If It's Friday, It's Time For A USC Notes Column
The Pac-12 had several officials meet with 12 player representatives of the #WeAreUnited on Thursday night.
The biggest topic was health issues.
I've heard from several USC sources that COVID-19 testing has come up as a topic because some players wonder if testing once a week is enough? They've heard stories of other schools outside the conference testing multiple times a week.
How all this gets resolved before training camps start is unknown but Step 1 for the Pac-12 would be to meet demands surrounding COVID-19 as soon as possible.
- The creation of USC's 32-member Black Lives Matter Action Team this week shows how more responsive the athletic dept. and administration are now than past generations.
In 1960, five USC basketball sophomores, including star forward John Rudometkin, met with the university vice president Francis Tappaan and reportedly said they would not come back if Forrest Twogood returned as basketball coach.
The players were unhappy with Twogood's starting lineups, substitution patterns and the mental strain of practices.
Eventually, USC's administration offered a vote-of-confidence for Twogood, worried that it would like athletes controlled the program if Twogood were fired.
A few years ago I spoke to a member of that 1959-60 team and he still didn't want to talk about the revolt against Twogood.
- Later today, I'll be answering Open Forum questions.
And now for some more history:
- The USC baseball celebrity game, a long-forgotten event, was so big in the early 1970's that John Wayne, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Tom Selleck were among those who showed up.
- Of course in 1974, Delta Kappa Alpha, the USC cinema fraternity held its annual dinner on campus. The host was Matthau while Barbara Stanwyck and Ricardo Montalban were among the guests.
- Did you know actor James Hong, who has appeared in more than 600 TV and film roles, studied civil engineering at USC? Hong worked for L.A. County as a road engineer for seven years before becoming a full-time actor. He is 91.
- Actor Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-0) has started a campaign to get Hong a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- If you were a USC student in 1965, here was a concert to go to after final exams:
