I remember when some UCLA students air bombed the Tommy Trojan statue one night...ah those days of fraternity parties and lovely sorority girls needing so much love...Red Mountain wine and all of us dancing in boxer shorts before bedding each other....sigh....
In 1965 SC deserved to go to the Rose Bowl but UCLA won the right regardless (back then it was voted on). In '66, my freshman year, UCLA deserved to go but SC got the nod. The guy across the hall in Trojan Hall, a freshman halfback on the football team, had a Chevelle convertible and some huge speakers and proposed to gloat by driving around Westwood High playing "Fight On!" He invited me and a Chicago swimmer to accompany him. I declined but the swimmer couldn't resist.
They drove fraternity row and the campus with Fight On! blaring. They parked outside the Engineering building just as the Friday exams let out--those students couldn't catch that Chevelle, so they poured out onto the nearby San Diego Freeway and stopped traffic, looking for USC decals--they turned those cars over (you can look it up).
Meanwhile, my idiotic friends returned to the frats, which were awaiting them. The swimmer was stripped, chained to a flagpole, and slathered with mayonnaise. The halfback was stripped and painted blue and gold from head to foot. Later, he sued and collected $30,000.
Those, indeed, were the days....