Category Archives: USC

Aug 23

Countdown to College Football: A 2002 Column About John McKay

Posted on by

As we’ve moved within a week of the kickoff of the 2012 college football season, I’ve decided to go back into my archives and pull a few special columns I wrote for the now defunct PigskinPost.com website during the early part of the last decade. (PigskinPost was swallowed up into the larger — and still existent — CollegeFootballNews.com after the 2003 season).

USC opened its new John McKay Center this month.

First up, a piece I wrote on legendary USC head coach John McKay as part of PigskinPost’s countdown of the Top 50 college head coaches of all time. McKay was ranked No. 12 in this countdown, and I was thrilled to be able to handle this piece at the time. Now, with the NCAA-vilified Trojans improbably ranked No. 1 by the Associated Press to start the 2012 season and the university having recently opened the glistening new John McKay Center for all of its athletes on campus, it seems apropos to kick off my own personal 2012 season by sharing this piece anew with all of you. Enjoy … and keep an eye out for a couple more throwbacks in coming days.

(Originally published April 2002 on PigskinPost.com)

#12: John McKay, USC

“In the past, we’ve asked you men to win for your parents, your girlfriends, your school and the alumni … I think it’s about time you went out and won one for yourselves.”

— John McKay

Known for his quick wit and consistently powerful football teams, John McKay not only restored USC to its elite national status during his tenure (1960-75), he may have had more influence on how offensive football was played at the college level than any other coach in his time.

McKay modernized the “I” formation, with the tailback standing seven yards deep in the backfield, creating the “Tailback U.” image associated with Trojan football. The famed offense featured Heisman winners Mike Garrett and O.J. Simpson, as well as other classic tailbacks including Clarence Davis, Anthony Davis and Ricky Bell. While the tailbacks got the glory, opposing coaches said the key to USC’s monster rushing attack was McKay’s powerful and mobile offensive line players.

A statue of the legendary John McKay stands outside the new athletics center named after him on USC’s campus.

McKay was a huge winner. In 16 seasons, he won four national championships (1962, 1967, 1972, 1974), nine Pac-8 championships and finished in the top 10 in the national polls nine times. His career record at USC was 127-40-8, similar to Howard Jones, but against a much more wide-ranging schedule than USC played in the 1920s and ’30s. The Trojans also played in eight Rose Bowls under McKay, going 5-3.

McKay’s teams featured a veritable who’s who of college football history aside from the famous tailbacks: Ron Yary, Marvin Powell, Gary Jeter, Hal Bedsole, Lynn Swann, Bob Chandler, Charles Young, Damon Bame, Adrian Young, Charlie Weaver, Jimmy Gunn, Willie Hall, Richard (Batman) Wood, Tim Rossovich, Sid Smith, Pete Adams, Mike Battle, Artimus Parker, Marvin Cobb, Mike Rae, Jimmy Jones, Pat Haden, Sam (Bam) Cunningham, and Ben Wilson, to name just a few.

Not only are the names memorable , but some of USC’s most memorable games were played under McKay’s watch:

  • The 1963 Rose Bowl, a 42-37 national title-clinching thriller against Wisconsin.
  • A 20-17 upset of Notre Dame in 1964 that knocked the Irish from the national title race.
  • A 21-20 win against UCLA in a 1967 game that decided the city championship, the Pac-8 title, the Rose Bowl representative, the national championship and the Heisman Trophy.
  • Final-minute thrillers vs. UCLA (14-12) and Stanford (26-24) in 1969, and again vs. Stanford in 1973 (27-26).
  • The incredible, unthinkable 55-24 comeback victory against Notre Dame in 1974.
  • And the 18-17 come-from-behind triumph against Ohio State in the 1975 Rose Bowl that led to a share of the national title.

McKay grew up in West Virginia, before serving as a B-29 tailgunner in World War II. He enrolled at Purdue in 1946, playing freshman football, before transferring to Oregon the next year. McKay was an All-Coast halfback for the Ducks, teaming with friend and future All-Pro quarterback Norm Van Brocklin to form a strong offensive backfield. McKay still holds the Ducks’ single-season record for yards-per-carry average.

McKay remained at Oregon after graduation as an offensive assistant, renowned around the conference for his simple way of scouting opposing defenses.

In Jim Perry’s book on McKay, “A Coach’s Story,” McKay said:

“I wasn’t a genius. I just had a simpler method than the other scouts … a team played the defense they wanted to play 85 percent of the time. For example, Red Sanders’ UCLA teams in the mid-1950s played with what we called a 4-4, or wide-six defense. I’d watch all the other scouts draw a diagram every time UCLA lined up … I thought this was ridiculous. I knew where UCLA was lining up 85 percent of the time. So, unless they lined up differently, all I had to write was ’60’ … I could then see the game while the other scouts were laboriously writing … other scouts would miss a man or two and ask me what defense they were in, and I’d say brightly, ‘They were in 60. This guy was here and that guy was there.’ And they’d think I was a genius.”

