FOOTBALL

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

In his latest ESPN MLB mock draft, Kiley McDaniel has the Mets selecting USC pitcher Mason Edwards with the No. 27 overall pick.

  • USC’s Ashley Erasmus broke her own shot put record of 18.07m from earlier this season with a new mark of 18.30m Thursday at the NCAA West Regionals in Fayetteville, Ark. Only the NCAA could consider Arkansas the West Regional.
  • Among the many partcipants in the regional for USC is 400-meter runner Joelle Trepagnier, the daughter of former USC basketball player Jeff Trepagnier and USC sprinter Malika Edmonson.
  • There is so much drama at the College Softball World Series, it would be nice to see USC play in such an event. USC, of course, does not have a softball team because it does not have the land for a softball field. I always thought they could have squeezed a softball field in when they built the USC Village project, which has dorms and shops.

But Max Nikias, who micro-managed the project on Jefferson and Hoover, obviously felt differently.

  • And now for some history:
  • USC plays at Texas A&M this weekend in the NCAA baseball regionals. Did you know USC played the first game at Olsen Field (now Blue Bell Park) on March 21, 1978.

Texas A&M coach Tom Chandler was good friends with USC coach Rod Dedeaux, so he invited the Trojans to help open the new facility.

Rod Dedeaux and Tom Chandler speak at the dedication of Olsen Field in 1978.
  • It was a big day at Texas A&M, but as Dedeaux spoke at the podium (above) he closed with the following story: “If there had been a back door to the Alamo there never would have been a Texas!”
  • That was enough to turn the happy environment into a hostile atmosphere. USC won the first game, 5-2, behind All-American pitcher Bill Bordley and the second game, 8-5. That 1978 USC team went 54-9 and won the NCAA title. It might be the best team in USC history.

Look at the pitching staff and stats:

Jeff Wick 2-0, 1.51 ERA
Rod Boxberger 12-1, 2.00 ERA
Ernie Mauritson 11-0, 2.25 ERA
Bill Bordley 12-2, 2.73 ERA
Brian Hayes 11-1, 2.71 ERA

On offense, there was Dave Engle (.352, 14 HR, 55 RBI) and Dave Hostetler (.313, 17 HR, 45 RBI). .

USC and Texas A&M during the national anthem at the first game played at Olsen Field in 1978.
  • I’ve run illustrations by Art Brewster over the years of USC football players. But this is something he did for the 1975 Shrine Game at the Rose Bowl. These were players who played their final prep season in 1975.

Tony Olivarria, a wide receiver-fullback from Colton High School, went to USC. Brian Bethke, a quarterback from South Hills High School, played at Kansas. I can’t believe I actually remember him as a high school player. And linebacker Gordon Ceresino, a linebacker from Notre Dame High School, was an all-Pac-10 linebacker at Stanford.

  • Another QB in that Shrine Game was Dan Morovick of St. John Bosco High School, who went to USC. He and Bethke were 4-A co-players of the year and Morovick finished hig career as the No. 7 all-time leader in California state history for passing yards.

A newspaper article said Morovick “had the potential to make Trojan fans forget about Pat Haden.”

Interestingly, Olivarria and Morovick did not earn a letter at USC until 1979.

PICTURES OF THE WEEK

Lynda Carter and Lindsay Wagner

Pam Grier

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

ELO has always used strings and lead singer Jeff Lynne uses them even more in concerts, like this appearance at Glastonbury.

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

      1. KAM: MG if you had a choice, who would you pick…

        Pam Grier, Lynda Carter or Lindsay Wagner?

        DON: Remember Lindsay as Kingsfield’s naughty daughter in “The Paper Chase”?

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      2. I’d like to say something politically correct like Pam Grier [who was terrific in Jackie Brown] …but, truthfully, Lindsay Wagner [who’s classy looks are right up John’s alley]…..

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    1. Dumb remark by a great coach —-Santa Anna offered Travis and Crockett, et al safe passage out….but they refused, deciding to fight until Huston sent reinforcements…[which never came]….

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  4. So SC’s best pitcher is only the 27th best baseball player.

    Baseball is the easiest of the sports to play, everybody knows how to play a little, but might be the most difficult to make it to the Majors

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    1. KAM: Newly Appointed ATF Director Says He Wants to Rebuild Trust After Senile Joe B i d e n Era Abuses

      DON: ATF agents in Arizona tried to present over 250 cases” of suspected cartel-related gun trafficking for prosecution but sadly, the B i d e n U.S. Attorney at the time refused to take those charges forward. It was a repeat, Cekada opined, of the O b a ma Disaster Operation Fast and Furious, where ATF was tracking firearms that were already sold and no one was doing anything about it.

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  5. The creator of Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter also invented the polygraph, and through testing said that women were more honest than men in certain situations

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      3. Speaking of liars, former First Lady “Dr”. Jill B i d e n revealed in an interview that she thought her husband Senile Joe was having a stroke during the 2024 Presidential debate, which is why she left him up on stage to die.

        “Dr.” B i d e n explained that, until the debate, she had never once heard Joe mumble incoherent nonsense for an hour straight. Fearful that her spouse must be having an active stroke, “Dr.” B i d e n sat back to let nature take its course.

        “I didn’t think there was blood getting to his brain and that he could die at any moment. That’s why I let him stay up there, to just see what happened,” explained the former First Lady. “The more he babbled and drooled, the more sure I was that there was a clot causing rapid neurological decompensation. So, I left him on stage to keel over and die.”

        Seeing that her husband had somehow survived the apparent stroke, “Dr.” Jill met him on stage to praise his performance and take him to the after-party. “I was sure that Joe had just survived a massive ischemic stroke,” recalled “Dr.” B i d e n. “We had no idea what impairments he might be left with or if he was still in danger. So, I got everyone chanting ‘four more years’ and took Joe on to the next campaign event.”

        DON: Yet Cowardly Gabby and Cowardly Sparrow Gabby still maintain it was a “stutter”. BWWWWWWWAAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

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