FOOTBALL

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

USC baseball assistant coach Travis Jewett has resigned to take a position with Vanderbilt. It means USC has lost its top two assistant coaches since the season ended.

He will be replaced by Bill Mosiello, who has been a candidate in the past for the USC head-coaching job and was a Trojan assistant in 2007.

  • The lawsuit filed by Brian Kennedy highlights another problem with USC. There are very few Trojans working in the athletic dept. and they don’t fully appreciate the people who donated for decades.

In the past, the athletic dept. had long-time employees with USC ties that knew how to keep boosters invested in the university and would regularly meet with them. It was smart business because you could go to those donors for repeat donations.

That hasn’t been the case lately. No one knows who anyone is anumore. This lawsuit also never would have happened under Pete Carroll. But you-know-who doesn’t like to mingle with the public.

  • One of my favorite Kennedy stories happened a few years after a USC-UCLA game at the Galen Center. Kennedy had courtside seats right next to the USC bench. USC lost to UCLA, and as Andy Enfield walked off the court, Kennedy told him, “You got outcoached!”
  • And now for some history:
  • Brice Taylor is one of the most amazing stories in USC history, the first All-American (1925) and first African-American player in school history. He also played football despite having only one hand.

The puzzling thing is USC did not have an African-American player for another 27 years after Taylor graduated. This was obviously deliberate but the question is why after Taylor’s success?

Well, here’s another weird twist to the Taylor-USC legacy. During most or all of this 27-year period when USC did not have any African-American players, it also omitted Taylor from its official list of All-Americans.

A campaign was started by Brad Pye, Jr., sports editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel and Deke Houlgate, Sr., a USC graduate who created his own college football rankings system, to get Taylor officially listed as an All-American.

I spoke to Pye about it once and he said he and Houlgate were forced to push hard with USC officials for Taylor’s inclusion. If you read anything on Taylor, he was a beloved figure wherever he went, so his omission is even more disgraceful.

Let’s remember USC also did not have an African-American basketball players during this period and Coach Forrest Twogood waited until 1959 to integrate the team. Another disgraceful period in the athletic dept.’s history.

As crazy as all this sounds, Taylor did attend the 1950 USC “men’s football banquet” that featured 18 members of the 1925 team.

And in 1957, he had his footprints placed in cement at halftime of a USC game, which was an honor given to every USC All-American in those days. By 1957, Pye and Houlgate had successfully had Taylor reinstated to the official list.

Those footprints are still on display at the McKay Center (but not for public viewing).

Taylor became the football coach at Southern University in 1928 and started the Bayou Classic with Grambling. He eventually became a teacher and football coach at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, where he would open the gym on Saturdays and hosted Sports Nights during the week for neighborhood children.

He was the Teacher of the Year in Los Angeles in 1969 and was also appointed to positions by Gov. Ronald Reagan and Mayor Sam Yorty.

A DIFFERENT WORLD

Imagine a 600-student food fight. It happened at USC in 1975. Wonder what John Hubbard thought about it?

PICTURES OF THE WEEK

Anne Wiazemsky

Edy Williams

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

  1. KAM: Maybe this Kennedy fellow isn’t all that nice to shout at SC’s coach after a loss that “You got out-coached”

    DON: I guess after all those SC donations he figured he could say what he wanted

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Nice pickup. Everything new I hear about Kennedy makes me like him less. Aggravating him isn’t gonna hurt us –I’m willing to bet donations are on the rise, not on the decline.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Telling Enfield that he can’t coach isn’t a put down, it’s the truth

        I’m willing to bet donations are not on the rise

        Liked by 2 people

      2. A BIG “yes” to first paragraph.

        But…

        …Kennedy sounds like a perennial pain in the asz…..

        #ScottNeedsToPresentUsWithNumbersOnParagraph#2

        Liked by 1 person

      3. How would you like it if you donated tons of money to have your name on the building, field, whatever and then they took it off?