In 1959, McKay was convinced to take an assistant’s job on USC coach Don Clark’s staff by his wife Corky, a Southern California native. When Clark resigned after the season, he recommended McKay to USC president Norman Topping, who offered McKay the job.

Much to the dismay of some alumni, USC’s new coach was unknown assistant from Oregon. McKay hardly allayed any fears in 1960, losing his debut to Oregon State, 14-0, and leading the Trojans to a 4-6 mark. The grumbling reached it peak before USC upset UCLA, 17-6, near the end of the season. McKay said at the time, “It was an important game. It only saved my job.”

McKay didn’t improve much in 1961, going 4-5-1. But his tinkering with the “I” formation that season set the stage for his first national championship team in1962.

After some solid recruiting, refinement of the “I” and an assist from Arkansas coach Frank Broyles, whose defensive scheme McKay borrowed, USC rolled to an 11-0 mark and its first national championship in 30 years.

Quarterbacks Pete Beathard and Bill Nelsen, tailback Willie Brown, fullback Wilson and 6-5 wideout Bedsole led a speedy USC team to a 261-92 scoring margin. The season’s highlights included a 14-0 shutout of recently dominant Washington, a 14-3 win against UCLA and a 25-0 victory over Notre Dame in Los Angeles.

The season was capped off in a thrilling Rose Bowl against Wisconsin. USC led 42-14, before Badger QB Ron Vanderkelen completed 18 of 22 passes in the fourth quarter to lead a rally that fell five points short, 42-37.

After the game, the normally calm McKay was incensed about the media’s reaction to the Wisconsin rally. As recounted in Mal Florence’s 1980 book, “The Trojan Heritage,” he told his team, “Wisconsin! That’s all they’re talking about. In a few minutes, the writers will be in here telling you men how lucky you were to pull this one out. Don’t you believe it. You’re the best damn team I ever saw. Our intention was to win today — and what does the scoreboard say? Who was picked to lose to the Big-10 powerhouse? We were. Ask the experts which team scored 42 points. You did, and you earned every one of them. We came in No. 1. They came in No. 2 and lost. That makes us still No. 1!”

Though McKay’s temper did run hotter than most of his sportswriter buddies at the time told their readers, the old coach’s sense of humor was his calling card. After McKay passed away last year, a number of obituaries focused on his humor while coach of the hapless Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But that humor was a staple of his time at Southern California.

Talking about one of his lesser skilled offensive lines at USC, McKay told a writer, “You’ve heard of the Seven Blocks of Granite? Last year, we had the seven blocks of cement.” Often, McKay would enter his morning press conferences announcing, “O.K. gang, we can begin. The star is here.”

He had no bigger fans than the L.A. sports press. In fact, McKay would spend hours diagramming plays for assistants and sportswriters at his own special table at Julie’s, the famous former hangout for Trojans near the USC campus and the Coliseum. McKay was so fond of his table at Julie’s, when he left USC for the Bucs, he had it shipped to his new watering hole in Tampa with the restaurant’s approval.

No one was safe from McKay’s quips and barbs. He even zinged his wife now and again. Once, when asked if emotion played a big role in the outcome of football games, he said, “Nobody is more emotional than my wife, and she’s a lousy football player.”

Of course, his wife was also his most trusted friend and greatest protector. When asked what he thought of people calling him arrogant, McKay shot back, “I don’t think of myself as arrogant. I think of myself as a friendly horse’s ass. What I don’t like is when a sportswriter doesn’t like me and writes that nobody likes me. That ticks my wife off.”

After the 1962 title season, the Trojans welcomed a sophomore tailback, Mike Garrett, into the fold. 1963 was the first of back-to-back 7-3 seasons. In 1965, the senior Garrett led USC to a 7-2-1 mark, winning the Heisman. But key losses to Washington and UCLA in Garrett’s three seasons kept the Trojans from playing in a Rose Bowl during his career.

Ara Parseghian’s reaction to USC’s stunning 1964 come-from-behind win against the Irish would become rather familiar over the next 10 years.

The shining moment of this era came at the close of the 1964 season, when USC rallied from a 17-0 halftime deficit to top-ranked Notre Dame at the Coliseum.

According to Florence, at halftime, McKay lightened the mood in a disconsolate Trojan locker room, telling the team, “Gentlemen, if we don’t score more than 17 points in the second half, we don’t have a chance.”

When Rod Sherman hauled in Craig Fertig’s 15-yard pass in the final minute, McKay had foiled Irish coach Ara Parseghian (not for the last time) and the Irish’s bid for the national championship, 20-17.

