FOOTBALL

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

As usual, USC’s roster is full of double numbers or two guys wearing the same jersey number.

Meanwhile, not a single player is wearing the once great No. 42.

It was worn by Ricky Bell, Pat Cannemela, C.R. Roberts and Ronnie Lott.

On second thought, better that no one wears it. I’m not sure anyone would be worthy of its tradition.

  • Eric Musselman bought lunch and matcha for students this week as they returned to school. Florida football coach Jon Sumrall spoke to every Florida fraternity president at an IFC meeting this week.

Still waiting for Lincoln Riley to do anything with USC students.

  • Has any other media mentioned how bad the USC football team photo turned out? Of course not.
  • USC five-star basketball player Christian Collins has been sidelined with a foot injury and was recently seen getting around on a mobility scooter.
  • And now for some history:
Scott Lockwood gains yards vs. UCLA in 1988
  • Do people still remember how big the 1988 USC-UCLA game was at the Rose Bowl?

“There was never anything bigger than the 1988 USC-UCLA game,” said Brad Leggett, who started at center on that Trojan team. “The Rose Bowl was on the line, the Heisman was on the line (between USC quarterback Rodney Peete and UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman). And it was UCLA.”

No.2-ranked USC defeated No. 6 UCLA, 31-22.

  • Now that we have to wait four years for USC to play Notre Dame, perhaps the Trojans will have a coach by then who cares about the rivalry as much as John McKay.

After USC lost to Notre Dame, 51-0, in 1966 at the Coliseum, McKay had little desire to go to the old Sheraton-Town House hotel on Wilshire Blvd., where he would go after home games to talk to boosters.

McKay stayed in the locker room for so long after the game that stadium staff informed him they were turning out the lights. When McKay and assistant coach Dave Levy walked up the tunnel, there were no fans around. Or even wives, who had cars.

Instead of trying to get a taxi or going back to USC, McKay and Levy walked to the Town House via Vermont Ave. That’s about 4.5 miles. By the time the pair got to the hotel, there were about 15 boosters left to hear McKay speak.

  • With this week’s USC team photo reminding everyone how the football program has about 800 staff members, it’s a good reminder that when Al Davis was hired as an assistant by USC, he asked Don Clark to hire his friend, Al LoCasale, to work as an assistant to Clark.

“He never spent any time with Don Clark, he just followed Al Davis around everywhere,” said a co-worked. “That was his real job.”

LoCasale ended up working with the Raiders for 34 years.

  • USC has a long history of simply promoting assistant coaches to become head football coach.

When Jess Hill stepped down in 1956, one of the candidates was former USC great Tay Brown, who took Compton College to five Junior Rose Bowls. It would have been fascinating to see what Brown did with his strong local connections. Instead, USC promoted assistant coach Don Clark.

Marquee names like Bud Wilkinson (Oklahoma) and Duffy Daugherty (Michigan State) were considered leading candidates but nothign materialized.

  • One day, when McKay was coaching at USC, he told his staff they were going to Julie’s restaurant to have a few drinks with Chuck Knox and the Rams staff.

The coaching staffs had a drinking contest in a private room, which was won by the USC staff. Some Rams coaches had to be carried out of Julie’s. The USC coaches were in the office the next day at 8 a.m.

About a month later, Knox called McKay and asked for a rematch. The USC staff won again. How did USC win?

“Nobody could compete with McKay,” said a former USC staffer.

Jack Hupp and Marie Windsor
  • Turner Classic Movies is showing movies today starring Marie Windsor. Her husband, Jack Hupp, was the MVP and captain of the 1936 USC basketball team. He was a two-time (1935-36) All-Pacific Coast Conference Southern Division first-team forward. He is also in the USC Hall of Fame. They were married for 46 years.

You can see the USC basketball player on Hupp’s headstone in Marysvale, Utah. His wife, Emily Marie Bertelsen, is far better known as the actress Marie Windsor, whose best movies were probably “The Narrow Margin” (1952) and “The Killing.” (1956).

  • Lloyd Wright, son of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, entered a 1925 competition to redesign downtown Los Angeles and proposed this striking idea for the civic center.

He envisioned City Hall at the highest level with courthouses and government buildings terracing beneath it. Everything was going to be connected by walkways above while cars, trains and subways would be underground.

City leaders chose a less grand version that included today’s City Hall, which was built between 1926-28.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

Gene Tierney

Barbara Bach

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

    1. KAM: The NCAA won an important battle Friday in the ongoing legal war to determine who should be allowed to play college sports in the upcoming season.