        Liked by 2 people

      4. Sincere Answer: Based on the number of times I’ve been screwed by organizations I donate to, I’d expect it…

        Liked by 2 people

      5. If donations were up, they would have the football facility paid off and the baseball field would have everything named, and neither is the case

        Liked by 2 people

  2. KAM: In 1925 and even in 1959 the U.S. was mired in racial prejudice,

    DON: It was only in the 1960s and ’70s that teams started to realize they could win big with Black athletes

    Like

    Reply

    1. Yes… that’s right… America was really, really racist in 1959.

      #ItWasSo,SoRacistItWasn’tEvenFunny…

      #[AllTheOtherCountriesWereSaddened]

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      2. Karma — I was too hasty [and that’s not like me]….Anne was in a film by French Director Bresson in which she appeared luminescent …and she went on to become Godard’s wife, starring in several notable films, looking and acting beautifully…she would have made a nice Helen in the Odyssey if Nolan had been around during her time [and weren’t intent on DEI casting]…..

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Rumor has it there was a pretty serious corncob struggle in Pat Haden’s dorm room one year…. but I don’t think that’s the fight you’re referring to….

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. No rumor, it’s fact. There was a fight over a cucumber, fake Gabby tried to take it from Haden, they slipped on some Astroglide, and the cucumber ended up, well……. you can guess.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. Soon Sybil is gonna get really upset with us having this dialog….. expect some “FREAK!” comments…..

        #”I’llShowThemIExist!!”

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Has Wolf ever written about Robert Stack? Stack took some drama courses at the University of Southern California, where he played on the polo team. Does that make him a Trojan ?

    Or Robert Vaughn? Vaughn earned a PhD in communication from the University of Southern California in 1970. His doctoral dissertation “The Influence of the House Committee on Un-American Activities on the American Theater 1938–58” was an appraisal of the effect the committee’s activities had on American theater. Does that make him a Trojan ?

    This weeks column was a little light, think Wolf has a World Cup hangover

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  7. KAM: Finally, SC football practice begins next week

    DON: –And just when it’s starting to get hot in L.A. I was Down South one time when summer practices started, and wondered how kids got through that heat and humidity

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Great minds think alike. Pat Haden sent the following message to our esteemed Athletic Director: “The best way to practice hard …while beating the heat…. is to allow the players to practice in the nude. I would be willing to supervise for free.”

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  8. Just checked out pictures of Anne Wiazemsky and Edy Williams, and I would put them in the category of “But they have great personalities”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Time to do a “deep dive” [if you can forgive the imagery] on Anne — she is actually your type [a class act —and quite comely in all the photos online….. except the one Scott picked]……

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. Hey anyone remember that bizarre 90+ minutes that Godhard put out in 1968 – ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ – his first effort in filming in ‘English’ – you know a ‘film’ equal in confusion and a waste of time as Faulkner’s ‘Sound and the Fury’?

    This was the beginning of the ‘gender dysphoria’ and ‘voila’ 58 yrs later the ‘demoncrats’ vetting nominees for their ‘Lenin’.

    Mike you nailed it = I ‘sense’ Kennedy has been shown the door ‘because’ USC can afford to do so….have to say it is pretty ‘bush’ removing names once bestowed but not unprecidented.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  10. Horrible accounting of the treatment of Brice Taylor especially years that followed. Hate to admit but UCLA has a far better record not just with Jackie Robinson but Woody Strode and Kenny Washington. Also the delay til 1959 for mens basketball players.

    Haden roomed in Marks Tower – and ate at Birnkrant

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  11. quite amusing the continued smattering of complaints about Nolan’s movie being “DEI” Homer never described Helen’s appearance, only mentioning her being “white armed” which is a reference to her being of royal class. i suppose since she is a FICTIONAL character “hatched from an egg” since her mother was a swan then Nolan can make her whatever color he wants! scholars agree if anything she was probably olive or brown skinned with brown hair and dark eyes! i guess one has to ask oneself: “why am i so triggered by the black girl?” i suspect it’s related to why SC had no blacks for 27 yrs…neo-yachtzies running the place! wake up trOJies!

    #Can’tHandleTheTruth

    Like

    Reply

      1. from AI (so it has to be right): In Homer, “white‑armed” (Greek: λευκώλενος) means a woman with pale, beautiful, smooth arms — a marker of beauty, nobility, and freedom from manual labor, not just literal skin color.

        some scholars also agree Santa Claus was black!

