Unfriendly Rivals
This week we are showing examples of the not-so-friendly USC-Stanford rivalry.
USC coach John McKay had this famous quote about Stanford following a victory in 1972.
``I'd like to have beaten them by 2,000 points,'' McKay said. ``They have no class. They're the worst winners we've ever come up against.''
Here's a priceless cartoon from the following year, which shows USC leading Stanford, 1,992-0, and McKay telling Pat Haden if the Trojans score on the final play, ``We go for two.''
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Image courtesy of USC football historian Mike Glenn.
And of course this is a cartoon emanating out of Stanford University, so they had to plug in the little dig of McKay paying off Haden.
I believe this McKay animosity stemmed from Stanford having beaten SC a couple of teams in recent years with the Indian's best ever teams led by Plunkett and Bunce. And in fact they were Rose Bowl teams they beat the big, bad Big-10 (they were "bad" in those days, as in good).
I guess the Indians' fans had not tasted victory over SC very often so they got a little carried away with their zealous celebrations.
Yep! They gave everybody fits, I mean nasty(as in very slick plays and schemes). Each year at the Rose Bowl Stanford were underdogs by at least 2 TDs. Plunkett would get up by 2 TDs on em and start messin with their minds. I say Plunkett, because HE CALLED THE PLAYS on the field. Plunkett is a native american and I believe that Stanford changed their mascott to honor him from Indians to CARDINAl.
Comedy, mudslinging from the school who runs on 4th and 5 and 4th and 8 in the 4th Quarter when they are already up by 30-40 pts.? Yeah, real classy pal.