[Mick]

In fact, USC has been a perennial power since my father was following the exploits of Howard Jones's teams in the 1920s. It had some relatively mild struggles in the 1990s and more recently for a few years in the wake of the exit of Pope of L.A. (Pete Carroll) but those were speed bumps that Trojan Nation promptly smoothed out. Today, order is restored. And I fume with envy.

Yeah.  You have been a fan long enough to remember Ayala, Limehalu. McKay taking shots (“The PAC 8 is not very good this year, Stanfords in the Rose Bowl”. “I wanted to beat them by 1000 points”).one of the joys of the “run” was beating SC on a regular basis.  Those days are gone.

Actually it was 2,000 points.  Excerpt from a Wikipedia entry titled "Stanford - USC Football Rivalry" (unfortunately now a relic of the past):

In 1972, USC coach John McKay accused Stanford and its fans of having "no class" and said he'd "like to beat Stanford by 2,000 points"; Stanford coach Jack Christiansen responded that he wouldn't "get into a urinating contest with a skunk".[4][5] Two years earlier, when McKay's son J.K. and his high school teammate Pat Haden had told him they were considering going to Stanford, he replied, "If it was between Stanford and Red China, I would pay your way to Peking."

I asked my oldest son if he wanted to apply to USC. He said "I'd rather go to a junior college." I asked my younger son to tour USC when we were on a trip in SoCal. After 11 minutes on the campus he said, "I'm not going here" and turned on his heel and headed back to the car.

[Mick]

In fact, USC has been a perennial power since my father was following the exploits of Howard Jones's teams in the 1920s. It had some relatively mild struggles in the 1990s and more recently for a few years in the wake of the exit of Pope of L.A. (Pete Carroll) but those were speed bumps that Trojan Nation promptly smoothed out. Today, order is restored. And I fume with envy.

Yeah.  You have been a fan long enough to remember Ayala, Limehalu. McKay taking shots (“The PAC 8 is not very good this year, Stanfords in the Rose Bowl”. “I wanted to beat them by 1000 points”).one of the joys of the “run” was beating SC on a regular basis.  Those days are gone.

Actually it was 2,000 points.  Excerpt from a Wikipedia entry titled "Stanford - USC Football Rivalry" (unfortunately now a relic of the past):

In 1972, USC coach John McKay accused Stanford and its fans of having "no class" and said he'd "like to beat Stanford by 2,000 points"; Stanford coach Jack Christiansen responded that he wouldn't "get into a urinating contest with a skunk".[4][5] Two years earlier, when McKay's son J.K. and his high school teammate Pat Haden had told him they were considering going to Stanford, he replied, "If it was between Stanford and Red China, I would pay your way to Peking."

I asked my oldest son if he wanted to apply to USC. He said "I'd rather go to a junior college." I asked my younger son to tour USC when we were on a trip in SoCal. After 11 minutes on the campus he said, "I'm not going here" and turned on his heel and headed back to the car.