      DON: The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA a stay Friday morning in an order that reverses the federal judge’s decision that previously opened the door for all athletes who started college in the 2022-23 academic year and played for four consecutive seasons to return for a fifth season. NCAA chief legal officer sent a letter to schools Friday afternoon saying that the association’s eligibility rules were back in effect.

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  2. The problem with that 1988 game when SC defeated ucla was that an even bigger game was the following week when No. 1 Notre Dame played SC

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  6. 1967 Trojans – Gutties was just as big as 1988, probably bigger, #1 vs. 2, Heisman race between Beban and OJ, Rose Bowl on the line.
    Several called it the game of the century. Beban threw for over 300 yards with broken ribs, OJ’s 64 yard run gives the Trojans 14-13 win and ultimately the natty, with just one loss to the Beavers and their fullback Earthquake Enyart. One could make the case that McKay didn’t do the best coaching job that day in the rain at Corvallis.

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    3. KAM: The USC -ND game the following week was much bigger than the USC -UCLA game . The Heisman Trophy wasn’t on the line in 1988- Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State won it.

      DON: Yes and in 1988 the Bruins had already choked under the ever cautious Terry Donahue, blowing a 20-6 halftime lead to lose at home to WSU 34-30… so they had no chance to be #1 with Troy Aikman as their quarterback. UCLA was missing their OC guru Homer Smith in ’87-88 and the replacement OC squandered incredible talent.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDoLqyX1_XIlol

      With 44 seconds left, UCLA reached Washington State’s 6-yard line, effectively first-and-goal, trailing 34–30. Washington State stopped four straight pass attempts by future NFL Hal of Famer Troy Aikman to secure the upset and deny UCLA the chance to be ranked #1 that week!

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    1. SHE’S BEAUTIFUL IN THAT ALRIGHT, GEORGE….. BUT I DIDN’T LIKE HER ANYMORE AFTER SHE KILLED THAT KID…

      #….WE HAVE STANDARDS HERE!

      P. S.

      WHAT A GREAT COLUMN BY SCOTT TODAY!!!

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      2. Great post, Sane Gabby. Thanks for sharing that. I knew nothing about her and have been laughing at the childish claims being lobbed by the Left.

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  11. KAM: They still talk about that 1966 SC loss to Notre Dame, 51-0

    DON: –And as the story goes, Coach McKay and his assistant gentleman Dave Levy, the two stayed late after the game and then walked miles to an alum meeting. Now that’s taking a loss pretty hard

    KAM: But SC got revenge in 1967, and at Notre Dame nonetheless

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    1. The best revenge was 1974 —Ara was talking in incomplete sentences in the post presser. He embarrassed his team with his performance.

      #Lesson:Don’tThrowForTheEndZoneWhenYou’reUp51-0…

      #..Cuz…

      #…Karma’s A B I T C H

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  15. Scott, this was one of your weakest Friday segments. Implying that Coach McKay was a heavy drinker and not just a normal Irishman who likes a drink or two is not the memory that I have of the coach and his reserved table at Julie’s where he held court. Didn’t the owner of Julie’s keep the table cloth that he sketched plays on to regale sportswriters? I will give you a pass on the ND comment because Coach McKay did like to beat the Irish who were led by the Protestant Ara. He never ceded the Catholic connection to ND. And, that was 50 years ago, a different time and age; so, no comparisons with the 2026 scheduling needs for our Trojans. Fight on, Dan, Class of 1962

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    1. KAM: JOHN MCKAY CHARGED WITH DUI

      Author

      Chicago Tribune

      PUBLISHED: July 28, 1991 at 1:00 AM CDT 

      John McKay, the first coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence early Saturday after running his car into a pole, police said.

      McKay, 68, was driving near his Tampa home when he lost control of his car and struck a light pole at 1:57 a.m., Lt. Jesse James said.

      ”He knocked down the pole,” James said.

      McKay was charged with DUI and released from the Hillsborough County Jail shortly before noon Saturday on $1,000 bond, a jail official said.

      McKay coached Southern Cal from 1960 through 1975, compiling a 127-40-8 record with national championships in 1962, 1967 and 1972, before becoming the first coach of the expansion Buccaneers in 1976.

      The Buccaneers lost their first 26 games, but McKay went on to guide the Bucs to a 10-6 record and the NFC Central Division title in 1979.

      McKay resigned in 1984 after compiling a 44-88-1 record with the Bucs. He had triple bypass surgery in June of 1986, while he was still serving as a consultant to the team.

      DON: DOH!

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    2. Ambitious —Love your loyalty to John McKay…but….it’s okay that Coach McKay was a M-A-N who liked to drink & kick ass. All our 20th century MALE heroes fit that mold.

      And I 100% agree with you: Coach would have been impressed as hell with our 2026 schedule!

      #FightOn

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