After the game, Florence wrote, the Catholic McKay told the press, “Father (Theodore) Hesburgh (Notre Dame’s president at the time) congratulated me and told me, ‘That wasn’t a very nice thing for a Catholic to do.’ I told him, “Father, it serves you right for hiring a Presbyterian (Parseghian).”

McKay’s battles with Parseghian were the stuff of legend. During the 1940s and ’50s, the USC-Notre Dame series had become one-sided in favor of the Irish. But McKay turned things around in the fabled rivalry after losing to Notre Dame in his first two seasons (and then suffering a 51-0 trouncing in 1966).

Although McKay denied the story, he reportedly said after that 1966 game that Notre Dame would never beat him again. In his last nine seasons at USC, McKay was 6-1-2 against ND, leaving Troy with an overall record of 8-6-2 against the Irish.

1967 was McKay’s next season of greatness. It also marked the beginning of a three-year stretch that saw USC go 29-2-2, win the 1967 national championship, finish second and third in the polls the next two seasons, and play in three straight Rose Bowls.

O.J. Simpson arrived from San Francisco City College as a junior in 1967. He averaged 154 yards rushing per game and USC’s defense allowed just 87 points in 11 games in 1967, going 10-1 to win the championship.

McKay led the Trojans to a destruction of their South Bend jinx in 1967. Led by Simpson’s running and seven interceptions, USC notched a 24-7 victory, its first in Notre Dame Stadium in 28 years — and payback for the 51-0 thrashing by the Irish a year earlier.

OJ Simpson’s famous cutback during a game-winning 64-yard touchdown run that defeated No. 1 UCLA, 21-20, in 1967.

The 1967 USC-UCLA game, one of the all-time college football classics, featured a top-ranked Bruin squad and the third-ranked Trojans (who had fallen from No. 1 after a 3-0 loss to Oregon State the previous week). It also featured Simpson vs. Bruin quarterback Gary Beban in a Heisman showdown.

The lead had changed hands four times, with UCLA clinging to a 20-14 fourth-quarter lead, when Simpson broke one of the most famous runs in college football history. The 64-yard, cutback jaunt led the Trojans to a 21-20 win. Beban won the Heisman, but O.J. and the Trojans got to the Rose Bowl, where they trampled outmatched Indiana, 14-3, to secure the national championship.

McKay’s “Cardiac Kids” of 1968-69 won or tied 12 games with fourth-quarter comebacks, cementing the coach as one of college football’s great leaders under pressure. McKay’s riverboat gambler image was boosted even further during this era, when the coach who was known for going for a two-point conversion when a simple extra point would have led to a tie became legendary for leading USC to one stunning late-game triumph after the next.

The 1968 team featured just 15 returning lettermen to augment Simpson, who won his Heisman with a 383-carry, 1,880-yard season. When reporters questioned McKay about Simpson’s workload, the coach responded famously, “The ball isn’t heavy. Anyway, O.J. doesn’t belong to a union.”

The 1968 Trojans came from behind to beat Stanford and Oregon State, and broke fourth-quarter ties to defeat Washington and Oregon. USC fell to No. 2 in the polls after it had to rally to tie Notre Dame, 21-21. But the Trojans’ magic ran out when McKay’s kids lost to No. 1 Ohio State, 27-16, in the 1969 Rose Bowl.

The ’69 USC team finished off a 10-0-1 season with a 10-3 win against Michigan in the 1970 Rose Bowl. Without Simpson, the team was now led by quarterback Jimmy Jones, tailback Clarence Davis, and a defensive line known as the Wild Bunch (Gunn, Weaver, Al Cowlings, Tody Smith and Bubba Scott).

In 1969, USC again clipped Stanford, 26-24, this time on a last-play field goal. But no “Cardiac Kids” finish competes with the 1969 UCLA game.

Both teams came into the game with 8-0-1 records, but despite a fearsome beating by the Wild Bunch, UCLA led 12-7 after QB Dennis Dummit’s short TD pass with five minutes left. Jones, who was 0-9 passing in the first half, began connecting with his receivers, finally hitting Sam Dickerson on a controversial 32-yard TD pass in the back corner of the end zone with 1:32 to play for a 14-12 win.

Matching 6-4-1 seasons in 1970 and 1971 were but a bump in the road for McKay. However, the 1970 season did feature an historic 42-21 victory at Alabama that is credited with jump-starting the desegregation of the Alabama football program.

According to legend, Paul (Bear) Bryant, a long-time McKay friend, came into the Trojan locker room after the game, congratulated the Trojan players and asked McKay if he could “borrow” sophomore fullback Sam Cunningham for a moment. Cunningham went with the Bear back to the still strikingly pallid Alabama locker room. Bryant had Cunningham stand before his team (some even say on top of a table) and told his Crimson Tide players, “This, gentlemen, is a football player.” Alabama began actively recruiting African-American athletes the next spring.

