50 Fun Facts About USC

USC opened in 1880, a year before which institution?

Los Angeles Times. USC opened the year before the paper's first issue, with just 53 students and 10 teachers, in a pioneer town of little more than 10,000 people.

Which judge led the effort to found USC, securing land and donations from early Los Angeles figures?

Robert M. Widney. The university stayed in the family: his younger brother Joseph became its second president in 1892.

USC was originally operated in affiliation with which church?

Methodist. Its early teams were simply called the Methodists or the Wesleyans, nicknames that university officials never liked.

Which future Western film star played football for USC in the 1920s?

John Wayne. He found work shifting props at the Fox studio, where director John Ford befriended him and began casting him in bit parts.

What are USC's official colours?

Cardinal and gold. When USC beats UCLA, the carriage of the Victory Bell is painted cardinal for the year; a Bruin win turns it blue.

Who gave USC's teams the nickname Trojans?

A newspaper sports editor. Owen Bird chose Trojans because USC's athletes kept battling teams that were bigger and better equipped.

What is the official name of Tommy Trojan, the bronze statue at the centre of USC's campus?

The Trojan Shrine. UCLA pranksters have painted it in their own colours so often since 1941 that crews now wrap the statue during the week of the rivalry game.

Sculptor Roger Noble Burnham used which people as visual references for Tommy Trojan?

USC football players. The statue is a composite of several late-1920s Trojans, and a $1 surcharge on season football tickets helped pay for it.

What kind of animal is Traveler, USC's official mascot?

A white horse. Whenever USC scores at the Coliseum, the band strikes up "Conquest" and Traveler gallops around the field.

At Traveler's 1961 debut, Richard Saukko wore a Trojan warrior costume borrowed from which Hollywood epic?

Ben-Hur. Charlton Heston's outfit proved too cumbersome, so Saukko made his own leather costume for the 1962 season.

USC's main campus sits directly across the street from which Los Angeles park, home of the Coliseum?

Exposition Park. It began as a fairground where horses, dogs and even camels raced on a track that is now the park's rose garden.

Which USC song was composed in 1922 by dental student Milo Sweet?

Fight On. Legend has it the song blared from the deck of a transport as American troops stormed a Japanese-held island in the Pacific, and they roared when they heard it.

The Trojan Marching Band's victory march "Conquest" was written by Alfred Newman for which 1947 film?

Captain from Castile. Alfred Newman later gave USC the rights to the film's march, which the band plays after every Trojan score and victory.

In 1979 the USC Trojan Marching Band recorded the title track of which Fleetwood Mac album?

Tusk. Fleetwood Mac recorded the band's part at Dodger Stadium and filmed the session for the song's video.

Which director led USC's Spirit of Troy marching band for half a century, until 2020?

Arthur C. Bartner. A Michigan graduate who arrived in 1970, he tripled the band to more than 300 members and led the 800-strong college band at the 1984 Olympics.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was built as a memorial to veterans of which war?

World War I. It was built to honour only local veterans, and the memorial was later widened to everyone who served in the US forces during that war.

Which baseball team played home games at USC's football stadium, the Coliseum, from 1958 to 1961?

Dodgers. Newly arrived from Brooklyn, they squeezed a ballpark into the football bowl for four seasons, until Dodger Stadium opened in 1962.

Which historic NFL game was played at the Coliseum in January 1967?

Super Bowl I. Thousands of seats sat empty as Green Bay beat Kansas City: it is the only Super Bowl that failed to sell out.

Which San Francisco 49ers legend played his college football at USC?

Ronnie Lott. A national champion at USC in 1978, he was drafted eighth overall by the 49ers, who promptly moved the All-American safety to cornerback.

Before its run of quarterbacks, USC's first four Heisman winners all played which position?

Running back. All four won it as tailbacks between 1965 and 1981, and the last of them had been recruited to USC as a safety.

Under coach Howard Jones (1925-1940), USC's dominant teams earned which nickname?

The Thundering Herd. Headline writers loved the name: "Thundering Herd Slaughters Georgia, 60-0" ran in 1931, one of four national title seasons under Jones.

Which coach led USC to four national championships between 1962 and 1974?

John McKay. He left in 1976 to coach the NFL's brand-new Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who lost their first 26 games.

Who was the first USC quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy, in 2002?

Carson Palmer. A broken collarbone in the third game of 1999 ended his season, but it earned him a redshirt and with it the fifth year in which he won the Heisman.

In 1981, which Trojan rushed for more than 2,000 yards in a season and won the Heisman Trophy?

Marcus Allen. Two years earlier he had been the fullback blocking for Charles White's own Heisman season; given the ball himself, he ran for 2,342 yards.

Which USC star forfeited his 2005 Heisman Trophy in 2010, only to have it reinstated in 2024?

Reggie Bush. The Heisman Trust handed the trophy back after college athletes won the right to be paid for their name and image, the kind of benefit that had cost him it.

Which coach revived USC football from 2001 to 2009 before heading back to the NFL?

