND rivalry. This isn’t 1931. We have Rutgers and Maryland on the schedule.”

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

      2. Agree So Cal. In the battle between the Europeans versus the Asians, this one clearly goes to the Europeans. I think the Olinka girl could compete with Ursula Andress.

        Liked by 4 people

    1. Yeah, not watching them would be about as stupid as not watching & cheering for USA athletes because the Olympics are in China!

      Can you hear me, Laura Ingraham?!! Freakin’ idiot.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. Too stupid to comprehend that I was mocking Ingraham for suggesting we not support American athletes because of where the Olympics were held!!

        Oh no! She doesn’t have any reading comprehension issues! Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!

        Liked by 3 people

      2. So Cal…Only he/she didn’t say you had “reading” comprehension issues —he/she said you had “reding” comprehension issues…..

        #HowBeautifullyIronic….

        Liked by 3 people

      3. Yes, I had noticed that. Just that it paled in comparison to the stupidity required to believe my comment was in any way “racist”. What a hoser! (Yes, hoser, not loser. As in, TAKE OFF, YOU HOSER!)

        Even Ingraham, who suggested it, was not being racist. She was merely allowing politics to be a factor in whether or not we supported our athletes.

        But being a stupid Lib, she always has to bring race into the picture.

        Liked by 2 people

  3. I hope Riley uses the Alamo Bowl to get the younger players some experience. Play R.J. Sermons at cornerback if he is healthy enough. And Reddick, Graham, and Rubin at nickel and safety. Give some of these Redshirt Freshman offensive lineman a chance. I heard they are performing well in practice. How about starting Joey Olsen at tight end and throw a few to him. And play Longstreet the majority of the game provided he re-signs with us. I look forward to watching the game.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. KAM: We will never know for sure if the freshmen are playing well at practice…

      DON: One would think there was something of value worth hiding at those USC football practices from the rest of the world. Yet the failed season proved otherwise.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. BIG [VERY ‘BIG’] NEWS FOR GEORGE: OLINKA BEROVA APPEARS IN THE MARCH 1964 PLAYBOY [“GIRLS OF RUSSIA’] AS OLGA SHOBAROVA.

      A LITTLE STORY: WHEN AYN RAND CAME TO PROFESSOR DICK MILLER’S “HISTORY OF AMERICAN THOUGHT” CLASS I ASKED HER, SINCE SHE WAS THE PLAYBOY INTERVIEW FOR THAT YEAR AND MONTH, WHY SHE DIDN’T APPEAR IN THE PICTORIAL, PEEKING OUT BETWEEN TWO TREES IN MOSCOW PARK. SHE JUST SMILED].

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  7. KAM: SC spent $110 million for an Oklahoma coach and we are sitting home watching Oklahoma play in the NCAA playoffs tonight.

    DON: Bohn Head and Carol Folt made the worst deal in USC history.

    Like

    Reply

  10. KAM: Sam Darnold 1st QB in NFL History to win 12 games in back-to-back seasons on TWO different teams. Not Brady, not Favre, not Manning, not Rodgers.

    DON: SAM DARNOLD. 2024 Vikings: 14-3 2025 Seahawks: 12-3 (two to go)

    🔥

    Like

    Reply

  11. HERES A SONG FOR MG AND THE GANG

    SHINE ON SHINE ON HARVEST MOON

    AWAY UP HIGH UP IN THE SKY

    I AINT HAD NO LOVIN SINCE JANUARY FEBRUARY JUNE OR JULY !!!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a reply to Michael Guarino Cancel reply