Time Magazine/Princeton
Review selected USC as "College of the Year" for 2000.
USC's marching band, "The Spirit of Troy" was
founded in 1880 and once performed under the baton of John Philip
Sousa.
The Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has nominated at least one USC
alumnus every year since the start of the Oscars in 1929.
When USC first opened, tuition was $15.00 per term, and students
were not allowed to leave town without the knowledge and consent
of the university president.
USC's first class valedictorian was a woman, Minnie C. Miltimore,
class of 1884. |
USC's
original school color was gold and the College of Liberal Arts
was cardinal red.
In 1895, the colors were combined and adopted as the "official"
colors.
John Oliver Wilson '08
wrote USC's first alma mater, which was replaced in 1923 by Al Wesson's "All
Hail."
USC physicians serve more than one million patients each year.
Students at the USC School of Cinema-Television produce over 234 hours of motion
picture each year and complete more than 100 full-length screenplays. |
Since 1912, USC is the only university
in the world to have a gold medal-winning athlete in every summer
Olympiad.
USC student Tommy Walker composed the trumpet "Charge," now heard far
and wide at athletic contests.
1957 Alumnus Sol Price is the founder of the Price Club.
USC graduates designed Los Angeles' City Hall, the Department of Water and Power
Building, St. Basil's Catholic Church, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. |
| Although
the mascot of a warrior astride a white horse dates back to 1954,
the Traveler tradition began in 1961 when Richard Saukko debuted
a half Arabian/half Tennessee Walker and wore Charlton Heston's
costume from Ben Hur. |
| USC has no "cheerleaders." The
women are called Song Leaders (also Song Girls) and the men are called
Yell Leaders. |
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1929
Alumnus Marion Morrison, known by most as John Wayne, played tackle
while
at USC.
One of the two models used to create the statue of Tommy Trojan was Russell Saunders
a
fullback
on the football team, nicknamed "Racehorse." In 1930, Saunders
was
cast in the movie Eleven Men And A Girl (originally named Maybe
It's
Love)
with Joe E. Brown. He played the role of one of the All-American football players
central to the story.
Earlier that year, he was named
Player
of
the
Game
in
the
1930 Rose Bowl. After
graduating, Saunders worked
as
a
film production manager at Warner Brothers Studios with his 1927 teammate, John
Wayne. |
1970 graduate Alumnus Neil Armstrong
was the first man on the moon.
Ron Howard and George Lucas are both USC film school graduates.
The first Songfest was held in 1954 at the Greek Theater, where 26 groups performed.
USC's Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy are the first and oldest in Southern California.
USC is the largest private employer in the City of Los Angeles. |
The southwest corner of
the Pueblo of Los Angeles, the original land grant given by the King
of Spain in 1781, is at Figueroa Street and Exposition Boulevard, across
the street from USC.
A gargoyle monkey at the top of Student Union thumbs his nose at the bust of
past university president, Rufus von KleinSmid because of a quarrel he had with
the architect over redesigning the building. |
| A 400-pound stone fragment from the ancient city of Troy is in front of Taper
Hall. The stone, quarried before 1200 B.C., once stood in the courtyard of a
building believed to have been a temple of Trojan Apollo. Given to the university
in 1952 by the Republic of Turkey, the stone links the modern USC traditions
of Troy with that of the ancient Trojans. |
USC's
Latin motto, Palmam qui meruit ferat,
means "Let whomever earns the palm bear it."
The international "chasing-arrows" symbol for recycling was
designed
in 1970 by a USC senior, Gary Anderson. |
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