Pete Carroll. The Jets and the Patriots had both fired him before he came to USC; after nine seasons he returned to the NFL and won a Super Bowl with Seattle.

Lincoln Riley was hired as USC's head coach in November 2021 after five years at which school?

Oklahoma. His quarterback there, Caleb Williams, followed him to Los Angeles weeks later and won the Heisman in their first season together at USC.

Which NFL team took USC's Caleb Williams with the first overall pick of the 2024 draft?

Chicago Bears. They held the top pick only because Carolina had traded it to them a year earlier in a deal for the first choice of 2023.

USC and Notre Dame play for which trophy in their football rivalry?

The Jeweled Shillelagh. Each USC win adds a ruby Trojan head to the Irish war club, and each Notre Dame win an emerald shamrock.

Which future First Lady graduated from USC in 1937?

Pat Nixon. Left on her own at 18, she worked her way through USC with part-time jobs that included playing an extra in Hollywood films, and still graduated with honours.

How did USC first get the Victory Bell, given to UCLA by its alumni in 1939?

Students stole it. USC pranksters drove off with the 295-pound locomotive bell in 1941 and hid it for over a year, until the two schools agreed to play for it.

A 1989 USC prank released hundreds of what into UCLA's main library during finals?

Rivalry week at USC, "Troy Week", now includes an all-night vigil to guard Tommy Trojan from Bruin paint.

Which conference did USC join in 2024 after leaving the Pac-12?

Big Ten. UCLA, Oregon and Washington made the same jump, and with ten of its twelve members gone the Pac-12 was left to Oregon State and Washington State.

Which future home run champion played college baseball at USC under Rod Dedeaux?

Mark McGwire. He arrived at USC as a pitcher before his bat won out, on a staff that also had a wild young left-hander named Randy Johnson.

Which pitcher on the 1969 'Miracle Mets' had played his college baseball at USC?

Tom Seaver. The Mets landed him by lottery: his first professional contract was voided over a mix-up about USC's season, and New York's name was the one drawn.

Through the 2024 Games, which USC alumna was the most decorated American in Olympic track and field history?

Allyson Felix. She gave up her college eligibility to turn professional out of high school, so she won her 11 Olympic medals without ever racing for the Trojans.

USC's men's basketball team plays at which on-campus arena, opened in 2006?

Galen Center. USC had wanted an arena of its own for decades; until gifts led by banker Louis Galen got one built, its basketball teams played off campus at the Sports Arena.

Which filmmaker who studied at USC gave its film school $175 million in 2006?

George Lucas. His gift paid for a new home for the school, where as a student he had made the short film that grew into his first feature, THX 1138.

USC's film school began as a 1929 class run with which Hollywood organization?

Motion Picture Academy. The recently founded body behind the Oscars supplied instructors including its first president, Douglas Fairbanks.

Which Apollo moonwalker earned a master's degree from USC?

Neil Armstrong. He completed his USC master's in aerospace engineering in 1970, the year after he walked on the Moon.

Which comedy star graduated from USC in 1990 with a degree in sports information?

Will Ferrell. He came back in 2017 to give the commencement address, collected an honorary doctorate and sang "I Will Always Love You" to the graduates.

USC's Doheny Memorial Library, completed in 1932, was funded by oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny in memory of whom?

His son. Ned Doheny had been shot dead at his Beverly Hills home in 1929, and the building is formally the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library.

Which filmmaker founded the Shoah Foundation, the archive of Holocaust survivors' testimonies now housed at USC, in 1994?

Steven Spielberg. He set it up the year after making Schindler's List to film survivors' stories, and the archive found a permanent home at USC in 2006.

USC's Keck School of Medicine formed the first academic department in the United States in which medical specialty?

Emergency. Its founding chair, Gail Anderson, was an obstetrician: he was acting head of USC's obstetrics and gynaecology department when he was asked to build the new one.

Which USC president served from 1921 to 1947, the years that gave the campus Doheny Library and Tommy Trojan?

Rufus B. von KleinSmid. In 2020 USC stripped his name from one of its most prominent buildings because he had been a leader of California's eugenics movement.

USC Village opened in 2017 with a Target and which grocery chain?

Trader Joe's. USC replaced an old shopping centre with the $700 million village, putting the shops at street level and student housing on the floors above.

Chaffey College in Ontario, California, was founded in 1883 as what kind of USC branch campus?

An agricultural school. Its football team beat USC's 32–6 in 1893, and USC ran the college until money troubles closed it in 1901.

USC students with family ties to the university are known by what nickname?

SCions. A California law signed in 2024 barred private universities, USC included, from giving the relatives of alumni any preference in admissions.

USC's Glorya Kaufman School, its first new school in nearly 40 years when founded in 2012, teaches which art form?

Dance. Glorya Kaufman had given rival UCLA $18 million for its dance building in 1999 before she founded a full school of dance at USC.

Jimmy Iovine and which hip-hop producer gave USC $70 million for a new academy in 2013?

Dr. Dre. Iovine said their headphone company, Beats, struggled to hire people fluent in both technology and the arts, so the pair paid for a school to train them.