        #PerMyProfessorAngelaDavis

        Like

  12. hey wolfman, did you see the Big Peedo cower at the Corrspondent’s dinner?? breaking with history, the thin-skinned draft dodger couldn’t take any jokes about him so they brough in some carny mind reader to distract the audience. he flopped badly, missing the first “mind read” spectacularly.

    #LameWithACapitolL

    Like

    Reply

    1. Another uniquely objective, “Charlie-style” review…..

      #WhichIsToSay….

      #…VeryMuchLike….

      #…APigeon”Reviewing”AStatue

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. KAM: A lot of SC football interest is in the air. They want to see how good these No. 1 recruits are

    DON: As a famous football coach said about football, “Football is everything!” I’m sure some of the players feel that way

    KAM: The physical abuse these guys take just playing the game is beyond my comprehension

    Like

    Reply

  15. KAM: GOD KNOWS WHAT THE AFTERLIFE IS LIKE, BUT IF YOU CAN HEAR ME OUT THERE, TIREBITER, ‘WELL, IT’S ALMOST TIME FOR ANOTHER SC SEASON, BION

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      3. NOW WOULDN’T IT BE SOMETHING, MICHAEL, IF TIREBITER SUDDENLY COMES OUT OF THE SHADOWS AND SAYS, ‘SORRY GUYS, I WAS OUT OF IT FOR A WHILE AND LOST COMMUNICATION, BUT I AM VERY MUCH ALIVE’

        Liked by 1 person

  16. DON: In analyzing SC’s 4 defeats in 2025, they could have won all those games except the one with Oregon

    KAM: Oregon is 8-2 since 2009. We have become to them, “It’s just SC”

    Like

    Reply

  17. Let me get this straight. Brian Kennedy paid $400,000 to surface a practice football field and then paid another couple of hundred thousand for a practice field scoreboard and outfit some dining hall rooms, and his name was on the field for 25 years. It sounds to me like he got a very good deal from USC administratiion. So, Scott, how many millions did he donate to USC. BK sounds like a petty, greedy loser. Did he offer millions and for what. I hope that USC goes to court and exposes his lousy reputation. Congratulations Jen for cuttng him loose after his 25 years of basking in USC glory. By the way, how much did he donate to his friend Ed O and LSU. Fight on, Dan, Class of 1962

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. Okay —maybe I’m going a tiny bit overboard, Gabby…

        #…ButI’mCallingOnWhiteHouseToInvestigateKennedy

        #[IJustDon’tKnowWhatFor]

        Liked by 1 person

  18. KAM: Oregon football has lately been doing well for itself

    DON: As an SC fan I liked how they were humiliated in the Playoffs by Ohio St

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      3. Hopefully, we beat them too —but USC puts itself back on the map with victories over Oregon and Ohio State…..and such a crushing defeat of UCLA it ends their football program….

        Liked by 1 person

  19. DON: SC fans complain about the Trojan football record since Carrot left in 2009, but the 1980s-1990s was a worse stretch

    KAM: Losing 8 in a row to ucla and 12 to Notre Dame was pretty depressing

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I guess it’s safe to say those weren’t banner years…. or banner coaches…

      #AlthoughLarrySmithMostlyDidJustFineAgainstUCLA

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. It’s true that the 1987 to 1989 years with Coach Larry Smith and Rodney Peete-Todd Marinovich were exciting. In fact, I ran into Smith and told him, “Thanks for bringing SC back” which turned out not to be true

        Liked by 1 person

  20. KAM: On second thought it might be best that the SC-Notre Dame game is on a short break until, say, about 2030

    DON: The games were becoming a bit lopsided, especially at Notre Dame. With the Trojans’ recruiting picking up it’s a chance for SC to reset

    Like

    Reply

  21. KAM: –And with the “I don’t accept a No” BowDown bringing in the beef, things are looking up

    DON: SC is finally building a foundation of players, they should be good for many years to come but 2026 might not be one of them

    KAM: Too early, huh?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. P. S.

      …..all great historians agree they look more like the Helen of Troy who appears in the photos taken by ancient Spartan cameras….

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a comment