USC football is having a “Beach Day” on Tuesday in Hermosa Beach from 8-10 a.m. between 9th and 10th street. The players will work out, play dodgeball, sign autographs and pose for photos.

• LeBron James spoke at the Time magazine 100 gala last night after the magazine named him athlete of the century and took a moment to thank USC.

“Obviously, if it wasn’t for the coaching staff and the medical team, everybody at USC being there in a timely fashion, we would possibly be sitting here without our son.”

• And now for some history:

• Below is a great photo of a March, 1952 spring practice that showed the depth of USC’s backfield. From left, Al “Hoagy” Carmichael, Jim Sears and Addison Hawthorne under the watch of Frank Gifford (far right), who two months earlier was the 11th pick in the NFL Draft by the New York Giants.

• It always fascinates me how people can pretty much dedicate their lives to someplace like USC and then within a short time, they are forgotten.

Here is an example: Charlie Graves was USC gymnastics coach and a P.E. professor from 1928-57. He won a national title in 1938 and is in the USA Gymastics Hall of Fame.

• Johnny Carson hosted the first noon rally of the football season at Bovard Auditorium the day before USC hosted Pitt at the Coliseum on Sept. 25, 1954. At the time, no one knew Carson would go on to become America’s best-known late-night talk show host with his 30-year reign on The Tonight Show (1962-92).

Carson was a writer-performer for CBS when he hosted the rally.

• When the recently retired USC track coach Dean Cromwell celebrated his 75th birthday in 1954, the Football Writers of Los Angeles had a birthday cake for Cromwell at their luncheon. The only problem was they forgot to invite Cromwell.

• Has USC ever not had an attendance problem with basketball?

In 1954-1955, the average attendance was 1,642. The previous year, when USC won its conference title, it averaged 3,173 per game.

But those figures were attributed to the fact USC games were played at unsuitable venues like the Shrine Auditorium, Olympic Auditorium and Pan-Pacific Auditorium.

Here’s what an alumni publication wrote in 1956:

“Within the next year — perhaps in time for the 1956-1957 basketball season — the new 17,000-seat Coliseum arena will be completed. Both public and student interest in basketball should soar, particularly with the arena being situated right next door to the Trojan campus. Let us hope so.”

The Sports Arena was completed in 1959. Once it became unfashionable, the theory was attendance problems would be solved once USC built an on-campus arena (the Galen Center). See how history repeats itself!

• Maybe things would be different if the “Howard Jones Memoral Fieldhouse” had ever been built. It would seat 10,000 and cost $1,000,000 and the athletic dept. tried to raise the money in 1947.

The fieldhouse was to be located where the George Lucas School of Cinematic Arts and McKay Center currently reside. But only $38,000 was raised and the rendering below is all that got produced.

• On a lighter note, do you remember in 1991 when Traveler bumped a Stanford Dollie cheerleader during the USC-Stanford game at the Coliseum?

Traveler was running down the then-existing track and his shoulder hit Debbie Bain, who was performing a dance move, knocking her to the ground in the third quarter. Bain was not injured and rejoined the Dollies in the fourth quarter.

A member of the Trojan Knights responsible for clearing the track said there were at least three other incidents that night where Traveler almost hit someone.

“I would like to see (Traveler) slowed down a bit,” said Scott Seidenverg, who was a Trojan Knight.

The best quote came from Richard Saukko, who owned Traveler and dressed as Tommy Trojan for decades.

“The girl was told to be off the track and she insisted on still kicking,” Saukko said.

PICTURES OF THE WEEK

Ingrid Boulting

Astrid Heeren