A spectacular day at USC

The sun sets behind historic LA Memorial Coliseum at halftime of Saturday’s game between Washington and USC.

What a day in LA LA land.

The University of Southern California has a rich football tradition. All that history, SC’s game-day traditions and the pageantry of the great game of college football were on full display on a beautiful, sunny day in Los Angeles.

We flew into Santa Ana on Friday, and made the hour or so drive to the USC campus Saturday morning, long before the 4:30 p.m. kickoff. The LA Memorial Coliseum, the home of the Trojans since 1923, is adjacent to USC. So most people park in designated parking lots around campus and walk to the stadium, which is about a mile away. And that’s what makes this experience unique.

Tailgating tents line the wide, brick-pathed walk through the beautiful campus. It was homecoming for USC, so there was even more alums on campus than usual. They were in a party mood. We enjoyed our time just walking around campus and milling with USC fans.

Fans walking to the stadium along Trousdale Parkway.

Along the way, we were fortunate to meet a USC alum and season ticket holder named Jeff. He suggested we stop by the “Tommy Trojan” statue and Heritage Hall, a monument to USC’s storied football program. Trojan fans line up to have their picture taken in front of the statue. We were in line with another couple wearing Husky gear. We took turns taking each other’s picture.

Vicki and I posing for a photo in front of the “Tommy Trojan” statue. I don’t think we’re doing the “Dubs Up” correctly.

Heritage Hall houses all the national-champion trophies and jerseys from SC’s glory years. USC has won 11 national championships and produced 14 pro football hall-of-famers. Its most prized treasures, however, are the school’s eight Heisman Trophies, the most prestigious award in college football. That’s eight more than UW has. But as a SC fan pointed out to me as I snapped pictures of each one: “You could have your first this year.” That would be UW’s record-setting quarterback, Michael Penix, Jr.

Heritage Hall is open to the public. Many USC fans visit before the game to take the “Heisman Tour.” I really enjoyed walking down memory lane here, looking at memorabilia from USC greats I grew up watching as a kid.

Eight Heisman Trophies are housed in Heritage Hall. This one belongs to O.J. Simpson, who played at SC in 1967 and 1968. That was long before his success was overshadowed by his trial and controversial acquittal for the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman.

Vicki talking smack to “Tommy Trojan” before the game. Well, that’s actually not true. She asked him if I could pose for a photo with him. He said “no.” I guess he was in a hurry to get to the stadium to watch his team lose.

Southern Cal is a private school It has a reputation for a being a little uppity. I was once told USC stands for the “University of Spoiled Children.” I also have imagined that grown-up USC fans have been spoiled over the years by their football team’s success. The USC teams I knew as a kid largely dominated the old Pac-8, and steamrolled their Pacific Northwest foes. But championships have eluded the Trojans since Pete Carroll left the school in 2009 to take the Seattle Seahawks coaching job. Stepping into the void have been Oregon and Washington, and more recently Utah, in the soon-to-be-defunct Pac-12.

USC’s alumni cheerleaders and band on their way to the game. They would be followed by the school’s marching band an hour later.

We dropped in a Husky tailgate party sponsored by the UW Alumni Association in Exposition Park, between the USC campus and the stadium.

USC fans were welcoming and hospitable. Let’s just say you wouldn’t get this kind of reception from the Yucks in Eugene. Some, however, need to get outside their SoCal bubble. One asked: “So where is UW? In Spokane?” The game-day experience here was big-time, a far cry from what we’ve experienced in recent years at Stanford, Cal, Arizona State and Arizona, where the football program is almost an afterthought.

We arrived to the stadium shortly after the gates opened at 3 p.m. (my mantra, “arrive early, stay. late”). And it was a good thing we did. We walked into a monumental, if not an unprecedented, ticket snafu.

UW fans were not happy to be sent to a “ticket resolution services” gate to have their tickets printed because their digital tickets wouldn’t scan for entry into the stadium. Perhaps Jen Cohen (former UW AD, not at USC) was behind this?

We were one of the first UW ticket holders to find out that our “digital tickets” were not scanning for entry into the stadium. We were re-routed to a “ticket resolution services” gate to try and get the problem solved. Soon after we got there, many UW ticket holders joined us. They were having the same problem. It turned out that all the digital tickets that USC sent to UW for distribution were not working with USC’s scanners. Our digital tickets, as well as thousands of others, had to be converted to printed tickets on site. I’m sure many Husky fans who arrived closer to game time missed kickoff.

Known as “the greatest stadium in the world,” the Coliseum was completed in 1923, with a capacity of 75,000. It has been the site of two Olympic Games, two Super Bowls, one World Series, as well as many other significant events. It was for decades also the home field for the Los Angles Rams, until 2020, when ScoFi Stadium opened. USC and UCLA shared this field for many years until the early 1980s. That’s when UCLA began playing home games in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. UW fans and Husky band for this game were seated in the corner behind the far end zone, just to the right of the “SC” logo on the canvas covering a large section of seats.

USC, like most schools, places visiting fans in the least desired section of the stadium. Our seats were in the corner of the expansive Coliseum, well beyond the end zone. Leading up to kickoff, USC’s large marching band played “Conquest” over and over again. That is an earworm I wouldn’t wish on anyone. “Tommy Trojan” rode his white horse around the field. Then it was game time.

The USC marching band forming the script “USC” in pregame.It was a balmy 76 degrees at kickoff.

Washington takes the field to begin the game.

Both teams’ high-powered offenses didn’t disappoint. The UW defense made just enough plays in the fourth quarter to get the 52-42 win. It was easily the most points UW had ever put up on USC, and just the 13th Washington win in 44 games against the Trojans in the Coliseum. Penix threw for 256 yards and two touchdowns. But the star of the game for UW was running back Dillon Johnson, who rushed for 256 yards, fifth highest in school history.

The outcome, obviously, could have gone the other way. A UW loss, for me anyway, wouldn’t have spoiled the day.

A big-time college football game in a big-time setting was an experience I’ll never forget.