Thursday, April 26, 2007

Hello

I am a 62 year-old lifetime alumnus of both USC and UCLA. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, my first exposure to Trojan football was the 1963 Rose Bowl game on TV. I was hooked. I listened to games on the radio and was utterly depressed when the Mike Garrett-led Trojans fell to the UCLA team led by a sophomore Gary Beban. After graduation, I enrolled at U.C. Berkeley, transferring to UCLA the following year. Of course, I immediately became an enthusiatic Bruin. But even then, my feelings were mixed. I debated with my partner, Roy Shults, a recent herder of the week, whom I had first met at a summer institute at SC. Although we were a top team for UCLA, finishing third in the nation, we had a close relationship with the UCS team. At that time, I learned to temper my partisanship, rooting for SC as long as they weren't debating a UCLA team.

In the fall of 1971, I enrolled at the Gould School of Law at SC, graduating in 1974. Since then, I have rooted for USC unless they are playing the Bruins. But last year, in a revelation for me, I found myself very conflicted when SC lost to the Bruins. On one hand, I am a staunch Bruin supporter, but, on the other hand, I have really enjoyed the Pete Carroll teams and was almost despondent that the Trojans would not be playing Ohio State for the title.

I lunched with Roy Shults and learned of this site. I don't have much more to say now, but I am sure that I will be quite active come September!