University of Southern California

University of Southern California. . , Trojan Cardinal And Olympic Gold , Among the scholars who have passed through the University of Southern California have been thousands of star athletes: All-American football players, Hall of Fame standouts, a future Oscar winning movie hero - and more Olympic gold medalists from this one university than from all but a handful of the nations in the world. , Names renowned in sports and beyond fill USC's rosters. Two-time All-American tackle John Ferraro became Los Angeles' longest-serving city councilman. Tackle Marion Mitchell Morrison, whose career ended with a broken leg on the practice field, became John Wayne. , Kicker Frank Gifford, who would go on to a sparkling pro career as a running back and receiver, later became a TV sports commentator, as did Rhodes scholar and Los Angeles Rams quarterback Pat Haden. And guard Aaron "Rosey" Rosenberg, a two-time All-American, later produced 30 films, among them "Mutiny on the Bounty." , In one more Hollywood link, film composer Alfred Newman gave USC the stirring "Conquest" march he wrote for the 1947 film "Captain From Castille." , USC's first renowned athlete was Emil Breitkreutz, who scored a bronze medal in track at 1904's U.S.-only Olympics in St Louis. , Eight years later, Fred Kelly and Alma Richards put USC on the world Olympic map. Each man won a gold medal at the Stockholm Olympics. , In 1936 at the Berlin Olympics, Frank Wykoff and Foy Draper ran in the fabled 400-meter relay with Jesse Owens, the black athlete whose gold-medal wins in this event and others infuriated Adolf Hitler. , Parhaps USC's most colorful Olympian placed eighth in track but first in sheer bravado. On his voyage to the 1936 Berlin games, Lou Zamperini partied and ate - and gained 14 pounds. Still, his final lap in the 5,000-meter race was a record-setter, and Hitler insisted on shaking his hand. , Aterwards, the scrappy Zamperini scaled a wall, shimmied up the flagpole of the Reich Chancellery, snatched the swastika flag as a souvenir, and ran. He only stopped when the Germans shot at him, and handed the flag over. A Nazi general, impressed with Zamperini's gumption, gave the flag back to him. , The first man to run with the weighty title of “world’s fastest human” was Charles Paddock. The sickly Texas child grew up to compete in three Olympic games, and in 1921 won two gold medals and a silver in Belgium. , Gridiron Stalwarts And Pioneers , Long before professional football teams came to Los Angeles - and even after - the only game in town guaranteed to sell out was the USC-UCLA game. Eventually, more than 400 Trojans would join the ranks of pro football. , USC graduate Giles Pellerin holds the unofficial title of the Trojans' most loyal fan. He attended 797 consecutive USC football games, traveling over 660,000 miles in 75 years. His super streak began with a 14-3 USC victory in the 1923 Rose Bowl, and ended in 1998, when he died of a heart attack in the Rose Bowl parking lot at halftime, at age 91. , And Trojan fullback Sam "Bam" Cunningham forever changed college football. Cunningham's dominating performance against Alabama's Crimson Tide in 1970 so impressed Alabama coach Bear Bryant that he began recruiting black players to his heretofore all-white team. According to legend, Bryant escorted Cunningham into his team's locker room after the game and said, "This is Sam Cunningham. This is what a football player looks like." , Women Raise The Bar - And Jump It , When women's track and field events became part of the Olympics in 1928 in Amsterdam, Lillian Copeland won a silver medal in the discus and four years later, as a USC law student, she won the gold. The Jewish Copeland boycotted Hitler's 1936 Olympics and instead joined the Los Angeles County sheriff's department. , Other Trojan women track and field standouts wore Olympic gold, among them sprinter Inger Miller who placed fourth in the women's 200 meters and then came back to win a gold as a member of the U.S. 400-meter relay team in 1996. , Basketball star Cheryl Miller first led USC to two NCAA championships, and the U.S. team to the gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. , One notable woman in Trojan sports lore never wore USC’s uniform: Julie Kohl. Her two restaurants near campus welcomed such fans as Bob Hope and Ronald Reagan. And in one restaurant booth, John McKay, USC's legendary football coach, plotted plays on the tabletop as he ate.