McKay also continued his mastery of Parseghian, winning 38-28 in 1970 and 28-14 in 1971. But McKay and his staff felt they had settled for less than the best in recruiting in those late ’60s years. They rededicated themselves to recruiting top-flight players after the 1970 season, seeking speed on defense to combat the growing popularity of the triple-option offense.

By 1972, McKay had found the right blend of experience and youth, speed and power. The 1972 Trojans are still considered by many the greatest team in college football history.

Sam Cunningham’s four airborne touchdown runs against Ohio State in the 1973 Rose Bowl helped seal USC’s 1972 national title, which many believe was the greatest single season of college football ever played.

A 12-0 record; 467 points scored (an average of 38.9 per game); 432 yards of total offense per game; never trailed in the second half; allowed just 2.5 yards per rush, with no runs longer than 29 yards.

McKay had two quality QBs, senior Mike Rae and sophomore Pat Haden. Sophomore tailback Anthony Davis became the starter at midseason. Cunningham was now a senior fullback. Tight end Charles Young and offensive tackle Pete Adams were All-Americans. Sophomore LB Richard (Batman) Wood could run a 4.5-40, unheard of for a linebacker at the time. The receiving corps included junior Lynn Swann and sophomore J.K. McKay, the coach’s son.

USC opened the season with a 31-10 trouncing of No. 4 Arkansas at Little Rock; scored 50 or more points against Oregon State, Illinois and Michigan State; hammered wishbone-oriented UCLA, 24-7; and on the strength of six Anthony Davis touchdowns, including 96- and 97-yard kickoff returns, demolished Notre Dame, 45-23.

USC then made its closing statement against Woody Hayes’ Ohio State team, drubbing the Buckeyes 42-17 in the 1973 Rose Bowl, which featured Cunningham’s four leaping touchdowns. For the first time in history, the Trojans got every first place ballot in both the AP and UPI polls.

Though he lost 12 regulars from his ’72 team, McKay directed the 1973 edition of the Trojans to a 9-2-1 mark and another Rose Bowl appearance. But 1973 also marked McKay’s only loss to Notre Dame in his last nine seasons as coach, a 23-14 defeat at South Bend. The Trojans did defeat heavily favored UCLA, 23-13, to secure their latest Rose Bowl bid, but Hayes got a measure of revenge as Ohio State toppled USC, 42-21.

McKay’s last national championship season started with an inauspicious 22-7 loss at Arkansas, and the Trojans struggled through much of the first half of the season, even tying Cal, 15-15. But once USC got rolling, they weren’t to be stopped, beating Stanford by 24, Washington by 31 and drilling UCLA, 34-9, setting up Troy’s most memorable game ever.

On Nov. 30, 1974, Parseghian’s Irish rushed to a stunning 24-0 second quarter lead over McKay’s Trojans. Anthony Davis scored a TD right before halftime to close the gap to 24-6, and then returned the second-half kickoff 102 yards to make it 24-12. Before there were two minutes elapsed in the fourth quarter, the Trojans led 55-24 — a line score that, to this day, can be found on the back of a USC football T-shirt at the Trojan bookstore.

USC’s shocking 55-24 win against Notre Dame in 1974 was commemorated with a special gatefold cover in Sports Illustrated.

At halftime McKay, humorously and presciently, told his Trojans, “Gentlemen, we’re behind. Now, Davis is going to run back the kickoff for a touchdown and we’ll go from there.” Davis ran back the kickoff and the Trojans went for 49 unanswered points in less than 17 minutes.

After the shocking Trojan triumph, McKay said, “I can’t understand it. I’m gonna sit down tonight and have a beer and think about it. Against Notre Dame? Maybe against Kent State … but Notre Dame?” The game landed Davis and the Trojans on the first-ever fold-out double cover of Sports Illustrated.

But, USC’s comeback abilities weren’t sapped for the 1974 season just yet. In the closing moments, Pat Haden found McKay the younger for a 38-yard touchdown pass to close Ohio State’s lead in the 1975 Rose Bowl to 17-16. One last time, McKay rolled the dice and went for two points and the win. Haden found Sheldon Diggs with a low pass in the back of the end zone to pull out an 18-17 win and a share of the national championship.

After the game, a reporter asked McKay if he’d considered kicking the extra point and settling for a tie. McKay responded, “No, I never even thought about not going for two points. We always play it that way. Always have, always will.” It would be McKay’s last victory in the venerable Pasadena stadium.

