There was a report this week that Arizona State had 34 scholarship baseball players.
That’s an extraordinary number. The NCAA allowed only 11.7 scholarships for years in baseball but once the House settlement took effect, schools now have fixed roster limits and are allowed to offer a scholarship to every single athlete on their roster (if they can afford it).
This raises a question: How many baseball players are on scholarship at USC? It’s not 34 and it’s probably a lot closer to 11.7 given that USC didn’t seem to have a lot of NIL for players last summer.
But whatever the increase is, it should be vital in helping the baseball program and maybe played a part in this season’s success (if it happened).
- Stevie Nicks has donated $3 million for an endowed chair at the USC Keck School of Medicine to honor Joseph Sugerman, her long-time ear, nose and throat specialist.
- Keep an eye on USC freshman sprinter Jack Stadlman at next weekend’s NCAA championships. Despite the fact that a year ago, Stadlman had run the 400 meters only eight times in high school, he ran 44.79 seconds to win the West Regional.
Every USC sprinter who ever broke 45 seconds eventually became an All-American. The USC women’s team has an outside chance to win a title.
- Jen Cohen made it to College Station, Texas, last weekend for the baseball playoffs. Everyone loves a winner.
- USC’s non-tenure track faculty voted in favor of a union, according to a post early Wednesday morning by United Faculty-UAW. The election received 1,821 votes, with nearly 70 percent voting to approve the union.
- And now for some history:
- OK, I’m going to tell two stories (one for the first time) about when John Wayne went to the USC-Texas game in 1966.
Wayne went to the game because he was on his way to Mexico to film the movie, “The War Wagon” with Kirk Douglas and took his friend and fellow actor Bruce Cabot to watch USC-Texas.
“He would make a Hook ’em Horns sign to the crowd and they were cheering,” former USC assistant coach Dave Levy said. “But he was saying f—) ‘em Horns.”
Levy also remembered Wayne happily drinking on the sideline.
“During the game, he was right behind us and they had a law banning alcohol,” Levy said. “He had an assistant that kept bringing him a `coke.’ ”
The morning of the game, Wayne spoke to the Trojans.
“He talked about his time at the university and and how much he appreciated his time,” Levy said.
- Now for the first-time story: The night before the game, Wayne walked into an Austin bar. He encountered a Los Angeles sports writer, who had a reputation for drinking a bit too much.
“F— y–, Duke,” the sports writer said.
“What?” Wayne replied. “F— y–, Duke,” the sports writer repeated.
Wayne then decked the sports writer.
Imagine if cell phones existed in 1966?
- Look at all the USC players who started in the 1974 Shrine All-Star Classic. Wide receiver Randy Simmrin (Burroughs), offensive lineman Ray Peters (St. Francis), cornerback Ricky Odom (Los Angeles), offensive lineman Mario Celotto (St. Bernard), halfback Dwight Ford (Bell) and wide receiver Dennis Thurman (Santa Monica). Linebacker Steve Kenlon (Servite) did not start but played in the game.
Additionally, cornerback Lindon Crow, Jr., was the son of USC great Lindon Crow. He went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Naturally, there was an Art Brewster illustration that featured USC halfback Dwight Ford. Kevin Cole (Gardena) went to UNLV and Jim Strickland (Warren) went to Long Beach State.
PICTURE OF THE WEEK
Cleopatra extras on the set of the 1963 movie, “Cleopatra.”
Joan Taylor
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
- Continuing our series of orchestras improve everything, here’s an emotional rendition of “La Marseillaise” sung by French singer Mireille Mathieu.
- I’m posting this video from 1985 at halftime of an NBA finals game between the Lakers and Boston Celtics because Hubie Brown says that George Raveling turned down the Seattle SuperSonics job.
Raveling was the coach at Iowa at the time and a year later came to USC. So I can’t really say it sounds right he would turn down the NBA job. But Bob Boyd turned down the Lakers job in 1969, so anything is possible.
LB Clay Matthews (60) and S Dennis Thurman (7) prepare to tackle QB Jeff Dankworth (19) in 1976.
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
The fool who rudely walked right through Andy’s interview was probably our favorite poster.
This SoCal city along Route 66 is about to change in a big way
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If you were a ucla footballer in that picture above, would you want to put your head in a sea of Trojan players?
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KAM: Poor Jeff Dankworth and his Bruins were riding high entering that classic Bicentennial Year USC vs UCLA matchup…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCNz3DBg5qwlol Bruin fans hopes for #1 were crushed!
DON: That 24-14 loss sent Terry Donahue’s Bruins into a downward spiral and a humiliating blowout loss to Bama in the Liberty Bowl. They didn’t beat USC for the rest of the decade. Vagabond OC Homer Smith came in to save Donahue’s career in 1980.
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You have to really want to be an actor to start out being an ‘extra,’ but some claim being in a movie immortalizes them
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KAM: Amazing how P r e s i d e n t T r u m p ’ s opponents keep attributing this all to “luck.” As if lower taxes and reductions in government red tape had no role in our resounding economy? Even if it were “luck,” I’d rather gamble with T r u m p than a communist D e m o c r a t.
DON: Cowardly Gabby is despondent!
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-So John Wayne drank and smoked too much, and has been accused of other things. But why should anyone care about his personal life if they were entertained by him?
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How would you like to be the .7 of a scholarship guy. “We think you are a great player and are willing to pay for 70% of your books, tuition, room and board. ” Just doesn’t sound right.
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