FOOTBALL

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

USC is still recruiting former Utah guard Terrence Brown, who averaged 19.9 points last season. Brown is also considering Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon and Mississippi

  • Former USC pitcher Caden Hunter, who was a 6th round pick of the Baltimore Orioles last year, has a 1.46 ERA for the Class A team in Frederick, Md. That is currently the lowest ERA of any pitcher in the Orioles’ organization.
  • And now for some history:
  • Now this would be a huge story today. The night before USC played Notre Dame at the Coliseum in 1980, someone broke into the Irish locker room and stole 45 jerseys, 11 footballs, 11 pairs of cleats and eight gold helmets.

Before the game, a 13-year-old girl was selling the jerseys outside the Coliseum for $2.50 each. Many of the jerseys were bought by USC students and police traced the sales chain to the 13-year-old girl, who was arrested.

Police believed others were involved in the theft, but I’ll need to do some more research to see if anyone else ever got arrested. At the time of her theft, only six jerseys had been recovered.

  • Below is the 1981 All-Pac-10 offensive team.

I’m running it because USC’s offensive line had three first-team selections (Tony Slaton, Roy Foster, Bruce Matthews) and one second team (Don Mosebar).

  • In 1926, USC (5-0) and Stanford (6-0) were undefeated and playing at the Coliseum. A crowd of more than 78,000 packed the stadium, even though 75,000 was considered a sell out. Stanford narrowly defeated the Trojans, 13-12.

But here is an interesting side note: The night of the game, a movie house on the corner of Figueroa Street and Santa Barbara Ave. (now Martin Luther King Blvd.), showed films of the big game.

This preview references Trojan players Manuel Laraneta, Mort Kaer, Jeff Cravath (future USC coach), Jesse Hibbs (who directed 44 episodes of Perry Mason), Brice Taylor (USC’s first All-American) and Morris Badgro (a charter member of the College Football Hall of Fame).

USC star tailback Morley Drury was on crutches the week of the game and did not play.

  • I can only imagine what Los Angeles was like 100 years ago but here was a place that served food until 1 a.m. on the corner of Exposition Blvd. and Vermont Ave. How many people were driving around at that time of night? This cafe was a stone’s throw from the house Sparky Anderson grew up in, but this was still eight years before he was born. If only a place like this existed today.
  • Now this is quite a movie review for The Godfather:

PICTURES OF THE WEEK

Ornella Muti

Eihi Shiina

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

  2. On a day on which the war in the gulf is only “on hold’….and marxist revolutionaries are spouting anti-constitution madness….I have only one thing to say:

    Ornella is a lot cuter than that photo makes her out to be.

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    1. Imagine sticking your head between those thighs to eat some custard pie. Get her all hotted up, she squeezes your head like a python and boom, you’re done

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  6. Buckley Jr really screwed the pooch with his review disparaging the work of Bruin Coppola’s all-time masterpiece!! universally ranked #1 movie of all time!!

    also hugely amusing a lil’ 13 yr old girl pulled of such a caper stealing the team blind of all their jerseys and then boldly selling them to the silver spooners on campus right under trOJies noses!!! HAWR-HAWR!!!

    wolfman only you could uncover these gems!! magnifico!!

    #ShoulddaBeenABruin

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    1. Dear Mister Buckley:

      “I realize it’s a little too late for you to follow this advice….but…don’t evaluate movies on the basis of conservative concepts of “proper entertainment”…..

      #…ILikedYouButALLYourMovieReviewsSucked

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      1. I can see those eyeballs flaring wide if he could read this

        Little known fact: Wolfman defeated Buckey in a widely anticipated debate at UCLA’s Royce Hall in 1974. The subject was international diplomacy focusing on SouthEast Asian politics. Wolfman shocked the audience with his erudition. It’s rumored Buckley never really recovered from his worst (and only known) defeat in a debating forum.

        #RenaissanceWolfman

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      3. Charlie,

        I saw Gore Vidal at the Los Angeles airport being totally attentive and deferential to two dumb old lady fans [not what I expected –he was actually a nice guy outta the limelight]. I saw the supposedly virtuous James Buckley [Bill’s brother and the Senator from New York] at UCLA’s Royce Hall tell a well wisher who asked a question on his way out, “There are some questions that can’t be answered in 25 words or less!”

        I was surprised to find out which one wasn’t a d-i-c-k.