The Trojans opened 1975 with a 7-game winning streak, including a 24-17 victory at South Bend, when Ricky Bell gained 165 yards on 40 carries. However, USC wasn’t as strong as its record (only eight starters returned from the 1974 team) and persistent rumors about McKay taking a job (and a $2-million, multi-year contract) with the NFL’s Tampa Bay expansion franchise peaked at midseason.

McKay announced after the Notre Dame game that 1975 would be his final season at USC. After the announcement, the Trojans lost their last four Pac-8 games (Cal, Stanford, Washington, UCLA). The Cal loss was USC’s first Pac-8 defeat since 1971, and the streak was the first time the Trojans had lost so many in a row since 1958.

McKay went out a winner, however, when the Trojans pulled a mild upset in the Liberty Bowl, shutting out Texas A&M, 20-0.

While much of the pro sports world remembers McKay as the sly old coach of a dismal expansion franchise (though McKay did direct the Buccaneers to the NFC Championship Game in 1979, their fourth season), it’s those who follow college football that know the real McKay.

Yes, McKay was a jokester. He was the kind of guy you’d want to sit down and have a beer with. He was the kind of guy you’d feel comfortable stewarding your son through four years of college. He was all of that. And most of all, he was a winner — standing shoulder to shoulder (if not above) his contemporaries like Hayes, Bryant, Parseghian and Michigan’s Bo Schembechler.

It’s been 27 years since he left the University Park campus, and the Trojans are still seeking his replacement. Fight on, coach!

A special thanks in the crafting of this article goes to Mal Florence’s “The Trojan Heritage: A Pictorial History of USC Football.” Published in 1980 by JCP Corp. of Virginia.

 

Apr 29

It Was 20 Years Ago Today …

Posted on by

In the spring of 1992, I was finishing my first year at USC (having transferred from Cal State Fullerton the previous fall).

Specifically, however, on Wednesday, April 29, 1992, I worked at my job as a teller at the First Interstate Bank branch in Claremont, Calif. Why Claremont? Well, my college girlfriend attended one of the Claremont Colleges, and though I had an off-campus apartment at the corner of Severance and Adams near the USC campus, I tended to spend a lot of time with her.

When I left my shift that afternoon, I headed over to her dorm to study for my first final of the spring semester, which was scheduled for 8 a.m. Thursday morning. The plan was to wait for traffic to die down and then head out to USC that evening to grab a decent night’s sleep before the test.

As most of you know, that plan was torn to shreds by 12 jurors in a Simi Valley courtroom and the enraged reaction of thousands of Los Angeles residents — that April 29 will forever be known as the first day of the 1992 L.A. Riots.

***

When I arrived at the dorm, many of the young women who lived there were watching a TV in a rec room, as the local news covered initial reactions to the late afternoon verdict. Many of us in the room were as stunned as those who were being interviewed on TV. As the coverage transitioned to various outbreaks of protest, many of us in the room voiced our agreement with those protests. Then, the helicopters started flying over Florence and Normandie, and everything changed. Reginald Denny … Damian “Football” Williams … burning, burning, burning. And you knew this could really get out of hand.

The front page of the April 30, 1992 edition of the L.A. Times.

As we moved into my girlfriend’s room to continue watching the news coverage across all channels, things got more and more violent, as the protests moved from voice to action. And, once the idea of public mayhem became conceivable, it sure didn’t hurt that many people who lived outside the confines of the law to begin with took advantage of the situation and exacerbated things even further. If you were alive and in Southern California during this time, you know how it made you feel, you know who you blame, you know what you think, so I won’t preach to you. But the truth of the L.A. Riots — why they happened, why they were so out of control, who was to blame, what’s changed since — is obviously more multifaceted than simple statements like “racist cops beat black man and walk” or “decades of police brutality come home to roost” or “local criminals take advantage of widespread lawlessness to wreak havoc on city.”

What I will tell you is that I was still trying to study for that final that night, all while watching the TV coverage and listening to the third game of the Lakers’ playoff series against the Portland Trailblazers on my Walkman, since there was no cable TV in the dorm rooms. The game was taking place inside the Great Western Forum in Inglewood (near the epicenter of the riots). Blissfully unaware of what was occurring outside (in an era before cell phones — let alone smartphones and social media), fans watched the underdog Lakers upset the Blazers in overtime (remember, this was the spring after Magic Johnson retired after testing HIV positive) to extend a first-round series. The only clue as to what was happening, I recall, was late in the fourth quarter, when legendary Laker announcer Chick Hearn told listeners/viewers that the Forum message board was flashing that no traffic after the game would be allowed to head east toward the 110 freeway. “All traffic must head west toward the 405. That’s a strange message, but I am only reporting what I see,” I remember Hearn saying. The dissonance between listening to that game and keeping an eye on the violence tearing apart the city on television was, suffice it to say, shocking.

