Pranks a big part of football rivalry -- date to 1896
There's no use in UCLA fans putting out a contract on the lone, 76-year-old man at the center of USC's campus.
The statue of Tommy Trojan has been wrapped in plastic and mummified with duct tape as protection from the UCLA-loving Jackson Pollocks who shake blue and gold spray-paint cans....
On Monday, a local radio station furnished Trojan haters with a Buick Park Avenue sedan, painted brick red (almost Trojan cardinal) and painted with "Beat SC" on its doors.
For several hours, UCLA students gathered on Bruinwalk and took a sledgehammer to the car. By noon, the windshield was shattered and the doors heavily beaten, symbolic of a demolition the crosstown Bruins (6-5) can only hope to deliver to the No.2 Trojans (10-1).
Bruin beating and Trojan-car trashing shenanigans seem silly compared to the more elaborate undertakings in college-athletic mischief history that could be traced back to 1896, when the Auburn students greased the railroad tracks before the Georgia Tech football team arrived - and eventually skidded to a stop several miles from the field.
The first act of Tommy-foolery was recorded in October 1941 when UCLA students painted Tommy Trojan blue and gold and stole his brass sword, which has since been replaced with a wooden one given its frequent thefts.
Read entire article at Orange County Register
The statue of Tommy Trojan has been wrapped in plastic and mummified with duct tape as protection from the UCLA-loving Jackson Pollocks who shake blue and gold spray-paint cans....
On Monday, a local radio station furnished Trojan haters with a Buick Park Avenue sedan, painted brick red (almost Trojan cardinal) and painted with "Beat SC" on its doors.
For several hours, UCLA students gathered on Bruinwalk and took a sledgehammer to the car. By noon, the windshield was shattered and the doors heavily beaten, symbolic of a demolition the crosstown Bruins (6-5) can only hope to deliver to the No.2 Trojans (10-1).
Bruin beating and Trojan-car trashing shenanigans seem silly compared to the more elaborate undertakings in college-athletic mischief history that could be traced back to 1896, when the Auburn students greased the railroad tracks before the Georgia Tech football team arrived - and eventually skidded to a stop several miles from the field.
The first act of Tommy-foolery was recorded in October 1941 when UCLA students painted Tommy Trojan blue and gold and stole his brass sword, which has since been replaced with a wooden one given its frequent thefts.