The campus of the University of Southern California, at least for this past weekend, was heaven on Earth for my friends and me. A few months back, we schemed up an extravagant plan to travel to USC for their final home game of the season against UCLA.
Part of our reasoning was to see one of the most storied programs in the history of college football, but our primary motivation was to experience what many of us here at State have no contemplation — a real celebration of the ultimate college tradition: tailgating done right.
It may seem a little extreme to travel more than 4,000 miles in a weekend to see a game we could have watched on TV, but as real sports fans, this was a sacrifice we deemed a necessity.
Stepping off the plane Thursday morning, we couldn’t wait to catch a glimpse of the Coliseum, which we had surveyed countless times on Google Earth in the last three months — this was actually happening.
We rented a car, dropped our luggage off at the hotel and drove straight to USC. As expected, the campus is beautiful. The Coliseum was stoic in the dusky light peaking over the Hollywood hills — we had arrived.
We walked around campus, tracing the steps of O.J. Simpson, Reggie Bush and Marcus Allen. The campus itself is pretty compact — everything is within a five-minute walk. The Coliseum even casts a shadow on parts of the campus.
It was quite an atmosphere. Riddled with old-school cruising bicycles and students everywhere, the band was serenading the entire campus during practice, blasting the infamous fight song. We found ourselves wondering how and where they tailgate considering there are no substantial parking lots whatsoever and the campus itself is nestled right up to the Coliseum. We soon found out.
After riding around Friday and doing the typical Hollywood sightseeing, not to mention sneaking onto half court at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion and having one of their players take a picture of us, Saturday finally came. The feeling on campus Friday evening was almost eerie, like a huge volcano waiting to explode, and that it did.
We woke up Saturday morning, loaded a few grocery bags with the cheapest beer we could find, and headed toward campus for the 1:30 game. As we pulled off the 110 freeway, we could see and smell the grill smoke bellowing from the RV’s stowed away on every corner of the campus.
Every inch of grass was overtaken by fans grilling, drinking and partying. It had rained the day before, so there was mud everywhere, but there certainly weren’t any administrators barking out orders to stay off the lawns — in fact, it was encouraged.
We trudged around for a while in awe of what we were witnessing — this was another world, another realm that none of us could have fathomed without seeing with our own eyes.
To give some perspective of the caliber of the USC vs. UCLA rivalry, the famous statue of the Trojan in the middle of campus was duck taped from head to toe in defense of eager Bruins with baby-blue paint. UCLA students painted it blue the first year it was put on display and every year since. There were also countless students wearing some pretty obscene attire denouncing their foes — a shirt donning the term “UCLAIDS” comes to mind.
We decided to post-up with some of the most aggressive USC fans we could find. These in particular had a handle of liquor sitting on a cooler in plain view, multiple beer-bonging contraptions and two coolers stacked to the brim with Bud Light. This felt like the right spot.
We saw a lot of other stuff going on too in this carefree, celebratory environment — I don’t condone this whatsoever, but let’s just say a lot of people at USC must have Glaucoma.
We happened to be in the right location when Tommy Trojan came marching by, sword in hand, directing the band. One of my friends exclaimed it would be awesome if the band members were drinking during their pre-game march on the campus’ main thoroughfare. Low and behold, the next trumpet player that walked by was necking a Fatweiser nestled away in his uniform — everything we thought was myth was coming to fruition.
I even managed to wander into the library, which was open to the event, to use the bathroom. The only request on the front door was not to bring any drinks into the area housing the books.
We marched behind the band and a flock of stunning Song Girls into the stadium, holding up two fingers — not symbolizing peace, but symbolizing a “V” for victory. We were in a mystical world of awesomeness.
USC ended up beating the Bruins pretty handily, and we finally understood why the program has been so successful over the years. The administration and campus leaders embrace the opportunity to be champions and celebrate their accomplishments.
It really has nothing to do with the specifics: the ability to tailgate as early as you’d like, drink beer and liquor in the middle of campus, and go nuts with little restrictions.
It does, however, have everything to do with the fact that USC lets their students be just that: students. There’s no ball and chain, there’s no constant finger waving and there’s certainly no clear divide between the administration, alumni and students on game-day festivities.
No one got hurt, everyone had fun, and they’ve been doing this for decades. I’m not saying we’ll start winning the ACC every year and become a staple team in the world of college football if we have more time to drink and fewer restrictions.
But after witnessing USC’s atmosphere — alumni, children, students and even police officers having such a great time together, as one, in such a compact area, they must be doing something right.
I refuse to believe it’s a coincidence they get the best recruits in the country and contend for the national championship year-in and year-out — the atmosphere they create has a lot to do with it.
USC encourages the celebration of football, fans are beyond excited to be there, and that creates a winning tradition — not just for the team, but for the entire university.
Do you think the Trojans do it right? Tell us at [email protected].