During all of this violence, the news had reported that the USC campus was unscathed by rioters, that the area just around the campus was still reasonably quiet in the center of this storm. And, by 10:30 p.m., there was no announcement from the school on a postponement of finals that were scheduled for Thursday. Nor by 11:30 … or 12:30 a.m. Common sense told me that there was no way the school could function normally on Thursday, but I wasn’t going to risk a grade. So I tried going to sleep, but to no avail with what was happening on TV. By 4 a.m., I tried calling the general phone number for campus to see if any announcement had been made — school closure announcements had been part of the news coverage all night, but there was still no word from USC — but got no answer. I truly had no choice but to get in my car and drive straight toward the campus.

The corner of Florence and Normandie near sundown on April 29, 1992.

At about 5:20 a.m., I had just passed the 710 freeway, driving west on the 10, when a reporter on KFWB finally said those words I’d been waiting so long for: “USC has announced that final exams scheduled for today and Friday are postponed indefinitely.” While definitely irritated that the announcement had come only at that moment, what I actually really was at that moment was exhausted. So, I made a decision that could have been one of the worst I’d ever made, but instead turned out only to be one of the most interesting: I just wanted to go to sleep and I was about 10-12 minutes away from my apartment building’s underground parking garage and my bed. I chose to drive into the middle of the L.A. Riots.

***

I exited the freeway at Hoover. At the traffic signal, there was (and is again today) a mini-mall with an auto stereo store as it’s hub. The entire center was ablaze. There was a lone LAFD firefighter trying to fight it with a garden hose — while most remember how many in the LAPD basically threw up their hands at the rioters in a dereliction of duty,  fewer recall the undermanned LAFD trying valiantly to fight hundreds of fires. I could feel the heat from the blaze through my car window. I turned and headed south on Hoover as fast as I could, reaching the light at Adams to find the Pizza Hut on the corner had turned to a pile of smoldering ashes. I turned left and, less than a block later, reached my apartment, parking my car underground and taking the elevator to my place. I crashed on my bed and didn’t wake up for five hours.

When I arose and flipped on the TV, I saw that looting had — for the most part — taken the place of violence. The rioters had simply added a step to their previous activities: they were now taking everything they could out of these stores before setting them on fire. Still, around my apartment, things were quiet. There was no traffic on the streets, and almost no people to be found anywhere. I was starving and made, in retrospect, another odd decision: I called USC to find out if any of the dining options on campus were open. I was told by the operator that EVK was open, but that I’d need my USC ID to be allowed on campus. Fine! I need to eat! I mean, sure, less than 24 hours before, I’d watched Reginald Denny get pulled out of a semi by a mob and have his head caved in. But I’d be fine driving a few blocks to USC in my uber-secure Hyundai Excel. (I am only now realizing how silly these choices were, but I hope they make for an entertaining story)

I got to campus (which was basically an armed fortress at that point, with most driveway gates closed and USC’s security team — known on campus as DPS — on patrol at each walking entrance) and to EVK, parking at a meter right outside. If you went to USC in the early 1990s, you know just how rare that opportunity was! As I walked into the dining hall, I turned and saw what I now recall as an almost cartoonish scene, reminiscent of an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, where he’s playing baseball against the Giants, who are hitting him so hard that they’re basically going around the bases in a conga line, one after another. Well, what looked like a conga line of parents in BMWs and Mercedeses were lined up outside of the entrance to the dorm, as one by one, girls would come running out of the front door with bags, throw them into the car, dive in and speed away.

After eating, I finally decided I might want to hit the road back to the safer confines of Claremont, myself. Heading up Hoover back to the freeway, that ashen former Pizza Hut was now at the center of a looting maelstrom. The minimall surrounding the Pizza Hut was home to a Payless Shoe Source and other small businesses. Dozens of people were running in and out of Payless, carting boxes of (free) $11 shoes with them. As I headed north on Hoover past the light at Adams, there was a family of four walking across the street, each member carrying at least three boxes, with the father (I can only assume) having at least four boxes stacked on each shoulder. Apparently, in whatever world they were living in at that moment, I was supposed to stop for them as they jaywalked their children who were learning how to steal things. They were stunned as I sped past them, forcing them to stop quickly — and even to drop a couple boxes of shoes in the middle of Hoover. But there was no way in hell — despite my previous choices — that I was stopping before I was on that freeway and headed out of town.

By Friday, the newspaper's coverage had caught up with the news.

Once I got up on the 10, I saw a stunning scene on a brilliantly sunny Thursday: plumes of smoke from burning buildings in every direction. It looked like what I imagined a war zone would look like. 40 minutes later, I was back in Claremont, safely watching on television as the city unraveled even further. My main concern at that point was that my girlfriend’s family — who lived on the edges of Hancock Park, near Koreatown — was safe, and that the USC campus would remain unharmed.