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  7. Maybe the only movie where part 2 is equal to or better than the original

    Best way to watch it is the version that’s edited with Bobby D as young Vito all the way to Michael sitting all alone

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    1. Pagel had 29 TD’s, threw for 2400 yds, 53% completions ( 171 out of 331 ), 14 int’s

      Elway had 20 td’s, threw for 2600 yds, 58% completions ( 214 out of 366 ), 13 int’s

      Pagel led the conference in TD’s and QB rating

      Elway led the conference in attempts, yards thrown and yards per game

      ASU was 9-2, did not go to a bowl

      Stanford was 4-7

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  9. Pacific Dining Car opened in 1921. They were open 24 hours. A shame it never recovered after the pandemic.

    It was pricey, but worth it.

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    1. Great observation, So Cal. Nothing like one of their filets smothered in mushrooms after a full day’s work at City Hall….

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  10. Scott, Scott, Scott does it always have to be about poor old ND. A thirteen year old girl stealing and selling their jerseys and helmets is a petty crime and the young girl should have been brought to juvenile hall to learn that stealing is not acceptable behavior, but it doesn’t rise to the level of a feature sports story. The 1926 team being shown on film after the game is interesting, but the newsworthy story should be how Morley Drury, the noblest Trojan of them all, was not able to play in the game. The 1981 team had very good players, but please remember that in the old Pac 8 later to be Pac 10, USC was the big fish in a pond without many big fish. This was not one of your better historical efforts. Please step up your Friday game and try not to always bring ND comments into that history…..we have had other great rivalries like Stanford and Cal….by the way when you mentioned the big game, I was confused because the Cal vs. Stanford game is referred to as the big game. In the highly competitive Big Ten, USC will probably never have four first team players in any year, but that does not mean that we won’t have very good players and be competitive. Fight on, Dan, Class of 1962

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      2. Great focus as always, MG. I hope that USC watches tapes of Indiana to see how they can contain Dante Moore. Contain, contain, contain. Fight on, Dan, Class of 1062

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    2. KAM: In the 1981 season UW beat USC 13-3, won the tie breaker over ASU and USC and shut out Iowa in the Rose Bowl 28-0. The Big Fish went to the Fiesta Bowl and lost to Penn State 26-10.

      DON: Despite our talent we underperformed but salvaged the season with the George Achica block of the Bruin field goal to defeat the Bruins 22-21 and deny them a Rose Bowl berth.

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  11. KAM: –Funny story about how a Los Angeles 13-year old girl breaks into the Notre Dame locker room before its SC game, takes helmets and jerseys, and then sells them to the crowd the next day

    DON: That was practically a half century ago, times change and now ‘security has that stuff locked down

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  12. KAM: –And wouldn’t you know it, but Iran and its neighbor Oman feel they jointly own the Strait of Hormuz and they’re meeting now on how to divide the profits

    DON: I have done everything I can over there

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      2. Would you care to guess what % of gulf oil profit the United States is going to allow the aszhole govt of Oman to claim for itself?

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  13. KAM: It’s July 4th, you ever think about how 250-years ago in the Revolutionary War that except for French aid the new rising America might have lost that war to the English?

    DON: Have I thought of it?–no, not recently–but that begs the question of ‘If the English had won would we now be speaking English

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  14. KAM: You know what, you and I as imaginary characters seem more palatable and softer than the originals

    DON: In our defense, life’s struggles sharpen some edges

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  15. KAM: –And so 100-years ago in 1926 SC-Stanford was a big game

    DON: Some theater showed the game about 3-hours after it was over, and the theater was packed with mostly winning Stanford guys

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  16. KAM: Another feature of that 100-year old SC football ad was how it individually named the starting 4 defensive linemen

    DON: When was the last time we saw that?

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  17. KAM: If you ever wonder about the athletic ability of some football players, just look at how high in the air that SC defender is

    DON: Athletes are better than ever, more science is involved now and the best ones train only in one sport

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  18. KAM: Joey Chestnut wins 4th of July Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest for unrivaled 18th time!

    DON: Takeru Kobayashi only won six times.

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    1. “Only!” LOL!

      As of that’s some small accomplishment. Yeah, Joey is the best ever. But that doesn’t take away from what Kobayashi accomplished. Both of them are champion eaters.

      Adam Richman was pretty darn good, too! We enjoyed “Man vs Food”.

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      1. And here I thought the “Man vs. Food” label was invented by Joy Behar’s husband….

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