***

My girlfriend and I returned to Los Angeles on Sunday to check in on her mother and step-father. We exited the 101 at Vermont and dropped down to 3rd Street, heading west. The destruction along that stretch between Vermont and Western was indescribable. I remember being so embarrassed for L.A., a city I love, that is my home. Those days of violence and lawlessness made it so easy for those media outlets across America that like to find things to hate about my city to mock it, flog it, run it down. And, in this case, with how broken the city clearly was (no matter who was to blame), there was no way to argue against it.

One light shining in the darkness was the fact that not only was USC’s campus unharmed, but that many of those who lived in the community around it rallied to make sure it went unharmed. USC’s investment in its local community —  both financially and emotionally — is well known among those affiliated with the school. But to see the respect it engendered in this worst of times was rewarding. And to see the community and the school continuing and expanding that relationship two decades into the future is even more enjoyable. While those not affiliated with USC find it easy to mock the school’s location — often in lazy, ill-informed, racially-coded language — those of us who are Trojans or have some connection with the university understand how close-knit the relationship between the university and the community is.

Twenty years on, the L.A. Riots remain a defining moment in my life and in the lives of many Angelenos. While our city is, by no means, perfect, I like to believe it’s improved in the years since. And, while it would be dimwitted to say something like this could never happen again, you hope that we’re better equipped to handle the types of flashpoints that could cause another bout of civil unrest.

Rodney King's famous plea made the cover of the next week's Time.

If you’re interested in reading more takes on the anniversary of the riots, here are some links to a few of the better stories I’ve read this week:

Christopher Wallace in The Atlantic

Hector Tobar on George Ramos and East L.A. (This one hit home when I read it yesterday. Ramos was my news reporting teacher in spring 1992, one of the best teachers I had at USC. If you had Ramos in J-school at USC, you know how much he hated bullshit and loved L.A. You also know that you covered a community beat during your semester with him. I’m still very proud to say that he told me late that semester that he assigned me to Compton because he thought I was up to the challenge.)

Patt Morrison in the L.A. Times

Photographer Kirk McCoy’s “then-and-now” photo essay in the L.A. Times

Two Gang Members Recall the Riots, as part of the Daily Beast’s excellent set of coverage.

Oct 26

Midseason Musings Around the Pac-12

Posted on by

We’ve essentially reached the midway point of the Pac-12 conference schedule. There have been plenty of highlights, plenty of pratfalls and a helluva lot of entertaining football. Before we turn the corner and head for home, let’s take a look – from top to bottom – at where we stand heading into Halloween weekend:

  • Just how good is Stanford? While many people mocked my pick of Stanford finishing the regular season and conference title game with a perfect 13-0 mark, it seems many of those same folks now suddenly realize the Cardinal have an incredibly generous schedule – the main reason for my choice. If Stanford passes what suddenly appears to be a real test this weekend at USC, all that really stands between them and hosting the inaugural championship game is a Nov. 12 date with Oregon in Palo Alto.
  • While Andrew Luck has maintained his edge in the Heisman Trophy race, it’s been the continuity David Shaw has brought to the program – toughness, an excellent rushing game, an attacking defense – that has the Cardinal in this position. It will be interesting to see how that translates without Luck in 2012. Will Stanford maintain its level or will it fall back to the conference’s lower division, where it has resided for most of the past 40 years.
  • Oregon’s offense continues to roll, even with LaMichael James and Darron Thomas missing games due to injury. A pair of freshmen, QB Bryan Bennett and RB/WR DeAnthony Thomas, look ready to carry Chip Kelly’s fast-paced offense well into this decade. Whether that’s good for the conference in the long run will be decided by whether the Ducks can actually make a case for their style of football in a key non-conference game or two.
  • Another positive – it was refreshing to see the Ducks in what appeared to be actual football uniforms last Saturday in Colorado.

    Oregon dressed up as a football team last Saturday.

  • In the Pac-12 South, it appears the only thing between Arizona State and a Pac-12 title game appearance is disinterest. The Sun Devils’ only game remaining against a team with a record currently above .500 is their season-closer against Cal on Nov. 25. Prior to that, the schedule reads: Colorado (1-7), at UCLA (3-4), at Washington State (3-4), Arizona (2-5).
  • Unfortunately for ASU, their propensity for penalties, combined with Pac-12 officials’ general incompetence, does make the Devils ripe for an upset should any of those four games remain close late. Just ask ASU’s fans about some of the curious calls that happened in Eugene a couple weekends back.
  • USC and its fans are walking on air after the Trojans’ 31-17 drubbing of Notre Dame last weekend. Notre Dame and its fans seemed offended at Lane Kiffin’s insinuation last week that this game was the Irish’s “Super Bowl.” However, with the pomp and circumstance surrounding the game (first night game in 21 years, new helmet paint, rally towels, nearly two dozen key recruits on the sidelines, the East Coast media drooling over the possibility that ND could not only win but cover the ridiculous 9-point spread), it’s hard to see where Kiffin was wrong.

    Jawanza Starling’s third-quarter fumble return was the turning point in USC’s victory at Notre Dame.

  • It’s also hard to see where any of the Trojans who said the Irish quit on the game are wrong. Now, USC hosts Stanford on Saturday with a shot to ruin the Cardinal’s shot at a national title. It’s quite a tall task, even for a team that is unexpectedly 6-1 and just played its most complete game during the Kiffin regime. Nonetheless, it’s amusing to see ESPN Gameday back at the Coliseum even though the “Worldwide Leader” has done everything possible to play up the “death of USC” during the past 24 months.
  • Washington made its first appearance in the top-25 in almost a decade. Then, the Huskies immediately were embarrassed on national TV, 65-21, by Stanford – allowing a school-record 446 rushing yards to the Cardinal.
  • Still, despite the struggles of Nick Holt’s Husky defense, it’s hard to dispute the progress Washington has made this season. QB Keith Price has been spectacular, and an 8-win season is within reach – something that might have seemed a pipe dream  just two years ago.
  • Jeff Tedford’s Cal team is its usual Jekyll-and-Hyde self. The Bears could not have looked worse for six quarters after taking a 15-14 halftime lead into the locker room at Oregon on Oct. 6. In the next game and a half, Oregon and USC outscored Cal 59-9, and the Bears could do almost nothing right. Then, last Saturday, the Bears went to Salt Lake City and dominated Utah, 34-10.
  • Which Cal team will show up in the Rose Bowl Saturday?
  • The answer to that question will probably be decided in part by just how much UCLA is affected by its utterly embarrassing performance in a 48-12 loss at Arizona last week. Rumblings out of Westwood make it sound like the team is split and that Rick Neuheisel’s continued presence on the sideline is a key to the problems.
  • Of course, falling behind 42-7 to Arizona before halftime – that’s the same Arizona team that entered the game with a 1-5 record and an interim head coach after firing Mike Stoops – and then starting a bench-clearing brawl with two seconds to go in the half (yes, starting – Taylor Embree threw the first punch in a melee that ended with six Bruins and four Wildcats suspended) might be a fairly decent sign of a team that’s disinterested in its coach and the rest of its season.
  • If there’s been a bright spot for Oregon State in what’s been a very difficult season, it has to be the development of QB Sean Mannion. He was Pac-12 offensive player of the week last Saturday in the Beavers’ 44-24 whipping of Washington State.
  • Still, the Beavers’ losses to Sacramento State, BYU and UCLA have doomed them to consecutive bowl-free seasons – a difficult blast from the past for those in Corvallis who’ve grown used to post-season football in the past decade.
  • After starting 3-1 and dreaming of a bowl bid, Washington State has fallen back to earth in three straight losses, with the hammering by the Beavers seemingly resigning Wazzu to another losing season.
  • With Jeff Tuel and Marshall Loebbestal, Coach Paul Wulff reminds me of a fantasy football owner has two talented passers whom he can’t decide between – and then the one he picks to start in a given week either underperforms or gets injured.

    Uh oh, looks like no points from my QB this week. Fantasy sucks!

  • Well, Arizona certainly looked like they hooked up to the Juvenation Machine last week, didn’t they? But, at 2-5 (and 1-4 in the conference) the rest of 2012 is just about finding a way to build some sort of momentum going forward. And not every opponent is going to be as baffled about its identity as UCLA.
  • I guess Utah is finding out what playing the big boys every week – and suffering a series of debilitating injuries as you go – is all about. However, hearing calls for Kyle Whittingham’s head (as faint as they may be) is absolutely ridiculous. I fully expect that when Utah gets its bearings (and gets healthy), the Utes will be a factor in the South Division for years to come.
  • Colorado, well … hmm. Not exactly making a statement for how deep the Big 12 has been recently. And if Coach Jon Embree didn’t have enough to worry about, his son – previously mentioned UCLA wideout Taylor Embree – decided punching someone on the football field would be a bright idea. When it gets so bad that you’re tied to the acts of players on another team in your conference then go out and get stomped, 45-2, on your own field two days later, well … that’s 2011 Colorado Football. Here’s Colorado’s highlight from October: Cliff Harris goes 118 mph into a safety on a punt return.
  • Finally, this isn’t a Pac-12 related note. But, it is the best college football-related “separated at birth” I’ve come up with recently:
Boise State QB Kellen Moore

South Park, Colo., youth Jimmy Valmer

For more on Pac-12 football, the advertising industry and other events worthy of a mini-rant, send me a follow request on Twitter: @THrants